Travels in Music: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, and Hanneke Cassel

Ports of Call is an appropriate name for a recording by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas. Both their personal histories and their work as a duo include many points of the compass.

Fraser is a fiddle player, composer, and master teacher, a native of Scotland who has been long resident in California. Haas, whose instrument is the cello, grew up in California, studied in New York, lived for some years in Quebec, and is based in the Boston area.

That all comes into play through the music they have chosen and composed for Ports of Call. They explore tunes from Sweden, Norway, Galicia, Scotland, Finland, and France. There are original compositions by both of them, as well.

The Silver and Stuff set includes the title tune, a Norwegian bridal march, as well as a Swedish polska and a Norwegian hailing. A departure, you might think, for a pair best known for their interpretations and compositions of the music of Scotland? There are Celtic connections through long history of trade and travel between the Celtic lands and the Nordic ones, though, and Fraser and Haas are both always adventurous travelers across the world of music as well. These march into dance melodies and and then into another sort of dance in will have dancers twirling in your imagination. The music works both in idea and in melody.

That is also true of the reflective piece Walzska for Su-a, which Haas composed for friend and fellow cellist Su-a Lee while Lee was on a visit to Montreal. There’s a hint of love for the dark tones of Nordic cello in this piece, as well as, just maybe, a trace of Quebecois dance.

Lively melodies fill the Keeping Up with Christine set, which includes a tune Fraser wrote while in Adelaide, Australia, and named for that city. The second tune honors Fraser’s sister, who, Fraser writes in the album’s notes, “has achieved so much as a leader and instigator in the field of education and beyond.”

It is to the familiar place of Scotland they return for the Freedom Come All Ye set, in which that well known song of political comment by Hamish Henderson is imagined anew as an instrumental piece, and paired with an original jig by Haas.

There are more adventures in music to be found on Ports of Call, all of them part of the continuing conversation Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas create with their instruments. They chose these pieces to convey stories both original and traditional, which they do with understanding, clarity, and grace.

Hanneke Cassel knows well how to bring the qualities of clarity, understanding, and grace to her music, as well. A native of the US west coast, Cassel began her fiddling days in western swing. Before long, though, she was drawn into the music of Scotland. One of her teachers along her way into the tunes of Scotland and other Celtic musics was Alasdair Fraser.

Long a resident of the Boston area, Cassel has chosen to call her most recent recording Trip to Walden Pond. There’s a personal connection to that place for Cassel, and there are tunes on the album that connect to Kenya, China, Cape Breton, Scotland, and other places too. Cassel loves to compose tunes, and she also loves the work and the people of Many Hopes. That is a place in Kenya which, as she explains in her notes for the album, “rescues children from poverty and abuse, educating them to lead the next generation with justice and love.” To assist in raising funds to support Many Hopes, Cassel offered to compose tunes in return for donations. She asked donors to tell her their stories. Many of the tunes for Trip to Walden Pond arose from those stories.

Trip to Walden Pond is an adventure in contemporary Scottish American music. Cassel is known as much for her joyful personality and quick wit as she is for her thoughtful and reflective side: all of this comes in to her composing and playing. The Conchas Chinas set brings together three pieces whose melodies flow one into another with quiet strength. Coilsfield House is a tune from Scotland’s tradition: it was composed by famed late eighteenth century fiddler Nathaniel Gow. Cassel dedicates the tune to Carol Ann Wheeler, the teacher back in Oregon from whom she first heard it and the woman who, she says, first taught her to love the fiddle.

The Buddy’s Strathspey set is, as you might think if you know of strathspeys, a lively set which may have you dancing yourself or at least tapping your toes. The title tune of the set is one Cassel composed in honor of the late Buddy MacMaster, a legend in Cape Breton fiddle playing with whom she studied. The set includes two tunes she learned from another top class Cape Breton fiddle player, Jerry Holland. A set that celebrates an intricate dialogue between fiddle and piano, These 30 Years (for Jennifer) frame Cassel’s fiddle with piano played by longtime musical collaborator Dave Wiesler.

There are many more tunes on Trip to Walden Pond, ones that will take you from celebrating to dancing to reflecting. Cassel does not sing or speak a word yet the voice of her fiddle speaks eloquently of all these stories. Among them is the one inspired by that trip to Walden Pond.

That is a favorite place for this New England based artist.The tune itself is a lively reel that is based in Scotland while giving an nod now and then to bluegrass and Americana influences. On this tune and across the music of the album you will notice the creative work of Mike Block on cello. Block is part of the Grammy winning Silk Road Ensemble, and is respected as an innovative teacher and performer. One day, Cassel wanted to show Walden Pond to her longtime friend Block. The day after that visit, Block proposed. Soon after, she began writing the tune. Not long after that, the idea for the album began to circle around that piece.

You might also want to listen out for a tune on Ports of Call from Fraser and Haas -- it’s called Hanneke’s Bridal March.

You may also wish to see
Abundance from Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas.
For Reasons Unseen: Hanneke Cassel
Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave on which Hanneke Cassel plays a lovely fiddle break on the title track
Sounds of Cape Breton: Mary Jane Lamond and Wendy MacIsaac
A different version of Freedom Come All Ye: Robyn Stapleton sings the song, backed by Skippinish

Waterfall in Skye photograph by Steelogic; performer photographs by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

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Abundance: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

Abundance: that is the name Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas have chosen for their most recent recording. It is also an idea which informs the tunes they have composed, selected, and gathered for the project.

Fraser plays the fiddle: Haas is a cellist -- the wee fiddle and the big fiddle, as they sometimes call it.

The tunes encompass both traditional pieces and original ones. All are based in the music that flows from Scotland, with, at times, hints and flavours of other lands and other styles included, from jazz to classical to Cape Breton (which, yes, flows from Scotland too, but has its own voice).

What’s especially engaging here is the level of musical conversation between the bright lines of the fiddle and the dark rhythms of the cello, balanced always, turning and dancing and leading down paths expected and unexpected. The opening track, called The Corrie Man, is a tune from Arran which invites visions of lively step dancers, while the pairing of Neil Gow’s Wife and The Old Reel brings in a tinge of classical ideas. There are four tunes which are part of Connie’s Suite -- a commission for a long time friend's birthday which included elements of dance and place important to the honoree, including the intriguingly titled -- and played -- Ouagadougou Boogie. This turns out to be a really fine mix of Celtic, jazz, and African elements, a suggestion of a not so Scottish place place in Africa that’s near Timbuktu.

This is followed on by Braigh Lochiall, which evokes the heart of the Highlands of Scotland, Another tune, The Referendum was composed by Fraser to celebrate the upcoming vote (the referendum vote on Scotland;s independence is about ten days away at this writing) and in honour of Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond’s visit to his fiddle course at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye.

The musical conversations between Fraser on fiddle and Haas on cello center of the music on Abundance. They have invited friends into the story too, though -- several of them musicians you have met here before along the music road. Hanneke Cassel is on piano, James Macintosh handles percussion, Corey DiMario is on bass, Donald Shaw adds accordion, Brittany Haas joins in on fiddle Stefan Amidon is also percussion, Kai Welch and Oscar Utterström sit in on horns. This varied grouping of talents is particularly in evidence on the closing track of the sixteen on the disc, called The Kelburn Brewer.

In their notes, Fraser and Haas remark on the collaboration and community they’ve encountered as they follow the big fiddle and the wee one in their travels. Musical connection is, they suggest, part of the true idea of abundance,. They conclude with this wish: “So here’s to a healthy flourishing of new ideas amongst an open, questioning, listening synergistic group of people that honour the acts of creating and sharing. This album is both a tribute and a thank you to the people we meet along the way. It is a celebration of music and community and possibilities. To the spirit of Abundance!”

Photographs of Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas are by Kerry Dexter. They were made at the Celtic Connections Festival with permission of the festival, the artists, and the venue, and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.

You may also wish to see
Highlander's Farewell: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen
Scotland's Music: Nicola Benedetti: Homecoming -- A Scottish Fantasy

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Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: Valley of the Moon Reel

In there work, fiddle player Alasdair Fraser and cellist Natalie Haas frequently play music from the Scottish tradition, reviving the centuries past tradition of fiddle and cello pairings. They also on occasion play music from Cape Breton, Spain, and other parts of the Celtic diaspora.

Then there are the times when they play music that one or another of them has composed. That’s what is going on here, as they offer Fraser's Valley of the Moon Reel.





The Valley of the Moon in the title gives the nod to Fraser’s fiddle camp of the same name, In California. Respected for his encouraging and inspiring style of teaching as well as his playing, Fraser has camps in Spain and Scotland as well, at which Haas also teaches.

you may also wish to see

Highlander's Farewell: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas
Scottish music a different way: The Unusual Suspects
Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen

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Highlander's Farewell: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

Time was, several centuries ago when musical conversation between fiddle and cello defined the beat of popular dance music in Scotland. In recent years, Alasdair Fraser and natalie Haas have picked up that conversation. Keeping tradition in mind, they have taken it in new directions, too based in their own creativity and willingness to trust their ability to do that.

On their album Highlander's Farewell, they offer a musical journey which moves from the Highlands of Scotland to the lowlands, to Ireland, to Appalachia in the southern United States, to California, to Cape Breton, Spain, and back again. The title track is a strathspey which opens a four tune set, a set which finds the tune itself taking a trip from the Scottish Highland to Ireland and over to the Appalachian mountains. You can almost see the smokey mist which often pervades the air in the Highlands through the opening notes of the strathspey. Picking up its steps a bit as a reel and then a jig in Ireland, in the hands of Fraser and Haas it finds its way to the southern mountain of the United States as a lively breakdown. The Jig Runrig set brings things back with fast paced dance to Scotland. Two tunes by Scottish composer Nathaniel Gow take things on a quieter turn, as they are laments. A pipe hornpipe from the Uists in the Hebrides is paired with a contemporary tune from the work of the ever inventive piper Gordon Duncan. There are three original tunes by Fraser on the disc, among them McLaughlin’s Strathspey, which he wrote as a wedding gift for two friends. There is a set of Galician tunes, a classical sounding touch with La Sansonette, and Gloomy Winter’s Noo Awa, a tune in which you may hear the echoes of the melody of several familiar songs.

There are thirteen sets in all, each flowing naturally from the other and with the brighter notes from Fraser’s fiddle being framed by and then framing the darker sound of the cello. Haas and Fraser trade back and forth with rhythm and melody, creating an always engaging and fascinating journey. They are supported by fine musical friends, as well, including Hanneke Cassel in piano and fiddle, Dennis Cahill on guitar, Brittany Haas, Martin Hayes, and Bruce Molsky on fiddle, and others. It is, however, the connection between fiddle and cello which centers the music, inviting listeners along on a journey well worth the taking, and well worth the taking more than once.

aside: I had the chance to see Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas -- and a few special guests-- play this music at a concert during Celtic Connections a few months back. more on that evening to come.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: In the Moment
Music Road: Scottish music a different way: The Unusual Suspects
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2011:first look

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here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Hanneke Cassel: For Reasons Unseen

For Reasons Unseen

Hanneke Cassel talks about the world through her fiddle. As she’s grounded in Scottish style fiddle playing (she the former US champion in the style, among other things) that world often includes Scotland seen in various ways, from traditional tunes to her own new ones. There are some of each on this recording

Cassel is also a world traveler with her fiddle. In the past she’s written about the Red Sox and and rural Tennessee, as well as Ireland and pop movie heroes, all without saying a word, mind you. Here she offers, among other things, tunes for a friend’s wedding, a sister’s birthday, a lullaby, a tune called the The Goat Whisperer, and a tune and song learned on her travels in China. A mixed bag, sounds like, but what it actually sounds like is a lively story and an unfolding conversation where you’re eager to hear the next way things will turn.

If you’ve heard Cassel play in person, or listened to one of her earlier albums, you’ll know she offers a sure touch, vibrant energy, strong faith, and a sense of humor through her music, and if you’ve yet to make her acquaintance, this album is a fine place to begin. She’s just been on a trip to Kenya, where she shared tunes and songs with the people at One Home, Many Hopes. Tunes to come from that, as well, no doubt.

Meantime, every track on this recording is well worth more than one listen. Especially take note of Blackberry Festival Footrace, The Crane Estate, The Dusky Meadow set, and For Reasons Unseen/Rong Hua. Musicians sitting in with Cassel include Natalie Haas, Christopher Lewis, Alasdair Fraser, and Brittany Haas.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: voices: Hanneke Cassel

Music Road: Hanneke Cassel and Christopher Lewis: Calm the Raging Sea

Music Road: Cathie Ryan: the farthest wave

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here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Rachel Barton Pine: Scottish Fantasies

Scottish Fantasies for Violin & Orchestra

Classical violinist Rachel Barton Pine is an explorer, always. In this case her ventures have taken her to the history of Scottish folk music as seen through the eyes of classical composers. In this two CD set, she offers perhaps the most well known of such works, Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy Opus 46, along with a composition by a man better known as one of the top classical violin players of the nineteenth century, Pablo de Sarasate. Barton Pine presents Sarasate’s Aires ecossais, op. 34. She includes works of two Scots composers, as well, Alexander Campbell Mackenzie and John Black wood McEwen, Barton Pine rounds off the two disc set by joining with folk fiddle player Alasdair Fraser for a medley of Scots folk tunes.

One thing that stands out is Barton Pine knows how to present the classical line heart of her pieces while respecting their folk sources, and she has good fun playing with Fraser on the folk tunes as well. Not to mention she is a fine player, much awarded and well respected by musicians and music fans around the world. She thinks about the folk sources of the works she chooses with a classical musician’s point of view, and adds dimension of both sides of that genre divide by her playing. There’ s a short video documentary, “The Making of Scottish Fantasies,” included on the second disc. It’s a really well done perspective on the how Barton Pine and her fellow musicians went about this work -- and some fine session footage too.

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Music for St Andrew's Day: music of Scotland

now playing: Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: In the Moment

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas In the Moment


It’s a compelling conversation between two musicians through their instruments, this second collaboration between fiddler Alasdair Fraser and cellist Natalie Haas The music is at times a bit more laid back than the driving stuff on that earlier recording, but that only adds interest -- and there’s more than enough fire to keep any Celtic music fan happy. Fraser’s a fiddler, from Scotland, an acknowledged master and gifted teacher; Haas is an American cellist whose training includes both classical music and Celtic. Fraser wrote many of the pieces here, including the high powered opener, Valley of the Moon Reel, and the lively and thoughtful tribute to his dad which closes the collection, Rob Fraser’s Welcome to San Francisco. Hanneke Cassel, whose work you’ve met before here at Music Road, adds graceful piano to the latter track. Of the dozen other tunes [it’s an all instrumental album] one that Haas composed, Between, is a standout, but really, they’re all worth the listening, and more than once. And if you ever get the chance to see Fraser and Haas live, take it -- they really are in the moment with the music and their listeners when they play.

In the Moment was among my choices for best albums of 2007. to see what else made the list, look here.. Fraser and Haas played a really inspired show at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow recently, too. More on that to come.

Now playing: Celtic Connections

In the midst of Celtic Connections, which maintains its moments of musical intimacy despite thousands of attendances, hundreds of performers, and venues scattered across the city center of Glasgow in rainy Scottish January. Maybe it’s that weather that helps draw people together: it’s time to go within and share music.

Highlights thus far include:
*Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas in absolutely inspired musical conversation at the City Halls at the end of an evening’s program which also included gigs from the Swedish group Oleman, who took us to back porch in Scandinavia, and the amazing guitarist Tony McManus with a many musical friends.

*Mary Ann Kennedy, James Graham, and Mick West in the intimate listening space above the Universal club, trading songs in Scots and Gaelic about emigration, and the audience joining in on many songs to everyone’s delight.

*The Rooney Family, Ryan Young, and The Laurels as new rising talent

*Brian Finnegan’s Singing Tree, an adventure into the music of Northern Ireland, old and new and future, with Cara Dillon, shown at left, Damien O’Kane, and others

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Winter music

Light and darkness, warmth and cold, connection and reflection, preparation and celebration, community and solitude, journey out and coming home -- all these are part of the work and the joy of winter. Music is a part of it all, as well -- but what if holiday music isn’t your sort of thing, or your tradition -- or maybe it all is, but you’d like a bit of non holiday music while still keeping the love, joy, peace, and friendship that resonate through the world at this season? It is, after all,the season of Advent in the Christian calendar, a season for preparation and reflection.

Take a listen...

Donal Clancy, Close to Home-- this is just the man an his guitar, a quiet, inviting set of traditional Irish music, familiar and unfamiliar, from an artist who is one of the mainstays of Irish guitar

Hanneke Cassel, Silver -- fire, grace, passion, kangaroos, jasmine flowers, and a tribute to the Red Sox., all framed in Scottish style fiddling.

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas, In the Moment -- an inspired conversation between fiddle and cello on tunes in the Celtic tradition that nevertheless include trips to Pakistan, Tenerife, and San Francisco

Russ Barenberg, When at Last -- original guitar tunes ranging from jazz to Americana

So far, instrumental music. Now for the singers

many of them, on Hands Across the Water -- a A list roster of Americana and Celtic artists including Vince Gill, Tim O’Brien, and John Cowan, Altan, Flook, and Maura O’Connell, on songs of hope, faith, and healing

Eric Merrill, Western Star -- Celtic and American songs and tunes in a graceful tapestry that honors and connects both

Cathie Ryan, The Farthest Wave -- a journey through grief, loss, hope, and healing framed in Irish and American traditional songs, several very fine originals and on point covers that evoke the natural world as well as the human one

Carrie Newcomer, Betty's Diner: The Best of Carrie Newcomer
Betty’s Diner, and Newcomer’s songs, are both original work grounded in Americana.

you may also want to see
Music Road: first week in advent

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Here is one way to offer that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Now playing: Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

Here's a bit of video of Alasdair Fraser on fiddle and Natalie Haas on cello in concert in Boston n playing the slow air Mo Ghile Mear and rockin' out on later on another tune.
Give a look; you'll enjoy it even if you're not so wild about Celtic music, for the lively and sometimes funny interaction between the two players, and between them and their audience as well.

That same interaction, musical conversation, and sense of humor backed by and in service of great playing and deep knowledge of the music is found on a fine CD they have together, Irish, Scots, and all sort of Celtic tunes which live up to the title, Fire & Grace