Martin Hayes: inspiring conversation and great music with the legendary Irish fiddler

05/20/23 • 96 min

1 Listener

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

Martin Hayes is an internationally renowned Irish fiddler beloved for his expressive playing and his collaborations with many great musicians in different genres including Bill Frisell, Sting, Paul Simon and more recently Yo Yo Ma with the Silk Road Project. During this episode we spoke of his wonderful book Shared Notes, and he plays some beautiful music live (you can always use the timestamps if you’re curious to jump to some music right away), but I encourage you to listen through the whole episode. Martin speaks eloquently about life, culture, friendship, identity, and staying true to what you value, and I hope this episode will thrill lovers of Irish music and bring new listeners to many of Martin’s projects including The Common Ground Ensemble, The Gloaming, and many more. We talked about the loss and legacy of Dennis Cahill, how he met Thomas Bartlett, the rich depths of traditional music that Martin learned from the older generation, and the rhythm of life growing up on the farm in County Clare. Like all my episodes, this is available as both a video and a podcast on your favourite podcast platform, and the transcript is also linked:https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/martin-hayes

Martin's website: http://www.martinhayes.com/ During the episode we talked about the tribute to Dennis Cahill, which I hoped to link directly but can't find now. It's called: Litir ó do Chara

Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:33) “Shared Notes” book and Martin’s childhood, PJ Hayes, Paddy Canny, Tulla Ceili band and learning fiddle (09:59) the nature of memory and writing the book “Shared Notes” (13:42) fiddle: jigs by Sean Ryan (16:12) different approaches to fiddling with musical demonstrations (23:10) challenges of recording, self-consciousness (25:06) The Common Ground Ensemble (29:51) pandemic reflections, teaching, mindfulness in nature (34:15) fiddle: The Glen of Aherlow (37:28) Dennis Cahill (43:15) Irish diaspora, Irish in America, immigrant experience (48:27) communicating on stage and playing what you want to play instead of what the audience expects (52:49)story about offering money back to disruptive audience (55:35) meeting Thomas Bartlett, The Gloaming (01:02:30) harmonizing Irish music (01:05:46) The Martin Hayes Quartet, Liz Knowles viola d’amore, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (01:08:35) Irish language (01:11:09) Celtic culture in Spain and close cousins musically with different Celtic traditions (01:13:40) negotiating performance conditions; playing on Capitol Hill for Obama (01:16:25) traditional Irish airs (01:18:06) Fiddle: Air A Stór mo Chroí (01:19:52) the immigrant experience (01:24:19) keeping the love of music alive, performing in the moment, Mary McNamara Fleadh Cheoil (01:34:08) Fiddle: The Caolite Mountains

Martin's website: http://www.martinhayes.com/ During the episode we talked about the tribute to Dennis Cahill, which I hoped to link directly but can't find now. It's called: Litir ó do Chara

Previous Episode

Immanuel Abraham: Violinist, Composer and his Inspiring Personal Journey

My guest today is Immanuel Abraham, a very special musican, who is an inspiring violinist, educator and composer. His phenomenal talent, discipline and creativity is even more inspiring since he didn’t have an opportunity to learn a musical instrument until the age of 14 and 4 years later, he was auditioning for the renowned University of Michigan in violin performance, playing the same Paganini caprice he’d heard Ithak Perlman play on Shalom Sesame as a child. He speaks candidly in this interview about his perseverence in the face of very difficult challenges. More information and links below, including Timestamps!

Like all my episodes, this is also available as a video on my YouTube, and the transcript is linked here as well: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/immanuel-abraham⁠

Please help me keep this series going! You can leave a tip or consider becoming a monthly supporter and get access to special perks:

⁠https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman⁠

Immanuel is well-known on social media as The Violin Doctor, which is a Dr. Who reference, but Immanuel actually is Doctor of Musical Arts, awarded from the University of Arizona. When he was a student, in an effort to learn as much as he could that was violin-related, he started The Violin Guild which is an amazingly supportive Facebook group of over 60,000 string players worldwide. Our conversation focused on different aspects of music education, personal development, and you’ll get to hear some clips of Immanuel performing some of his 24 Caprices for solo violin. Below is a link for a discount code the week this is released, and if you’re a violinist I encourage you to buy this amazing volume, which I have been learning and plan to start recording this summer. Immanuel will be releasing his complete recording of all 24 Caprices. https://www.theviolindoctor.com/24 The discount code that will be activated May 12th through May 18th is, theviolindoctor for 25% off of the 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Second Edition. You will also find Immanuel's current projects and social links there as well.

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:25) perspectives on starting the violin at age 14, dealing with racism and growing up in the projects

(15:02) hearing Itzhak Perlman and the opportunity for free lessons through the Merit School of Music with Guillaume Combet

(21:32) inspiration for Immanuel’s 24 Caprices for Solo violin

(28:48) clip of Caprice 14

(30:00) clip of Caprice 21 in C Minor, “The Blues”

(31:43) Caprice 23, a fugue (complete)

(35:54) please support this series on Ko-fi!

(36:23) why Immanuel bought a beginner book spent his lunch money on Paganini

(41:12) Andrew Jennings University of Michigan

(47:15) giving students some choice of repertoire, keeping them motivated

(53:08) Sphinx Organization teaching kids in the inner city

(01:04:45) becoming a composer, opening for We The Kings

(01:11:11) transcribing jazz, learning by ear

(01:16:25) violin technique finger independence

(01:22:08) yoga, dealing with stress

(01:26:03) balance of composition, teaching and performing

(01:28:21) discount code for the Caprices theviolindoctor

Next Episode

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto: Koto Performer and Teacher

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Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto is a California-based Koto performer and teacher, and she also created “Hidden Legacy”, the story of the Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the American WWII Internment Camps. In this episode she performs some incredibly beautiful koto music, and there are wonderful stories with each piece. Like all my episodes, this is available as both video and podcast, and for those of you watching the video, you’ll notice that Shirley generously re-recorded one of her performances of a very special piece. If you want to jump straight to some music, or different topics in our conversation, you can use the timestamps. However, I encourage you to listen to the whole episode, with Shirley’s engaging insights about family and identity.

This is also a video, and you can also read the transcript; everything is linked in the description to my website where you can sign up for my newsletter and get exclusive sneak peeks for upcoming episodes: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/shirley-kazuyo-muramoto

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Hidden Legacy film: https://youtu.be/HDqKDexQRSg Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:33) the koto with demo (08:13) intro to Sakura, Kimio Eto (12:15) koto music Sakura (16:47) more about Kimio Eto (18:31) playing jazz and different styles on the koto, traditional koto schools, Destiny Muhammad (25:56) making different arrangements for koto for students (29:06) koto music, Maboroshi o Oute by Chikushi Katsuko (34:12) Japanese culture: music names in Japan (37:35) Japanese Internship camps during WWII, “Hidden Legacy” (54:21) learning Japanese, going to Japan (01:00:55) college and school years (01:03:21) intro to Tsubasa ni Notte, Shoko Hikage, Kazue and Tadao Sawai (01:09:29) koto music Tsubasa ni Notte by Sawai Tadao (01:19:28) notation (01:22:10) benefits of improvisation (01:24:45) Japanese traditions, Brian in Japan (01:29:52) teaching koto