No-one witnessed an actual end to any particular session - the music may have changed venues and locations, styles and players, but it never stopped. Baltimore had a superb atmosphere, with sessions starting up all over the place, organically, as strangers sat down together around a table and brought out their instruments, a few words enough to figure out their areas of intersection.
I love the apparent effortlessness to these kinds of music, and also the care with which the musicians listen to each other, allowing space for a player to improvise away on the tune, before they give a nod and the others pick up their fiddles or squeeze-boxes or spoons, ready to be recalled in. I forgot my camera on both Friday and Saturday, but Sunday I was prepared. And boy oh boy, it was colourful!
Sunday highlights were Les Violons du Rigodon in the Glebe Gardens, which was music and theatre; in addition to regular violins, it also featured violins of the teeny-tiny variety, and also recycled instruments, made from oil cans, Werther's Original tins etc. Splendid, joyful, beautiful performance.
And walking back from the concert, the strains of a waltz still playing over in our ears, we turned into the sunshiney square, which was filled with music, and friends, and friends playing music.
*And* as if all that wasn't treaty enough, I got to catch up with family. Simply superb weekend.
2 comments:
Great pics Dr O'. I'd caught a glimpse of your quick "still life" set up on Satuday but didn't realise it came out so well. You'd never suspect the place was jammers at the time.
Yeah I love that one!
For those who may not have been squeezed into Bushe's that night: I had figured that it was a smidge intrusive to take photos of people you're sitting beside (even if they are playing music), and that a photo couldn't do justice to the atmosphere anyway. And so, during a pause between songs, I nabbed a quick shot of their table.
Which worked out just fine.
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