Customer Reviews

Reecho

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Playing Time - 42:51 --- SONGS include The Old Man Dancing/Back To Bergamo/Armstrongs, Duncan The Gauger/Elav The Terrible, Time To Dance/Paydusko Horo, Funky Monkey/Golden Drones/Coradavon Lodge/Flood In The Home, Abdouls, Breton Set, Hungarian Set, Christchurch Cathedral

Eric Clapton once made a statement about the importance of musicians balancing both a sense of moral responsibility with a good sense of musical taste. The extremely proficient musicians of the formidable Finlay MacDonald Band have obviously trained hard and long to balance their bodies, minds, spirits and musical intelligence. Their fluid up-tempo playing may be built around a traditional cornerstone, but their dazzling music knows few constraints or boundaries. Jazzy chordal progressions, red-bullish funk rhythms, and elegant ornamentation characterize their offerings. With every musical measure oozing spirit and exuberance, there's no question about their technical mastery and aptitude. Approaching virtuosity, I was ecstatic when the gifted musicians rose to displaying true integrity and compassion in their notes. Some pieces like "Miss Elliott's" have tastefully-rendered harmonies. While the Finlay MacDonald Band is already very popular on the European festival circuit, imagine the reputation they would create and legacy they would leave if their mechanics and emotional content branched further into the improvisational territory of the genres they draw inspiration from. There are tastes of such lively spontaneity in "Salsa's" and "Ud the Duduk," and even more improvisation would really shake things up and make eloquent statements.

Bursting onto the scene like a celestial event, this tight band is building a considerable legion of fans that easily falls right into the danceable groove. The band's current lineup, with about three years of experience together, includes Finlay MacDonald (pipes, whistle), Chris Stout (fiddle, viola), Kevin MacKenzie (guitars), John Speirs (bass) and Fergus MacKenzie (drums). Taking up the Highland pipes at age ten, Finlay was taught by his father (Pipe Major Iain MacDonald), Duncan Johnstone and Pipe Major Angus MacDonald. Finlay graduated in 1999 from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

This is a band with a strong vision, and their partnership has produced a project yielding bountiful rewards. The Finlay MacDonald Band is well on their way to becoming a supergroup with their inspiring contemporary Scottish music. With their obvious talent and apparent chemistry, I challenge them to further fuse traditional, jazz and funk music into an entirely new context that really explores adventurous territory. In other words, Finlay and company's funkiness could purposely play some things so nasty and wicked (in a good way) that the tension creates a unique and personalized signature sound that really snaps heads on a worldwide scale. Even without vocals in the mix, this young band has the potential for true greatness. (Joe Ross, Roseburg, OR.)