| Fond farewell to one of the finest
 THE START of a new year is a time when people invariably reflect on
those who passed away over the past 12 months. And one who will be
remembered fondly is Paddy Reynolds who died aged 84 on June 15 in New
York.
It meant the Irish traditional music community worldwide bid farewell to
one of its finest instrumentalists.
Paddy was born on December 17 in 1920 in the town of Garvary in Co.
Longford.
In the 1933 film documentary From Shore to Shore: Irish Traditional
Music in New York City there is a close-up shot of fiddler Paddy
speaking about his youth in Ireland and the subject of emigration to
America.
He raises his hand to his brow and clouds over with emotion as he tells
of the terrible agony and loneliness of his mother and father when his
older sisters left for the United States.
Paddy was just five or six then and the memory of that painful farewell
never left him.
In 1981 Tony De Marco joined fellow fiddler Brian Conway and guitar and
bones player Caesar Pacifici on The Apple in winter: Irish Music in New
York.
This album paid homage to James Beirne, Martin Wynne, Andy McGann, Paddy
Reynolds and other key figures who kept the tradition alive in New York
when it wasn’t always easy to do so.
Brian Conway recalled his own initial encounter with Paddy. It was at a
1971 house party in the Bronx and Paddy was playing.
Brian said: “Paddy was very kind and supportive to me and that first
meeting set the tone for our relationship for the rest of his life.”
Brian’s assessment of Paddy’s skill with the fiddle reflects the opinion
of other admirers.
He said: “His keen respect and knowledge of the music and his well-honed
sense of good taste were the hallmarks of his playing.
“I consider myself truly blessed to have had him as a friend. Not only
was he a great influence on me but also on all those I have in turn been
fortunate to teach.
“As I told him the last time we met face to face his influence will be
felt for generations to come.”
Growing up on a farm in Longford Paddy was used to long, hard, manual
labour but the work never sapped his desire to pursue the fiddle.
He often sneaked off with his older brother James’s fiddle to practice
late at night on a bale of hay or sack of oats in the barn.
His fiddling skill quickly drew notice. Soon he was playing at hooleys,
parties and dances and later he would head a regional Céilí band.
In 1951 Paddy married Lilly Roughneen and they moved to the Bronx and
close to the residences of two other epic fiddlers in New York Irish
musical history — Sligo’s James O’Beirne and Harlem-born Andy McGann.
A friendship was struck up between the three who frequently played
together in each other’s apartments. They were part of a very fertile
but in many ways under-recorded period of top-tier Irish traditional
music in New York from the post war 1940s through the 1950s.
Near the end of that latter decade the New York Céilí Band was formed
and despite a relatively short run it achieved iconic status in the
annals of New York Irish music.
The line-up was extraordinary: Fiddlers Paddy Reynolds, Andy McGann, and
Larry Redican, button accordionist Paddy O’Brien, flautists Jack Coen
and Mike Dorney, piccolo player Jerry Wallace, pianist Felix Dolan and
drummer Chris Darcy.
They made a 78rpm demo together but sadly never a full, proper album.
In 1971 Paddy made Sweet And Traditional Music of Ireland — an LP for
Rego Records with native New York button accordionist Charlie Mulvihill
and Dublin-born button accordionist James Keane backed by pianist Felix
Dolan with Tom O’Neill on bass.
On that album are Providence/Dudeen reels and Little Thatched
Cabin/Paddy Reynolds’s Dream jigs — basically solo showcases for
Reynolds which reveal how accomplished a fiddler he was in his early
50s.
In 1976 Paddy Reynolds and Andy McGann documented their long-term
playing partnership with Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds — a Shanachie
LP. The duo’s guitar accompanist was Tyrone-born Paul Brady.
On March 25 in 1990 at the Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival
organised by visiting professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin Reynolds and
McGann once more took the stage together and performed The Banks — a
deliciously tricky hornpipe demanding some intricate bowing from the
pair. That selection plus a solo each from Reynolds and McGann is on My
Love Is In America (Green Linnet, 1991) — a 22-track festival CD
including Conway, DeMarco, Johnny Cronin, Martin Wynne and Johnny
McGreevy the last three of whom have also passed away.
To a disinterested archivist the legacy of Paddy Reynolds will consist
of the recordings and the film documentary along with various informal
tapings and videos of him.
He had also appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Merv Griffin television
programs and had a brief role-playing fiddle in The Devil’s Own — a 1997
film starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt.
But what he left us is more than great memories and music.
He gave us a high standard and example of the art of traditional music
and a devotion to perpetuating it often in the face of neglect,
indifference and ignorance.
A new CD of Reynolds’ fiddling featuring all previously unreleased
tracks will be unveiled in the coming weeks. Fortunately, he heard an
advance copy before he died. |
