Micho Russell: Rarities and Old Favourites

Bill Ochs has released a new CD of Micho. It is a fantastic collection of tunes with a lovely booklet.

Track 1 features Micho playing Boil the Breakfast Early on a piccolo. His style is wonderful employing cuts to make brilliant little warbles. On the flute and one piccolo tracks I hear breath phrasing as well as a short tongued attack to the beginning of some notes.

Highly recommended. The piccolo track is magic. Recorded by Seamus Ennis with his mobile recording unit in acetate in 1949 for a radio broadcast. In the background one hears a baby crying. It sets one up for the atmosphere of the full recording.

It is available on iTunes and from here

Nice site with piccolo cylinder recordings.

Here is a nice site to listen to old cylinder recordings.

There are reels and a set of jigs from Frank Mazziotta and George Swcheinfest as well as other interesting novelty pieces etc.

Pipeau Arrived

 

 

More Pipeau

I received some more info from Stephen Chambers who I believe runs McNeils now in Clare.

Here is a photo of his collection of these whistles

He also shared this photo of a "Musical Priest " playing a flageolet topped version.

Pipeau

Ok so going off the topic of piccolos in Irish music again, I recently found a Pipeau for sale in France.
These come up in ebay now and again and are french made conical six holes whistles some with flageolet like beaks, fake side blown fipples, or standard whistle heads. They are made of metal or celluloid.
Here is the one I purchased, it's not here yet:
This one is branded Atlas hopefully a D but the seller never gave me dimensions despite my asking.
More to follow...........

Roy Seaman keyless piccolo

I found this photo of a piccolo made by Roy Seaman on Facebook

Perhaps others know more but I believe Roy was involved in designing some 

Important Fife designs in the U.S.

I believe he makes  still very fine conical Boehm piccolos with sterling key work.

Hall Crystal Piccolo

In a thread on Chiff, Michael Eskin updated us on the new model of Hall Crystal piccolos, available in D and C.

Sounds like this newer model is a great improvement over the previous instrument which I never thought played very well.

They are also available in C and D flute and g and f flute.

Here is the Hall website.