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NORMAN MACKAY The Perfect Squeeze |
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A prodigious talent, this button box player from Cawdor has become well known in Edinburgh and beyond. Brash and eclectic, Norman's playing combines the drive of Scottish accordion music with the flow and variations of the continental style. The Perfect Squeeze starts with the monster Klezmer jig The Montreal Fiddler, all semitones and swirling rhythms, helped by a couple of friends from the band Moise's Bagel. Two top-speed twisted reels follow, as Rod Paul tries to keep up on banjo, and so far this debut CD is 100% Norman's own compositions. Lord Haddow's Favourite slows the pace, straight off an early Battlefield LP, paired with the march Mr MacFarlane, which is another Mackay original. The Leaving of Paris is mainstream continental accordion music, stunningly played. It's track 5 before we really hear the standard Scottish repertoire on Kenny Gillies. Then Norman's off again into Norwegian airs, Gordon Duncan showpieces, a Cunningham-style slow number and a twang-filled barndance, before a set of reels and a Skinner air bring us to another continental showpiece in Valerie's Waltz. Twelve tracks of very varied music: the final down-tempo organ arrangement of The Montreal Fiddler is pure over-indulgence. |
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