Reviews
Tom Greuling USA
I received the CD in the mail yesterday and I can confirm that it is indeed brilliant. There have been a lot of really good bagpipe CDs released this year (Gordon Duncan, Chris Armstrong to name two) but the FMB CD could very well be the best of the bunch. Thanks Footstompin……
Sue Wison – The Herrald
Combining traditional with contemporary genres, piper and whistle player Finlay MacDonald is a hotshot prospect. With fiddler Chris Stout, guitarist Kevin Mackenzie, bassist Quee Macarthur and percussionist Fergus Mackenzie, he produces a boldly constructed, multi-faceted alloy of folk, rock, funk, jazz and dancefloor energies…….the calibre of musicianship and spirit of adventure on display are certainly an enticing taster for the full-blown live impact.
Kenny Matheson – The Scotsman
Finlay MacDonald is part of the new breed of virtuoso young pipers who grew up within the pipe band tradition but are also pushing the instrument in new and more contemporary musical directions. MacDonald’s excellent band matches his own expressive and highly musical playing on pipes and whistles with Chris stout’s fiddle, Kevin macKenzie’s guitar and the bass and drum team of Quee macArthur and Fergus MacKenzie. The fusion of folk with rock and jazz is heard on traditional and contemporary material, as well as a handful of tunes which draw on Eastern European styles.
Alex Monaghan – Irish Music magazine
Ace young piper and whistler Finlay MacDonald has already made enough of a reputation for himself to front his own band. Since his eponymous debut album, he has gathered together a group of musicians from bands like Fiddlers Bid, Ceolbeg, On this CD, named after one of Gordon Duncan’s most challenging compositions, Finlay plays Highland pipes, border pipes and low whistles.
The opening track should be taken as a manifesto: three powerful reels, two of them Finlay’s own, ending with a bang. This is flamboyant, full-blooded music from one of the flashest pipers around. Finlay follows them with the first of many exotic tunes, a Breton medley with full band backing: drums, bass, the works. Next it’s pipe jigs reminiscent of Wolfstone, quick-fire notes streaming out from Finlay’s pipes and Chris Stout’s fiddle.
Before the pace becomes overwhelming, Finlay throttles back for the first of two breathtaking slow tracks. This one was inspired by a bar, and it’s beautifully played on the big pipes. The other one is a very slow reel called My Mighty Friend, a description Finlay clearly merits from the way he fits his composition onto the low whistle.
Reels again, including a Duncan Johnstone tune, with plenty of the trilled high A favoured by today’s pipers. A slower reel from Macedonia is next, the name left in another bar. After My Mighty Friend, it’s back to the pipes for more reels at a nice swaggering pace, this time with a drum solo in the middle. Charlie McKerron’s offbeat tune Bulgarian Red builds up the pace for the big finish.
The title track is an inspiring rendition of an absolutely brilliant tune. It takes an exceptional musician to play Pressed For Time with expression and flair: Finlay goes one better, rivalling Gordon Duncan’s own performance for style and inventiveness. This is a suitable climax to an outstanding recording: thoroughly modern piping full of skill, energy and bags of style. A must-hear CD.
Kenny Mathieson
Finlay MacDonald has emerged as one of the leading lights in the current crop of young pipers with deep roots in the pipe band tradition, but grafted on to a distinctly contemporary musical sensibility to produce a compelling hybrid. MacDonald’s powerful piping and whistle playing is supported by his regular band, featuring the eclectic fiddler Chris Stout, jazz guitarist Kevin MaKenzie, and a rhythm section of electric bassist John Speirs and drummer Fergus MacKenzie. They generate a group sound that has Scottish folk as its bedrock, but incorporates overt influences from jazz, rock, funk and urban dance music. The leader’s own compositions are complemented by distinctive arrangements of traditional tunes and compositions by piping luminaries R S MacDonald, Chris Armstrong and Martyn Bennett. The vibrant, up-tempo instrumental sets sweep the listener along on a wave of driving, crisply-focused energy, leavened by more tranquil interludes.
Joe Ross
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.
Rob Adams
Some images don’t have to be seen to become indelible. The idea of Finlay MacDonald, on his stag night, bumping about in an inflatable sumo suit is one.
Nor is the event itself likely to be forgotten in a hurry. These things have a habit of being commemorated in tunes, with the stories behind them adding to the entertainment value.
There were a few mad capers recalled here as, playing Highland bagpipes, Border pipes and low whistle, MacDonald showed the varying sides of his band. Trio sets, with fiddler Marie Fielding and MacDonald playing tightly in unison to Kevin Mackenzie’s poised guitar accompaniment, moved through several gear and mood changes, a slow Norwegian air bringing out particularly expressive playing. And a guitar-bagpipes duet on a tricky Bulgarian medley confirmed both MacDonald’s nimbleness on the chanter and the readily applied resourcefulness that Mackenzie brings to wildly differing situations across the traditional music and jazz spectrums these days.
The arrival of John Speirs on bass guitar and Fergus Mackenzie on drums not only brought finely tuned rhythmic muscle into the equation but also underlined MacDonald’s ability to put the bagpipes centre-stage where an electric guitar might be, without resorting to novelty for its own sake, and to move naturally from a solidly traditional style to edgier territory.
MacDonald’s own composition, Abdouls, skilfully introduced North African tones to a jig format. Just as effective, though, was the merging of Charlie McKerron’s lovely Bulgarian Red with, first, a slightly sinister sounding riff then something that Carlos Santana might have delighted in soloing over to create a brand of folk-rock that made the most of all the ingredients.
