Lissycasey Musician Features In Ceol le Chéile

0:00Music has always been a powerful way of bringing people together in a new orty series. Kyola Kayla explores exactly that, bringing our traditional musicians together with performers from cultures around the world. And one of those musicians is Lissy Casey's Jack Tality, who features in the four-part series, creating new music and connections with artists from diverse backgrounds. And the first episode airs from tomorrow at 8pm, or T1, the orty player, delighted to be joined by Jack Tality. Jack, good morning to you. Hi, Ellen. How are you? Very well. Tell us a bit about how you became involved in this particular project. Yes, so I've quite a while back. Red shoe productions approached ETHA, Nivrion and I, ETHA, a great Dublin, Fiddler and classical violinist as well. About the idea of working with musicians from other traditions, you know, musicians that we wouldn't have necessarily met before, but to try and document the process of working together, ultimately with the aim of preparing a performance that we could film

1:01and show as part of the series. And the series brings together such a, like, a wide range of musicians and performers from very different cultural backgrounds. I would imagine that was a large appeal for you to collaborate and get a sense of what the roots of musicians from other countries be at Nigeria, India, Syria, Azerbaijan and Ukraine were like and how that could melt together with your musical background. For sure. And I think the two primary things that we made to the series were, first, I think as a traditional musician, we often jump at any opportunity that we have to maybe give other musicians a window into what we do as Irish traditional musicians, you know, because a lot of people who haven't encountered Irish traditional music up close, may not really, you know, see it as we see it. And I think it's all exciting to let people find their way into it as musicians. And then equally, I guess as a fan of music more generally and as a listener, I'm fascinated by virtually all types of music and to get the opportunity to get

2:03up close and personal with people who are practitioners in these musical cultures. Like it can very often produce really interesting results. And even the process, regardless of what what the outcome might be, but the process can be really interesting. So I think they were really the two main things that got me excited about the prospect of making this show. And I'm sure there are moments of discovery where the particular sounds, rhythms or musical traditions that surprised you or you know moments during the project, Jack, when thought, this seems like something completely new. Yeah, there were a couple of, yeah, definitely a couple of moments because interestingly, you know, Ashraf, who you will see playing percussion and the piece that we did, you know, when we miss, you know, he's English language wasn't very strong. So immediately are our way to connect and to understand the communicate which other was through music, which is it was actually something that hadn't happened to me before, personally. And it really does remind you just how, just how much music can connect us when other forms of communication might let us down.

3:06So I remember one time specifically, we were going through a couple of tunes that we might try together. And, you know, Ashraf wasn't, you know, he wasn't sure about how he might approach the certain tunes that we're playing. So he played all of these really interesting polymetrical textures that we hadn't thought of. So by him interpreting it for the first time, he kind of unlocked all of these things that we certainly heard as well. So and that was pretty much the process that we experienced throughout the collaboration. I think, you know, seeing music with a new eye or from kind of a new perspective, although you may not be expert in those music, I think there was something really interesting on how he could show us how he heard certain things, which was something that stood out to me as part of the, like, the memories that I have from making the series. And it strikes me that it's quite apt to speak into about this shown on this particular day, because today is across Irish radio, as one day many voices are nation connected by radio,

4:07where we're talking about diversity, equality and inclusion. Earlier on, I was speaking with Moyanigan from Claire Eudt, who was about some of the initiatives and efforts they make to bring people together. And they were talking about those from different backgrounds coming to Claire and to Ireland, and how food is a way of bringing people together and getting, I suppose, harmony and understanding. It strikes me music is another way to do that, because, you know, the program's dealing with themes like migration, identity and finding a new sense of home. Do you feel, you know, and you talk about music being, I guess, a language that you can communicate with people who don't speak English, can music be a way to help people who arrive in Ireland or in Claire, you know, the home of traditional music in this country, that can be a way of integrating them in, in bringing their music and seeing how it works, it's melds its way into what's already here. I firmly believe that, because when we met Anna and Ashraf, you know, obviously, we were very interested in their story and, you know, the founding of their music,

5:10including Turlitz. So it's not as if we didn't have, you know, an interest in getting to know each other outside of music, but our first role or our first priority was just to sit down together and play music. And it was almost as if we got to know their migration stories through music, because we got to learn about their musical backgrounds, we got to learn about the challenges of, you know, finding yourself in a new country, a new environment, but it was all done through the lens of music, which reminded me definitely that, you know, I know music is often expressed as a musical language, but I think it's more than that. It's more like an alphabet, you know, because you can use the building blocks that music give you, but I'm always very interested in the fact that it's not an automatic universal language that you can sit down and, you know, build something together, because for me, I think it's about celebrating the differences that we have in our music, and not assume that we can just sit down and kind of all jump in together to the learning and communication, using the kind of

6:15more general music experience that we have that can really give us something interesting. And I think as you said, it has really repercussions and positive impacts on how people can integrate when they find themselves in a new environment, and you know, maybe intimidated by a new environment, but music can really give a way into working with people in a very, very human and very interesting way. It sounds like a fascinating series. I can't wait to see how you all kind of bond, regardless of your backgrounds, you all bond over a shared love of music and how the different cultures and musical cultures and styles work together. That's Kio Lecaylet's a four-part series. It begins on Ority One and the Ority Player from tomorrow, Friday the 25th of September from 8 pm. Jack, lovely having a chat with you, as always looking forward to seeing how your particular episode goes and thanks for our join us on the show. You're very welcome, thanks, Ellen. Thank you. That's Jack Talty, the Lecayee Musician with us on.