Interview with Jamie Laval
Item Posted: Wednesday 28th March , 2007
Jamie Laval
A key figure in the Cowalfest 2005 Concerts, Jamie has also visited Lochgoilhead after his success at the Edinburgh Fiddle Festival. This interview was published in 24/7 Scottish Music.
INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE LAVAL
Jamie Laval, US Scottish Fiddle Champion 2002,. Jamie played and taught at the Edinburgh Fiddle Festival 2003 as well as Alasdair Fraser’s San Francisco Scottish fiddle group. Jamie tours extensively throughout the United States with over 100 concert appearances yearly.
His CD ‘Shades of Green’ was described as ‘more than impressive.. it stops you dead in your tracks and demands that you listen. Subtle and energetic’. (SingOut! Magazine).
His Edinburgh performance was praised: ‘a fiddler of subtlety, complexity and passionate intensity, an engaging performer who will create a rapt audience wherever he goes’. (Fiddle On Magazine).
Why did you switch from classical to traditional music?
It was more accurately a case of "dropping" classical music in favour of completely devoting myself to Celtic music, which had been previously only a hobby. I recognized that traditional Celtic music is my own voice. Even though the music is very old, it feels when I'm performing as though I'm making it up myself on the spot.
I've heard great classical artists sometimes describe a similar experience of feeling that they become a conduit for, let’s say, Beethoven's voice. That was never the case for me. Classical music comes from the pen of a single composer. Traditional Celtic music is a collective creation by musicians spanning several centuries. I feel truly a part of that collective, and in playing ancient Celtic music I express my own thoughts and emotions as fluidly as I do theirs.
How did you feel when you won the US Scottish Fiddle Championship?
I’m sceptical about competitions and therefore was only moderately pleased about it. I recognize that winning competitions can help launch careers, but competition is not what music is about. There is so much more artistry that can be offered beyond merely what is "allowable" in a competition environment! To win, a musician who has any degree of artistic depth must strip away the bulk of his/her individuality in order to be consistent with the judging criteria.
There are plenty of wonderful players in the world who haven't won a competition, but who present artistic beauty and merit in their music. In fact, the year after I won, I competed again but played in a manner that revealed more of my own artistic personality. Result: I didn't even place in the rankings!
How useful do you find the tag of being a 'traditional' musician?
I find it slightly misleading. Those who do not consider themselves ‘into’ traditional music would, I am sure, enjoy it if they came along and gave it a chance. Some enthusiasts, on the other hand, feel traditional music should somehow be unchanging. For a tradition to continue to live it has to grow and change. I'm more of a non-traditional, traditional folk artist, starting from a reference point of traditional music but striding boldly into the contemporary age! The label also says nothing about the type and range of emotion experienced in listening to the music.
Who are the musicians who have most influenced you?
Martin Hayes for his expressivity, Liz Carol and Kevin Burke for their groove, Darol Anger for his improvisational prowess, Natalie McMaster for her showmanship, Charlie Parker for his harmonic language, Jascha Heifetz for his wizardry on the violin, k.d. Lang for her worldliness, and Sydney Humphreys (my main violin teacher) for teaching me how to teach myself!
How would you describe your musical style?
Expressive Celtic Tradition and Innovation, with a performance approach that runs the gamut from tender and melancholy to wildly jubilant.
Why are you touring Scotland, where you are relatively unknown, rather
than getting better paid at US festivals and gigs?
I want to be a part of the continuance of the culture which created the music I play. I see it in terms of both giving and receiving. When artists and communities come together to share their knowledge and experiences, art thrives.
In terms of ‘better’ paid gigs in the U.S, that's probably a misnomer. Most artists really suffer in the US, unless they become a mega pop star. It's very hard to get Americans to leave their homes to go out to a concert, and there is little government funding for the arts.
Scotland is certainly unrivalled in natural beauty. That's a draw!
What particularly attracted you to Cowalfest? (see note below)
Playing to aficionados is all very well. The opportunity to play, and hopefully excite, audiences who have had limited exposure to my type of music is far more challenging and interesting. A festival which focuses on walks and the arts will hopefully attract open minded people to concerts which are part of the programme.
I greatly admire the mouth organ playing of Donald Black, and the guitar skills of Runrig’s Malcolm Jones, and love their cd ‘ Close to Home’. The opportunity of hearing them live and playing with them was too great to miss.
Is this your first Scottish Trip?
I performed and taught at the Edinburgh Fiddle Festival in 2003 and in Argyll for the Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop, who arranged a concert for the community. More importantly, I hope it is not my last! I hope I can return to play in some of your great festivals such as Celtic Connections in Glasgow.
I'm also becoming increasingly curious about Scotland as a possible future home -- particularly in light of the egregious political and religious situation in the US at present.
Could you tell us a little about Hans York, whom you are touring with?
Han's ambition really isn't in Celtic music at all. Hans is a virtuoso guitarist who sees himself more rooted in pop and rock and is devoted to his song-writing, singing, and producing.
Hans is originally from Germany where he had a full career playing in bands of many genres and producing some 30 albums. When he moved to the Northwest U.S., I scooped him up because of his mastery of DADGAD-tuned guitar style which is perfectly suited to Celtic sounds. He also he has a much broader palette of tonal colours than almost any backup player I have heard.
It was also important to me to find a guitarist who did not try to maintain a day job. That way we are not limited in the amount of time that is devoted to developing a completely new sound, and can also tour freely.
Cowalfest is Scotland’s largest walking and arts festival. This year there are over 80 guided walks across the Cowal Peninsula.
“Cowalfest is walking and arts as you will experience it nowhere else,” said Russell Bruce, Chair of Cowalfest organisers, the Cowal Walking Festival Association. “We are breaking down barriers, dusting down traditional walking and taking culture and arts out of their box. Using the unique natural environment of Cowal as a resource we are bringing art, heritage, language, sport, environment and science together.” Other music during Cowalfest will include a Traditional Music Evening in the Smiddy at Strachur , a Bothy Night at Uig Hall, a Victorian Music Hall at Strone and Cultural Connections Ceilidh with Canned Haggis at Uig on the last Saturday.
The festival runs from 6th to 17th October 2005.
Information available at www.cowalwalking.org or from the Tourist Information Centre, Alexandra Parade, Dunoon, Argyll, PA23 8AB, Scotland, Tel: 08707 200629, Email - info@dunoon.visitscotland.com.
Jamie Laval and Hans York will be performing two concerts with Donald Black and Malcolm Jones on 6th and 7th. Put on by Cowalfest in association with Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop, and supported by ScottishPower renewables.