Book 49 CD

Music for Book 49 and 3 from Miss Milligan’s Miscellany

This album is made up of the 12 dances in Book 49, three dances from Miss Milligan’s Miscellany, and two ‘bandleader’s choices’, in this case a delightful Waltz (by Khachaturian, known to a generation or two largely through the use of Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from his Spartacus as the theme tune for BBC’s The Onedin Line), and a band set based on Robert Mathieson’s Ragtime Pipers.
Jim Lindsay’s original thinking is evident throughout this recording, from the second tune of the first dance, with Dennis Morrison providing a piano counter-melody and Malcolm Ross’s drum outlining its rhythm on the side of the drum. The presence of two fiddles, in Alison Smith and Gillian Ramsay, alongside David Hume’s second accordion, allows a further range of options for melodies and harmonies resulting in an highly varied and orchestrated approach, all parts getting their moment in the spotlight.
All of this interest for the listener serves to enhance sets of tunes well matched to originals from modern composers as well as the fiddle tradition—Scott Skinner, Mackintosh and Nathaniel Gow— in ideal tempi. Of the Miscellany dances, Hooper’s Jig’s Tom Anderson original is followed by three great tunes by Bobby Crowe, and there’s a great arrangement of Johann Strauss’s Radetsky March to accompany The British Grenadiers. Plenty to enjoy on top of giving access to the new book dances.
Published by Jeremy Hill in The Reel, RSCDS London Branch