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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creative practice: sessions

There often seems to be quite a divergence between classical music players and those who play trad or folk music -- and the listeners who prefer one over the other sometimes get at odds too. Whatever your musical preference, though, there's a lot to be learned from the other side.

I was thinking about this as I read
this report of a master class with top classical violinist Itzhak Perlman. One of the things he does in it is challenge students about different ways of playing a piece of music. To me, coming from music where sessions and jams and song swaps are common, that's how much of what he's teaching is passed along there -- and some the same cautions apply.

There's much to be learned from going deeply into a piece of music one way, and much to be learned with playing and hearing it different ways. It all helps with connection, and understanding.

you may also want to see
Music Road: Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: In the Moment
Music Road: Hanneke Cassel and Christopher Lewis: Calm the Raging Sea
Music Road: a short film about julie fowlis

Natalie Haas, Hanneke Cassel, and Julie Fowlis are all musicians who are grounded in traditional music, and play it professionally now. Along the way, though, they each chose to follow a university course leading to a degree in classical music.

Violinst, whose editor Laurie Niles wrote the Itzhak Perlman story, is a very fine site most often attuned to the thinking of classical and jazz players.

now playing: Emily Smith: Too Long Away

Too Long Away

A quiet moment as summer’s dusk turns to summer evening, voices call children home and daylight birds give way to those who sing at night, and a glance through a window at a room filled with love -- those are elements Emily Smith transformed in to a lovely and poetic reflection of season’s change and love’s permanence. It’s the opening track on her latest album, called Too Long Away, the first of ten tracks that move between originals and bits of traditional Scots music,.all connected in some way to Smith’s home ground in Dumfries and Galloway in the southwest of Scotland.

Smith is also a keyboard player, both piano and accordion. Her accordion skills come into good use in the song Caledonia, a song of traditional words -- one of those stories about a woman about to be thrown overboard but the ship’s captain rescues and later marries her -- set to a melody by Scottish musician Tony Cuffe, a lively and engaging take on an oft told tale. May Colven is also a traditional tune with the story of a false hearted lover, but May Colven proves his match in the quick stepping tale. Audience of Souls is another song Smith wrote, sparked by a walk in a graveyard near her home. It’s a gentle conversation, and a refreshing point of view about the continuing nature of community. Smith has chosen As I Was a Wandering, a rare occasion of Robert Burns writing from a woman’s point of view, as her nod to Scotland’s best known poet. Winter Song, a bit of bookend to Sunset Hymn, closes out the ten song collection looking at the sometimes unexpected gifts and blessings from what’s often seen as a harsh season.

Smith sings with a clarity and expression that illuminates the heart of the songs, her own and those she’s chosen to cover, and she proves and fine and insightful songwriter as well as a thoughtful interpreter of tradition. She’s well supported by Jaime McLennan on fiddle, guitar, and backing vocals, Ross Milligan on guitar and banjo, Duncan Lyall on double bass, and Luke Plumb on mandolin.

Until now, Smith’s music has been available in the US only if you were lucky enough to catch her on tour. This recording, her most recent, is now available on line, in stores, and for order in the US as well as Europe.

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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.