Farewell to the chief

Along with the rest of the traditional music community, I was deeply saddened to learn of the recent untimely death of Derek Bell of The Chieftains. His antic humour and virtuoso musicianship on harp and piano (not to mention numerous other instruments, such as the oboe, cor anglais and tiompán) gladdened the hearts of all who were fortunate enough to encounter them during his 30-year career with the group. As the surviving band members – Paddy Moloney, Seán Keane, Kevin Conneff, Matt Molloy, Martin Fay, Michael Tubridy and Seán Potts – wrote in their statement released on October 17: “His passing has left a silence that will never be filled, and anyone who has had the honour of meeting him will know the world will just be a much less interesting place without him. We will all miss him terribly.”

The World Weekender takes place at Vicar St. over the weekend of November 9-10, with Orchestra Baobab from Senegal on Saturday and Colombia’s Toto La Mompasina y su Orquesta on Sunday. Founded in Dakar in 1970, Orchestra Baobab folded in the mid-’80s, but last year Nick Gold of World Circuit Records (home to Buena Vista Social Club) managed to track down and reassemble all the original members for a reunion tour and album featuring the band’s unique blend of Cuban styles with folk songs of the Mandinka, Mandiago, Diola and Wolof peoples.

Lúnasa are currently on tour here, in advance of the much-anticipated release of their forthcoming new album Redwood. The group’s 1997 self-titled debut album has also been reissued on Nashville’s Compass Records to coincide with the tour, which hits Whelans in Dublin for two nights, November 13 and 14.

The recently-formed group Dorian are heading off to China, where they’ll be taking part in the 4th Shanghai International Festival of Arts from November 15-24, as part of Music Network’s ‘Musicwide International’ performance scheme. Dorian got their start in January of this year, when the four members – Conor Byrne on flute and whistles, TG4 Musician of the Year 2000 Méabh O’Hare on fiddle, guitarist Gavin Ralston and singer Andrew Murray – came together for a Music Network-sponsored tour of Ireland. While in China, they’ll perform jointly with the Shanghai Traditional Music Orchestra, as well as playing two outdoor concerts and presenting a workshop at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music; they’ll also travel to Nanjing to give a public concert with traditional musicians from Jiangsu. Musicwide International is an international performance scheme that promotes “young and emerging” Irish musicians abroad in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs, with the aim of “serving the interests of Ireland’s cultural diplomacy”.

25-year-old Aran Islands singer Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola was the subject of a half-hour documentary, produced and directed by Moira Sweeney, that aired on RTRs Léargas on Thursday, November 7. A graduate of Trinity College, Ní Chonaola is no stranger to the small screen: she’s already been featured on various television programmes, and word has it that in Philip King’s forthcoming documentary about Sinéad O’Connor, Lasairfhíona passes on a thing or two about sean-nós singing to Sinead ....

On Saturday, November 9, Euro Trad Fair and Music Network present Music of the Northlands, featuring eight musicians from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, England, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, at the Glór Irish Music Centre in Ennis. Whistle player Gavin Whelan, a founding member of the group Dal Riada, provides the Irish input; the other participants include Synnøve Bjøset (Norway) on hardanger fiddle, Sophia Eriksson (Sweden) on viola d’amore, Timo Väänänen on kantele (Finland’s national instrument), fiddlers Angelika Nielsen (Faroe Islands) and Henrik Jansberg (Denmark), and England’s Robert Harbron (concertina) and Chris Wood (fiddle, vocals). The Ennis performance marks the end of a two-month tour of the participating countries under the aegis of the Nordic Council of Traditional Music and Dance. For tickets, ring Glór on (065) 684 3103.