The series of Maurice Woolf — master musician and werwolf of the Upper Dulnaine — is now complete.

I guess partially as a result of living in such inaccessible country (a reminder that Maurice died before the modern day rush to drive tracks everywhere through high ground) there is relatively little documentation of Maurice's career. However, as a musician he straddled the post-war years as something of an unknown colossus, perhaps the ultimate 'musician's, musician. Not only was he comfortable with bebop and the emerging new jazz he stunned audiences with his rocking strict tempo traditional stomps and hauntingly beautiful gaelic singing.

Why we have here are reviews of key albums (from Blue Note the flower power) and live reviews (from Monteux to Listoonnvara). The final piece details how leading-edge jazz label ESP struggled to get access to the Upper Dulnaine to produce one of the great field recordings of all time. As ever, even here, Maurice was ahead of his time blending field recordings with overdubs from long-time collaborators that were recorded over a satellite, internet, link.

There are many voices of appreciation featured in the series. These two (perhaps unexpected testaments from giants of traditional music) give you a flavour of the esteem in which he was held:

Andy Irvine (Plenty, Patrick Street and others) “You have to understand that Maurice was an absolute pro. Very few amongst the audience knew his history, and they simply had him down as someone to be mocked. Of course, as soon as he began to play all bets were off. The mighty thing about Maurice was that he gave his all. He didn’t do irony. He didn’t do snarky. He simply did music.”

Willie Clancy (legendary Uilleann piper) “Well, I’m a butcher, and I do little piping on the side. Maurice came into the shop on the Saturday morning, and I cut him a couple of nicely-aged rib steaks. He wolfed them down there and then, and thanked me handsomely. A gentleman of the old school.”

Enjoy.

http://www.andyhowell.info/trek-blog/category/maurice-woolf/