Whistles of the Stars

bruce_b · Post by **bruce_b** » Mon Jul 02, 2001 2:36 pm

Grey Larsen plays Copeland whistles. Firth Pond & Co c.1850 flute with a Chris Abell headjoint.

Mark_J · Post by **Mark_J** » Mon Jul 02, 2001 7:42 pm

Jerry O'Sullivan plays Susato high whistles (I'm sure of that) and Pat O'Riordan Low Whistles (I'm less sure of that, I'll ask him in a few weeks at East Durham).

I saw John Skelton play a Susato high whistle twice (both at O'Friels in Wilmington Delaware. O'Friels is for sale for 1.3 M if anyone is interested). I saw him twice at east Durham, but I don't know what whistles he played then. I'll ask him, too.

Scott Reiss (a recorder & flute player with the baroque/renaissance ensemble Hesperus) plays a Ian Lambe Low D which sounded absoulutely wonderful, even with all the tonguing that would normally be a turn off to my tastes. Scott just pulls it off.

Bob Pegritz plays all Copelands. . . until recently. I haven't talked to him since he cut his CD, but he has started playing Burke whistles (which are featured on a few tracks of his CD) with his Copelands.

I'll see Joe McKenna at East Durham, Maybe I'll ask him too. Folks will think I'm some sort of whistle-o-path or something. Maybe I will just keep a check sheet or something. That would be a bit more sensitive and discrete.

Whatever.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:15 am

Patrick Stewart may or may not play a bit upon an Oak.

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:32 am

On 2001-07-02 10:44, FairEmma wrote:
Chris Norman plays a boxwood whistle crafted by Glenn Schultz of Troy, Michigan.

I went to a festival in Michigan where the band Helicon was playing. During the day there were hour long workshops and Chris Norman gave one. At that time (about 10 years ago) he had a really cheesy looking whistle more or less of the Generation type. As I recall it was all orange from head to toe. He made it sound pretty good (my understatement of the morning).

Steve

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:47 am

On 2002-12-27 08:32, SteveK wrote:

At that time (about 10 years ago) he had a really cheesy looking whistle more or less of the Generation type.

I wonder if it was a Perri, brother of the late Golden Tone.

Rando7 · Post by **Rando7** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:51 am

On 2001-07-02 08:07, rebl_rn wrote:
Kathleen Keane (of Gaelic Storm) plays Burkes

Laurence Nugent plays a high D Copeland, among others

Alas, Kathleen Keane has left Gaelic Storm, I believe to do some solo work. I saw GS a couple of months ago - they're quite a bit different now, with two fiddle players, an occasional bagpiper and zero whistles (boooo).

ScottStewart · Post by **ScottStewart** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 8:14 am

Sam Levine (recording artist in Nashville, plays for Michael Card) plays Burkes. He does a nice job as a non-trad player.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 8:19 am

I have seen Paddy Maloney a few times on tv recently, commercials for the plank thingy and on a visit to Aras an Uachtaran where he squeeked a few notes for the news crew. On all occasions he was playing a Sindt.

By the end of the day I still fail to see the relevance of this discussion, most of the whistleplayers I like play nice music on whatever they can get their hands on, not caring much for 'high end' stuff. Recently I had Mick O Brien over for a visit and despite him carrying a case full of Burkes he sat down playign a Generation C all night and sounding lovely. This fixation with hardware is ridiculous, I saw a review of a piper's concert recently and it was stated that apart from anything else he was using 'Geoff Woooff bellows' and there was not a trace of irony in that write up. Learn to play well, the hardware is only a small part of it.

[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-12-27 09:59 ]

dlambert · Post by **dlambert** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 8:50 am

I know that photographs from the CDs show Lawrence Nugent with Copelands, but the whistle he plays in D sounds just like a Susato.

Peter, when is Mick going to turn out another CD or what's he working on now?

MacEachain · Post by **MacEachain** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 9:34 am

On 2002-12-27 09:19, Peter Laban wrote:

By the end of the day I still fail to see the relevance of this discussion, most of the whistleplayers I like play nice music on whatever they can get their hands on

Hi Peter,
I think the relevence of the discussion is that it indicates the irelvence of the "Which Whistle is Best Argument". Other than that, it's just a bit of fun.

So, just for fun,:)
Brendan Ring, Overton.
Cillian Vallely, Chieftain.
Fred Morrison, Whistles by Phil Hardy.
Mike McGoldrick, Whistles by Phil Hardy.

Happy New Year, Mac.

[ This Message was edited by: MacEachain on 2002-12-27 15:24 ]

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 9:40 am

[quote]

Anyhow, the guys in Lunasa play Susatos.

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 9:56 am

On 2002-12-27 09:19, Peter Laban wrote:
By the end of the day I still fail to see the relevance of this discussion

I personally find it relevant. After being told time and time again that the 'greats' all play generations, and after being given the hint that high-end whistles are for the clueless, it's quite interesting to note that there seems to be a fair number of of these non-generation playing pros after all.

Sure, the whistle you use is irrelevant if you're no good at playing the whistle. You'll suck no matter what you play. And if you're a good musician, you'll certainly make any instrument sound better than a worse musician. But only a fool would argue that the characteristics of an instrument had no effect on the quality of the sound produced.

And for some people, finding a whistle that fits their requirements for volume, breath pressure, breath volume, and tone can make all the difference to whether or not they continue to master the whistle. Lord knows I'd have given up in '95 if the only whistle I'd have had to practice on was a Shaw.

Greg

By the way, I seem to recall a <a href="http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... 1">certain thread</a> where you talk at great length about concertina brands. What's that all about? Surely, you can buy a cheap pakistan model, and just go about 'learning to play' and forget all that brand nonsense right?

[ This Message was edited by: Wandering_Whistler on 2002-12-27 10:59 ]

Wizzer · Post by **Wizzer** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 10:03 am

Jerry O'Sullivan Plays Suato's. He likes them because they are reliable in tune and inexpensive. With all the traveling a professional musician does it painful if you loose 5 or 6 high end whistles.

I have asked him when will he be putting out a whistle CD and he says he would like to but he has a Uilleann Pipe CD that he is working on. So it will be some time after that is finished. Let hope before the end of 2003.

kardshark87 · Post by **kardshark87** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 10:06 am

I play Sindts, a Silkstone alloy, and a newly acquired WW.

Brent

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Dec 27, 2002 10:20 am

OK, that calls for some reaction.

In general I think there is an awful lot of emphasis in recent years on what a player plays. Everybody seems to need to play an instrument that has a 'name' and quietly expects to play a lot better.

While it is true that a better instrument will get you better results there are a few sides to this.

I see a lot of people learning pipes or concertina who offer unbelievable amount of money for instruments [5000 for a Jeffries concertina or 15K for a set of Wooff pipes]these people are usually not the greatest players but they buy a dream which in itself is fine even if they won't really benefit from the added quality. But the other side is that they are buying instruments that would have been better off with really talented young players who can't afford to buy an instrument that would suit them better because a bunch of mediocre players is throwing wads of cash around.

That's one thing. Now the conertina thread you refer to was asking about a decent beginner instrument and the mechanics of the concertina are a bit different fro mthe whistle, you want an instrument that is mechanically sound and one that can actually be repaired easily when it does fail. There are some minimum requirements in the concertina field. I would not at all recommend that a beginner should buy a top end instrument.

As to whistles, I still fail to spot a huge difference [and pay attention to HUGE] between a decent cheap whistle and the high end ones like the Burkes or Sindts. In fact I personally very much prefer the Oak and Generations I have to those when playing at home and so do a lot of players I know.
A lot of players have in recent years changed to high end whistles, true. Why, because they are there, because other people do, because whistlemakers give them to them because they are famous [all reasons given by actual players of high end instruments].
And still, I don't think my favourite whistleplayers sound any much better on an instrument that cost ten to twenty times the price of the old stalwarts.

The point I find fault with is the question what someone plays when I think it's far more interesting to wonder how they play.