The music was exciting, though, and we had a good night. We had a drink in the front bar when we arrived, and that was very nice, quite modern and warm. And my britvic orange was fine! The music place is upstairs, with the entrance at the back - not particularly nice, and they must have run out of money when it came to decorating this part - very spartan, with a big area to stand up and a sofa at the back (for those who are more interested in smooching than the music). There were chairs at the front, but they were all taken when we got there.
It was a long evening, starting around 7:30 and we got home on the last Luas at 11:30. We found that the changing over between the various artists was slower than the last time. Another contributor to the late night was that one of the acts, Julie Feeney, stayed on stage for a very long time. This was a preview of her upcoming album, and I get the feeling she played every single song from the album, one of them twice - it was a catchy little tune so I didn't mind that one, but there were some songs that I could have done without. It took me a little while to warm to her, but some of the songs were very good. On her website, she looks really alternative, but on stage, she was much more down to earth.
The first act was Matt turner, an improvising cellist. One of the pieces he played was inspired by Northern Indian tunes, and it was fantastic. Some of his other stuff wasn't "jointed" enough for my taste, though I admired the virtuosity. What I mean is that I like a tune to build up on a theme, and I felt he was jumping around from genre to genre, maybe to show us what he can do, but all these jumps broke the unity of the piece. The cello is my favourite instrument, and his cello playing was magnificent, so I won't complain! Some gorgeous samples of his music on his website, by the way. I'm listening to "darn that dream" right now - a nice little classic jazz number.
He was followed by Ensemble Avalon - a piano, cello and violin trio. They were good. They were more of a straight classical group, compared to what we've grown used to with John Kelly. I found on their website that "Ioana plays on an Italian violin, built by Goffredo Cappa in 1695". 1695! It's totally amazing, I think that an instrument built so long ago not only is still in one piece (or whatever number of pieces there are in a violin) but still plays beautifully!
I think after that, we had Julie Feeney.
After quite a long break, Caoimhin O Raghallaigh came on. Well actually it was himself who was setting things up on stage, not a stagehand, and that may be why it took so long, between a laptop and a 3 or 4 violins, it seemed to take him a long time to get it all ready. You get the feeling that time is a relative concept for Caoimhin, a complete virtuoso fiddle player, in the Irish traditional vein, well, traditional with many twists is the best way I can describe it. The first tune he played was one where he laid a rythm track first, using two violins on his knees (Castor and Polux), before playing the actual tune. He was completely engrossed in his music, sometimes spending a considerable amount of time tuning his violin and fiddling with his computer (what had he been doing beforehand?) before starting to play. It mustn't have been easy for the singer who accompanied him for his last piece!
The last act of the night was Yurodny, the biggest sound of the night. A large group of musicians playing music with an Eastern European flavour. Plenty of violins, accordion, trombone, saxophone, cello. Big sound, great rythm. I really enjoyed their music. It was amazing to watch how quickly the violinists and cellist moved their fingers. By the time they came on, a good few people had left already and we got seats. It felt so good to sit down after all that time on my pins!
Overall impression of the concert? Maybe not as good as the first JK Ensemble Session. I think the first one felt so good because of the element of surprise (and because Chequerboard and Ensemble ICC were so magnificent). But still a great night out, and I'm enjoying listening to the various artists again, through their websites. Will I go to the next session? You bet I will!
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