"An energy of being unknown, an energy of no expectations, and an energy of being in love"

RANDOM NOTES

The City of Edinburgh Music School Orchestra: Memories of a Traveller

Mairi Tully joined The City of Edinburgh Music School in 1999 as a Primary 6 fiddle player. She has recently progressed on from the Music School (Where she attained Grade VIII Violin, Grade VIII Piano and an LMusTCL diploma), to study music at Edinburgh University.

"In 1999 The City of Edinburgh Music School commissioned Martyn Bennett to compose a piece to celebrate the centenary of Broughton High School. We were invited to perform it in Princes Street Gardens to celebrate the opening of the New Scottish Parliament. Further performances included the Edinburgh Millennium Celebrations to an audience of over 20,000, the opening of the National Mod in Perth and Martyn’s Memorial Concert. We recorded the piece at the end of January 2005.

Mairi played violin in most of these performances and also on the recording, and was moved to write 'Memories of a Traveller' and dedicate it to the memory of Martyn - a passionate and innovative genius who inspired us all."

Tudor Morris

The Flying Fiddles

The Martyn Bennett Trust is delighted to have the Flying Fiddles - special guests all the way from South Uist and Benbecula. The MBT would like to thank Ceolas and Sgoil Lionacleit for their help in making this possible. Annawendy is the group tutor, and has taken on this role as part of her job teaching traditional music. The Flying Fiddles were first started by Deirdre Morrison, when she lived on Benbecula a few years ago.

From the Uists in the Western Isles of Scotland, the Flying Fiddles are gaining a strong reputation for their great tunes - both traditional and self-penned. The group was formed in 2003 and since then they have been invited to perform at many concerts including at Fiddle 2005, Ceolas Festival 2007, and have supported premier Irish traditional group Altan. The Flying Fiddles have also recorded for various programmes on BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal.

"I first met Martyn through the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra which we both attended in our teens.  During break times he would take out his whistle and play me the latest traditional tunes.  He was always talking about the late night Ceilidh, the craic, the music, Kingussie, Canada, gigs - all a fascinating other world.  In 2001 we met up again at Ceolas festival in South Uist, where we played for a dance class together.

The holiday in Uist was so lovely, we became firm friends, and I moved to the Uists in 2006 to teach on the traditional music course at Lews Castle College. I now teach the after school group Flying Fiddles - I think Martyn would approve!"

Annawendy Stevenson

Fred Morrison: Kansas City Set

The MBT is proud to present Fred who was ‘Martyn’s favourite piper’ as well as a good friend. Fred Morrison has carved himself an international reputation with a powerfully exuberant, highly improvisational style which combines the Gaelic piping tradition of the Uists with contemporary and eclectic influences. One of the few pipers to achieved success in both the competitive piping and folk music scenes, Fred is a master of the Highland pipes and the bellows-blown Lowland or Border pipes, as well as playing Irish uillean pipes and low whistle.

"These sets are a bit different to the norm - I think they would make Martyn smile."

Fred Morrison

Commission: Robert McFall and Fraser Fifield

Robert McFall and Fraser Fifield have been working together on a piece. The piece falls into two parts; the first is a fiddle solo which Martyn wrote called ‘Peewits’ which Robert McFall has set for string quartet; the second part is largely by Fraser Fifield and is scored for whistle and string quartet. ‘Peewits’ captures the slightly bleak but plaintive cry and movement of the peewit - from the ground into playful flight and back to the ground again.

Fraser Fifield’s ‘Kilchoan Ferry has a Balkan feel in places being mostly in 7/8, reflecting Fraser and Martyn Bennett’s interest in diverse musical cultures.

Fraser Fifield leads his own eponymous band and also ‘Stereocanto’ alongside working as a composer and versatile session musician playing either saxes, whistles or pipes in many successful projects such as Salsa Celtica, Old Blind Dogs, Mick West Band, La Banda Europa, Donnie Munro, The Unusual Suspects, Graeme Stephen Sextet, Chris Stout Quintet and Mr McFalls Chamber.  Fraser has released two albums of his own to date. The first, ‘Honest Water’ (2002) he sent to Martyn Bennett on it’s release, realising the many similarities between their respective musical paths.  Martyn replied with very encouraging words and sent an as-then unreleased copy of ‘Grit’.  A mutual understanding and distant friendship existed between them thereafter.

Margaret Bennett

The Martyn Bennett Trust is honoured to present Margaret Bennett, Martyn’s mother.

Originally from the Isle of Skye, Margaret Bennett comes from a long line of traditional singers, storytellers and musicians - Gaelic on her mother’s side and Lowland Scots on her father’s, both of whom contributed to Martyn’s early interest in music. As a singer Margaret has performed at folk festivals and concerts on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, and has also contributed to films, TV documentaries and radio programmes and is also a prize-winning author.

In 2003 Margaret was voted 'Woman of the Year' by Celtic Women International for lifelong services to Scottish culture at home and abroad. Wherever she sings, or speaks, or visits, however, she’s simply "Martyn Bennett’s mother."

Seona and Shruti: Bharatanatyam Ud the Doudouk
Choreographed by Priya

Priya has been teaching Bharatanatyam for over 25 years. Shruti is studying medicine at Edinburgh University but has been dancing all her days. Seona has been studying with Priya for 11 years.

"Priya has been choreographing the vocabulary of Indian classical dance to Scottish music since she arrived in Edinburgh in 1995. This is the first but not the last to Martyn’s beats and rhythms which lend themselves so well to physical expression. I first met Martyn in 1997 and have always wanted to dance to one of his pieces!"

Seona Robinson

Commission:  Phil Bancroft and Dolphin Boy

Phil Bancroft first came to prominence in the late 1980s.  He was the main composer in the trailblazing John Rae Collective and has since been a mainstay in many of the major bands to emerge from Scotland over the past 15 years. Phil's music is rooted in the classical American tradition but also has influence from other sources including Celtic, Indian and Western classical music.  He expresses a unique voice through his tenor and soprano saxophones resulting in distinctive, evocative music.

As a producer and DJ for more than 15 years with a laid-back, hip-hop inspired style, it came as no surprise that Scotland's Dolphin Boy caught the attention of Tummy Touch label head, Tim "Love" Lee. Once signed to Tummy Touch, Dolphin Boy released highly collectible, limited 10" singles for "Shake It Loose", "On The Ceiling" and "Handsome As Ever", while in mid-2003 he gave us the beautiful album Gateaux Youth. Among the credits in his career Dolphin Boy has worked with Scottish singer Helicopter Girl, supported Groove Armada, and more recently been a part of the touring club Northern Odyssey. Despite his high profile associations, Dolphin Boy remains content to focus on his DJing and producing.

"In 1999, Martyn took me on the Glenlivet ‘Distillery of Sound tour and we had a brilliant time. We stayed friends and saw each other a lot in Edinburgh when Martyn and Kirsten lived in Tollcross. Martyn was an amazing person to know. I remixed MacKay’s Memoirs after Martyn died and I’m still inspired by his music and who he was."

Dolphin Boy

"This piece reflects a journey through different ideas, resulting in a sort of reworking of the piece ‘4-Notes’ from Bothy Culture. The starting point came from a collision of three things in my head- 1) making a melody from just 4 pitches, 2) Martyn destroying his instruments in a fit of rage, and 3) the story at the end of Grit.  In retrospect, they collided while thinking about loss, about Martyn’s death, and my inability to make sense of it. I am interested in supporting creativity and increasing clarity by restricting choice in various ways. I think this is important, and explore it a lot in educational work with children, as well as in my own composition and improvisation practice. So the idea of restricting the number of pitches from which you choose to build a melody or theme, is a familiar & powerful idea to me. It is very powerful, in the BBC Scotland ‘Artworks’ documentary, to hear Martyn’s gentle voice describe the moment he came round from a fit of rage to find his instruments smashed up.

I was also very moved and horrified by the last piece on Grit, ‘Storyteller’ which features a story about a widowed King’s daughter, a young mother, betrayed by her step-mother over a broken milk-pitcher. She has her arms then legs and breasts chopped off by her angry father. It is a brutal story again told in a gentle voice, and the music and then the story seems to run out before it is finished- you never find out what happens in the end. I couldn’t help relating this story to what Martyn lost; the loss of his relationship with playing music with his own hands, and the destruction of his instruments by his own hands. And I guess the idea of losing your 4 limbs one by one resonated with 4 pitches , 3 pitches, 2 then 1 pitch, then I guess no pitches- no sound, no music??

So, first, the idea was to write a piece of music, with a melody using 4 pitches, then 3 pitches then two then ending with something restricted to 1 pitch.

When I started collaborating with Dolphin Boy, he brought the recording of an interview that Martyn gave, where he talks with boundless positivity, confidence and pride about the relationship between contemporary media, and music and Art created in traditional cultures, or tribal cultures as he puts it. About how fantastic things rooted in tribal cultures are, in our throwaway culture, but the need to combine, fuse, hybridise, & evolve. About keeping the tradition going by dressing it up in ways so that it was covered in the modern media, and about how surprised and delighted he was to find out that what he was doing had inspired young musicians, how it helped make the whole thing grow. This concert is part of that, this collaboration with Dolphin Boy is part of that, and this piece is part of that. As a result, we changed things round to be more of a celebration, moving forward, so we started with a section based on rhythms played on single pitches- which has a restricted sound, before the music expands, through 2-3 pitches, to develop a restatement of the piece ‘4 Notes’, before ending in a piece of trance music. I worked on some melodic ideas using 1, 2 and 4 pitches, then Dolphin Boy, bounced off them to produce three grooves- which were then knitted into the final piece- using samples of Martyn talking- presented as a mix of live performance and improvisation played to a backing track- as much of Martyn’s live work had been."

Phil Bancroft

The Porridge Men

Donald MacLeod. Emily MacPherson, Iain MacPhail, Andrew Horne. The Porridge Men's music is a fusion of traditional Scottish music with modern influences to create a unique vibrant sound. The band have recorded one album: "Planet Porridge"; a cd with a strongly experimental mix of pipes, electric violin, bass, drums, percussion, samples and didjeridoo. The band were delighted that their music was used at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics (Christopher Dean chose it for use in the ice dancing of all things!) and have subsequently performed at events such as New York's Tartan Week, the UEFA Cup Final celebrations in Glasgow & the recent Glenelg Drams in the Field festival.

"The Porridge Men were heavily influenced by the music of Martyn Bennett when they first formed in the 1990’s, none more so than original band member Murray Fergusson (who recently married his Brazilian wife Gabi, and is tonight sitting in the 30 degree heat of Sao Paolo desperately wishing he was here with us). A memory of ours is of Martyn Bennett breathing new life into the fantastic old Highland tunes, and an appreciation of the value of describing to his audience the story behind the tunes, shedding light on the reasons why a tune had been written in the first place. The name of the first set, Coronach, is Gaelic for a funeral lament, and a loud shout from the crowd, which we hope to bring to life tonight. The second piece is an experimental fusion, created especially for tonight, of the Porridge Men’s track Wax Reels and one of our favourite Martyn Bennett pieces, MacKay’s Memoirs’."

Iain MacPhail

Commission: Bill Wells: Paradise Fucked

Bill Wells has been active as a musician since the late seventies and early eighties when he started off working as bass player in cabaret bands. He has toured in Europe and Japan both under his own name and also recently with artists such as Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Jens Lekman and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. He has has recorded with a wide range of artists including Kevin Ayers, Arab Strap, David Tibet, The Pastels, Kid Loco, Barry Guy and Annie Whitehead.

"I will be playing an arrangement of ‘Paradise Fucked’ by Martyn. I decided to pick it since the extract from it that I used is very modal and I thought it would suit a wide variety of harmonies and approaches. The piece is partly improvised and will vary each time it is played. I was invited to apply to be part of this event by Tom Bancroft, and, although I myself have no direct connection with Martyn Bennett I do identify with his desire to use modern technology as part of my music making and, in acknowledgment of this, Katrina Mitchell from the band The Pastels will play the newly invented Japanese instrument - the Tenori-On as part of the performance. The line - up will also feature multi - instrumentalist Aby Vulliamy who plays with bands such as the One Ensemble, Nalle and the National Jazz Trio Of Scotland’."

Bill Wells

Commission: Laura MacDonald

Alto and soprano saxophonist Laura Macdonald is one of Scotland’s leading jazz musicians and has a fast developing international reputation as a performer, composer and recording artist. Outside of her playing, composing and recording interests, Laura holds a number of educational posts. Director of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland 2001-03, and tutor for South Lanarkshire Council from 2002-05 as well as numerous annual jazz education courses.

"My piece is called 'Ode to Martyn' as this piece started with compiling a paragraph of words explaining why I wanted to write a piece and why Martyn’s music had inspired me.  I wanted to fuse together Jazz and Folk Melodies, harmony and instruments to create something interesting and beautiful that would allow Martyn’s music to keep reforming and creating.  For me, Martyn was always pushing the boundaries of the music that he was involved in and this is what I wanted to use as my inspiration."

Laura MacDonald

Cuillin Music

"Tonight's band will perform 5 tracks from the original Cuillin Music set. 3 of the original band members will be playing - Kirsten Bennett on keyboards, Deirdre Morrison on fiddle, and Rory Pierce on whistle. Fraser Fifield plays pipes and whistles, and Martin Swan and Greg Lawson will provide additional violin.

This band was set up 2 years ago to perform Martyn's music in a way that was faithful both to his perfectionism and to his energy as a performer. He wanted to bring a big tribal dance sound to Scottish music, and he wanted people to party. We share these intentions and we're performing his music in this spirit."

Martin Swan

An early review of Cuillin Music following a performance at Lorient Interceltique Festival 1998, Brittany (France)

"Martyn Bennett introduced his band, said they were there to play some new and experimental music, generated by pipes, fiddle, synthesizers, guitars with pedal effects and distortion probably stolen from the set of 'Star Wars', and the (dominantly) French audience lapped it up enthusiastically. And the concert hadn't even started yet! Once he got going though, it wasn't hard to see what all the magazines are raving about. Yep, they've all been hailing Martyn as the hottest new talent in the frontiers of Scottish/Celtic music. Even his Nova Scotian counterpart, Ashley MacIsaac, could not compare. A four-piece band could not have produced more intoxicating, rhythmic, spell-binding, mind-soaring, trance-inducing Celtic/ folk music. Martyn himself was truly a virtuoso, playing fiddle, highland and uilleann pipes, tin and low whistle and bagad, switching from one instrument to the next with fluidity and effortless ease. He didn't even miss a beat! With two albums to date, this is definitely an artist to watch out for.Don't say I didn't warn you!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Martyn Bennett Night - Queens Hall 27th october 2007 - Set List

City of Edinburgh Music School - Memories of a Traveller
Flyin Fiddles - Jigs, Reels and Strathspeys
Fred Morrison - Kansas City Set
* Rober McFall and Fraser Fifield - Peewits / Kilchoan Ferry
Margaret Bennett - Newfoundland Song / Glen Lyon Lament
Seona Robinson and Shruti Chitnis - Bharatanatyam / Ud the Duduk
* Phil Bancroft and Dolphin Boy - 4 Notes
Porridge Men - Coronach / Wax Reels / Mackay's Memoirs
* Bill Wells - Paradise Fucked
* Laura MacDonald - Ode to Martyn
Cuillin Music

* denotes Commission

Evening event compered by Sandy Grierson

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Postal donations to the Martyn Bennett Trust can be sent to:

The Martyn Bennett Trust
BJ Stewart c/o
64 Newbattle Terrace
Edinburgh EH10 4RX