Sean O'Riada
Album: Port na bPúcaí
Label: Gael Linn
Tracks: 17
Website: http://www.seanoriada.ie/

Seán O'Riada's place in the pantheon of Irish music ,is ,i feel,not as universally acknowledged as it might be,critics and others preferring to ascribe a greater importance to the likes of Donal Lunny ,or Bill Whelan.Not to underplay their contributions,which are many,but for me ,O'Riada,whom I first heard on the radio at the age of seven, is the most significant figure in the development of Irish music.Here's why.He put the music out there with no sense of it being an inferior art form,also in the process refining the notion of ensemble playing.In addition to this,he brought us a forgotten "stór ceoil",and mediated its delivery with elements of jazz,classical and other forms.

This album is a work in three parts,the first 3 pieces being privately recorded in Trinity College.Recorded on piano,they serve as a taster for 10 live tracks ,which comprise his last known performance,in UCD'S Aula Max,now the NCH,at which I was in attendance.As I recall,the sheer emotion of the concert reduced me to tears,and listening back,no wonder.This is a performance shot through with bravura,mischief,and technical brilliance.The title track is a case in point.The left hand gives it a brooding quality,while the right engages in elaborate improvisations with forays into jazz territory,giving it that quality of "draíocht",or magic in the vernacular.Elsewhere,the Three Sea Captains is performed on harpsichord,playful and extempore,but with a classical base.Full of notes,it is a joy to listen to.

The closing part of the album is a series of short musings-none over 2 minutes in length,many considerably shorter-on various national themes,recorded in 1966,and the perfect foil to bookend the disc.This is a work of stature,innovation ,and permanence,which should in real terms,pin the listener back into their resting chairs with G-force.Yes,it REALLY is that good.

Oliver P. Sweeney