Reviews

I really enjoyed listening to this recording. It certainly stands out from the wash and busk of many. Here’s a rare opportunity to hear the uilleann pipes in an uncluttered setting, performed here with warmth, style and expression by Leo

Paddy Keenan.

To sing the praises of Leo and his music would take me more time than I have got. I know Leo since school days, he is one of the best , if not the best pipers I and my friends have ever heard, This album/CD is long overdue, and it will be a great success among lovers of good , even great Irish traditional music

Brendan ‘’Bull’’ Moore

Irish Times review of ‘’Pure Piping .’’ Wednesday 29th November 2000

Without accompaniment or studio frills’ the Howth man’s hardcore’ raw-knuckles piping makes exemplar statements of many big piping tunes as he departs self-consciously from recordings of Seamus Ennis , Liam O’Flynn , Leo Rowsome and Travellers Johnny and Felix Doran – even his mate , Paddy Keenan. It’s an odd gambit , as he forces his way through embellishments , which can be jaw-dropping or hillarious: shaking the gizzard out of the ‘’Ace and deuce ‘’, barping the ‘’Job of journeywork’’ along like a fat hen: the yipping alarums of the ‘’Lark in the morning’’. The atavistic landscape of ‘’Carolan’s concerto, the molten anthem of ‘’Sliabh na mBan’’—all that relentless focus and drive.

Mick Moroney.

Hotpress review of Pure Piping. Wednesday 6th December 20000

Leo Rickard’s piping lineage is much influenced by the late Johnny Doran and Leo Rowsome. Rickard himself has taken wisely from the source , but augmented the influences with some very individual characteristics. His style and penchant for bending notes in the fashion almost of a blues guitarist is a joy to listen to , particularly on pieces like ‘The Ace and Deuce of Piping’, which totally engages the listener . His fast fingering on the ‘Flax in Bloom’ set is particularly fine – you wish for the track to go on forever , its closing phrase shot through with rhythmic and melodic richness. With ‘Pure Piping’, Leo Rickard has , like his mentors before him , made an album of significance and integrity which will , when benchmarked in years to come , mark him out as one of our finest. May he never run out of puff!

Oliver P. Sweeney.

CCF33CD Reviewed by Todd Denman

Paddy Keenan introduced me to Leo Rickard at Miltown years ago, and we three spent the week making reeds and talking about Rowsome chanters, occasionally joined by Davy Spillane and pat Broderick. Add Martin Nolan and you would have had almost the entire open style piping world at the time in one room. Leo stood out in my mind for his passion about the pipes, his gentlemanly personality and his distinct Dublin accent. Now I’m very happy to see that he has released a solo piping recording on Claddagh Records.

The music seems to flow in two parallel streams. On the one hand is the open style stream, played in concert-pitch on tunes that reflect the style, and with a strong Leo Rowsome influence, like Top of the Cork Road , the Wexford Hornpipe, and a setting clearly influenced by Paddy of the High Level Hornpipe. Playing touches mirror Paddy keenan styling when he pats the E in the second octave repeatedly in one tune, and on another twists the attack of G notes in the High Level Hornpipe.

Then there is a second steam of music on flat pipes with more mixed styled technique and several O’Carolan harp tunes and the unexpectedly lovely Morgan Magan, rarely played on the pipes. Leo clearly has a broad interest in the instrument and it’s different stylistic roots. His piping spans a range of styles with just the right touch of personal variation thrown in for spice.
A surprise for me was hearing the strong Leo Rowsome influence, I’m referring to tunes like The Cook in the Kitchen and Donnybrook Fair, and the Eagle’s Whistle / The Fairy Revels marches which have uncanny Leo Rowsome / Denis Brooks style regulator syncopation. Mick O’Connor writes a very introduction in the liner notes and refers to Leo’s uncle, Jimmy Rickard, who was at one time a member of the Leo Rowsome quartet. He also characterizes Leo Rickard’s playing as “uncluttered piping”and refers to his “musical integrity”, to both of which I must agree.

The tunes are all piping classics like Garret Barry’s jig and the Lark in the Morning and the settings are virtually the same as the great players have given them to us, like the Cook in the Kitchen and Donnybrook Fair from Leo Rowsome and the unmistakeable, haunting Johnny Doran character in Sliabh na mBan. In Sliabh , Leo slides gently down from the B to the A and has the same languorous , singy sound in the melody like Doran. He has successfully captured the master’s original spirits and stylings in these tunes.

The playing is most exciting , and touches real brilliance when Leo plays regulators, like on the Job of Journeywork which reminds one a bit of Liam Walsh, and The Fairie’s Hornpipe, and the marches that close the recording. These don’t sound like clean, studio overdubbed regs, these are live, jumpy, bouncy, banging regs played at the same time with the chanter and drones and the effect is very exciting and takes the music to a higher level. What I like most is that the regs are at times so rapid and vigorous that you get a sense of urgency and excitement that almost defies rhythm. This is perhaps a very old, traditional way of playing regs which escapes analysis and I only wish it were on more tunes. Definitely worth catching.

The recording sound overall is dry and traditional and unaffected by production technique. You can hear the room sound, which helps place the pipes in their traditional and aural context, like older recordings. The flat set, made by Kevin Thompson, in particular sounds very lovely on Ace and Deuce / Job of Journeywork with natural sounding loud regs. Minor, normal squeaks and squawks are ther in the piping, which makes it sound more real and musically alive. Leo clearly was avoiding, any tendency for showoffy production and stuck to the pure core of his traditional playing and repertoire and the result is good, solid piping.