Crete, Ireland, Italy: An Interview with Francesco Turrisi

Paul Goodman

Crete, Ireland, Italy: An Interview with Francesco Turrisi

On Friday, 1 February, the Irish group Tarab teams up with the Crete-based multi-instrumentalist Paul Goodman for a one-off collaboration at the Grand Social in Dublin. Tarab already includes a diverse bunch of musicians, instruments and musical backgrounds, including Emer Mayock (Irish flute, whistles, pipes), Nick Roth (soprano saxophone, furulya), Francesco Turrisi (accordion, lafta, percussion), Kate Ellis (cello) and Robbie Harris (percussion). For this performance, titled Isole, they will be augmented by Goodman’s Cretan lyra and saz, two string instruments. The links between traditional Irish music and Cretan music will be in focus.

Francesco Turrisi spoke to The Journal of Music about the project earlier this week:

Paul Goodman is originally from Dublin but has been living in Crete for many years now. He collaborated years ago with Yurodny since he and Phil McMullan (Yurodny drummer) were in school together. I have always wanted to collaborate with him because I love the sound of the instruments he plays (Cretan lyra and saz) and how he plays them. He’s also an expert in Ottoman classical music and in the Turkish Makam system and it’s great to learn directly from him by playing together.

Cretan and Irish music are really our point of departure — we actually perform music from other parts of the mediterranean as well. I think there are obvious conceptual similarities [between the two traditions] in rhythmical patterns, instrumentation and general performance practice. The languages might be very different but they speak in a similar way.

So far we have been working on finding the material and seeing what works with the instruments and ‘personalities’ that we have. The next part of the process is to arrange the pieces and find solutions so that we can work on a varied and interesting set for the concert.

I am very interested in the instruments, the tuning systems, the ornamentation and the approach to rhythm. So far there has been very little improvisation as most of the music is performed in unison and doesn’t really have much harmony (like Irish music). So in a way my interest comes more from my Italian traditional music background point of view as well as my passion for Arabic and Turkish music.

Tickets to the concert cost €10 and are available on the door.

Songs of Experience

Turrisi also recently released a new album in which his background as jazz pianist is to the fore. For Songs of Experience, Turrisi teamed up with Fulvio Sigurtà (trumpet) and drummer Joao Lobo (drums) for the nine-track album.

We asked Turrisi about some aspects of the album, from the background, musical nuts and bolts and what affect fatherhood had on his music.

To what degree is the music for ‘Songs of Experience’ notated? What is kind of material was the trio working with?

The pieces are written down as jazz lead sheets, mostly melody and chords, sometimes only melody, sometimes only chords. The approach is very free but on the other hand we haven’t really gone far away from the original material. Some pieces are completely improvised in the studio with no discussion in advance but keeping in mind the melody and bass line of Uppon Lamire (a fifteenth-century ostinato keyboard piece).

How do you communicate what you’d like from the players, or do you give them free reign within set limitations?

In this case I let them try whatever they hear and usually they come up with something amazing that I couldn’t even imagine! I let them know if something doesn’t work for me and we try to find different solutions. Every time we play this music it sounds quite different though…

It sounds like you aim for complete takes when recording, with minimal editing and mixing afterwards. Can you tell us a little about your recording philosophy?

Yes there is very little editing as the takes were quite different from each other. Everything was recorded live in the same room as the band has a very naturally balanced sound and I think the level of communication changes greatly when the musicians are all in the same room. The CD was recorded in one day.

How did the album come about?

I met Joao at the Hague Conservatory, where I studied for six years. We played a bit together there and he performed in my final MA recital. He’s an amazing musician. Very sensitive and with an incredible array of colors and details. I met Fulvio last year through a series of coincidences too strange to be ignored. He’s one of the up and coming young Italian jazz musicians. He has a beautiful sound and superb control of the instrument. He’s also a great improviser and has experience in so many diverse styles of music. The balance of personalities is great as well. Everybody found their place immediately and we hardly had to discuss anything as they understood my music immediately.

Just going by the titles, a number of the pieces seems to be inspired by your experience of fatherhood. Do you think this experience has changed your music in any way?

Yes, the pieces were written when I was just about to become a father and certainly they reflect my state of mind at that transitional time in life. Fear, excitement and melancholy. Now that I have been a father for nearly two years, I should write the ‘real’ songs of experience… except I don’t have the time anymore to do that!

Songs of Experience is available from Turrisi’s website for €13, as well as from other outlets.

francescoturrisi.com

Published on 30 January 2013

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