BORN IN DIRT AN’ DIN Mr McFall’s Chamber DCD34019 1 Paul Harrison (b. 1975) Consequences (2016) [6:11] BORN IN 2 Martin Kershaw (b. 1973) Far Vistas (2013) [9:31] 3 Raymond Scott (1908–1994) Curley Cue [2:31] DIRT AN’ DIN 4 Raymond Scott The Penguin [2:51] 5 Martin Kershaw Closing In (2011) [9:39] Mr McFall’s Chamber 6 Raymond Scott Tobacco Auctioneer [2:43] 7 Mike Kearney (b. 1983) The Phoenix (2018) [6:57] 8 Paul Harrison Born in Dirt an’ Din (2018) [6:11] Tim Garland (b. 1966) ExtraPollination (2011) Maximiliano Martín clarinet — all except tracks 2 & 8 9 Introduction [2:29] Alec Frank-Gemmill horn in F — track 2 only 10 To the North London Metropolitan line [3:51] Paul Harrison piano, keyboards, electronics 11 To Robert Stevenson [3:54] 12 To Paco de Lucía [4:56] Rick Standley double bass, bass guitar 13 Raymond Scott Portofino [2:01] Stuart Brown drums, samples Cyril Garac violin 1 Total playing time [63:52] Robert McFall violin 2 premiere recordings Brian Schiele viola Tracks 3, 4, 6 and 13 arr. Robert McFall Su-a Lee cello; musical saw — track 13 Recorded on 29-30 August 2018 Cover image: Frank Henry Mason (1876–1965), Iain Sandilands percussion — tracks 2–4, 6–8, 13 @delphianrecords at Gorbals Sound Studios, Glasgow An overpowering impression of immensity Producer: Paul Baxter [etching, c.1936], showing the building @delphianrecords Tom Hunter percussion — track 2 only Engineer: Kevin Burleigh of the RMS Queen Mary; private collection / Session assistant: Matthew Boyle The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images @delphian_records 24-bit digital editing: Matthew Swan Design: John Christ 24-bit digital mixing & mastering: Paul Baxter Booklet editor: John Fallas Piano: Yamaha C6 grand Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK Piano technician: Alan Right www.delphianrecords.co.uk Notes on the music Born in Dirt an’ Din is an album forged in the first two movements of Tim Garland’s World’s End: just as the novel’s protagonist associated closely with funk – is used here from musical relationships that have been ExtraPollination and in Paul Harrison’s Born finds meaning in the juxtaposition of the in a funk context, but it also takes its place in developing over a decade. In that time in Dirt an’ Din – trains, lighthouses, and ships distant and the close at hand, of the expansive more reflective passages reminiscent of early Mr McFall’s Chamber has commissioned a all prove to be sources of inspiration. The and the modest, Kershaw’s composition is an twentieth-century composition, its soft tones number of pieces from jazz composers, using composers have also explored the various expression of the differing scales of natural complementing the strings and clarinet. a line-up which supplements its core string contrasts that give our lives their colour. beauty. Melodies carried by the strings and quartet with a jazz trio (piano, bass and drums) Born in Dirt an’ Din touches upon human horn are suggestive of soft, unbroken horizons, Born in Dirt an’ Din takes its name from a and further percussion, and often adding an togetherness and separation, while Harrison’s while crystalline percussion and piano draw poem entitled ‘Clydeside Shipyards’, published eminent wind player (clarinet, bassoon or other contribution, Consequences, is inspired our attention to sharper angles. Kershaw’s in Linthouse News in 1961 and attributed to horn) as soloist. This album showcases the by both the ugly and the beautiful in human second piece, Closing In, presents its ‘The Red Poppy’: very varied repertoire which has emerged behaviour. Mike Kearney’s The Phoenix tackles founding melody from different perspectives: from these collaborations and commissions. an altogether more innate tension: how it can it appears first as though in the distance, Gaunt and black against the sky, It also revisits an idea from an early McFall’s be necessary for our insecurities to perish in led by the piano; it is then dismantled and Great lumps o’ girder-cradled steel album, the 2001 release Upstart Jugglers flames before our creativity can be born fully. repurposed by the ensemble in such a way Staun starkly naked, loomin’ high, – that of combining the ensemble’s original Alongside these broad themes are dedications to render it unrecognisable; finally, the piano Wi’ a still power that you can feel; commissions with pieces by the innovative to specific people and places. brings it into sharper focus. The piece reflects A kind o’ loveliness forbye. American composer and engineer Raymond the composer’s fascination with improvisation A ship is born in dirt an’ din, Scott. On that earlier album, Scott’s Square The album opens with Consequences, in – most evidently in its middle section, where Racket o’ rivets, flash o’ flame Dance for Eight Egyptian Mummies was which Paul Harrison explores the transience of fragments of the original melody provide the Fae the welder’s torch, a clatterin’ featured alongside new works by James anger and calm through richly layered musical bases for new melodic and harmonic ideas. O’ blacksmith’s hammer, a fretted frame MacMillan and Eddie McGuire. With its hybrid light and shade: major and minor, ascent and O’ tall cranes swingin’ oot an’ in. line-up, Mr McFall’s Chamber is perfectly descent, consonance and dissonance. Though Robert McFall first met Mike Kearney in equipped to mix contemporary classical and born initially from the composer’s frustrations Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar, where Kearney was Inspired by archive footage of Glasgow’s jazz influences in adventurous ways. with the contemporary political landscape, playing with a funk band, and approached him shipyards, Paul Harrison fuses electronic and the piece – whose title also nods to its theme- about potential collaboration. In The Phoenix, acoustic sounds to create images of materials Several themes run throughout the present and-variations form – closes with a sense of Kearney challenges the ensemble to explore being transported, melted, sawn and struck. album, particularly in the contributions of the cautious, suspenseful optimism. the funk grooves that fascinate him, and The piece also reflects the human dimensions contemporary composers. Natural imagery that he has been investigating for ten years. of shipbuilding: the power of ships to bring is brought to mind by Martin Kershaw’s Martin Kershaw was inspired to write As its title suggests, the piece plays movingly people together in their construction, and to Far Vistas and Closing In, both of which explore Far Vistas after a brief residency in Caithness, on themes of destruction and rebirth: the separate people with their departure. There is distance and scale, and require the listener and the piece responds to that county’s disruption of creativity and its renewed flow no implied dichotomy between the electronic to ‘refocus’ throughout. Feats of human striking landscape. The title is a reference to are mirrored in degrees of dissonance and and the acoustic – rather, each instrument engineering are celebrated too, notably Neil M. Gunn’s 1951 novel The Well at the consonance. The electric piano – an instrument communicates something of the machine and Notes on the music something of the human, and contributes in its Raymond Scott was an American musician, even hiring Scott to train studio staff in its use, that fascinated Scott so much that he built one own way to the overall assembly of the piece. composer, bandleader and inventor. His though no Motown recordings featuring the himself. Its inclusion here is a fitting nod to playful, almost onomatopoeic musical instrument are known to exist. Scott’s innovative spirit and wit. Tim Garland’s ExtraPollination begins language made his work ideal for cartoons with a vibrant introduction for clarinet alone – a fact that did not escape the attention of With orchestral jazz and klezmer among his © 2019 Alison Eales that provides the base material for the three Carl Stalling, who in 1943 began adapting influences, it is little wonder that many of movements that follow, ‘pollinating’ both the Scott’s work for use in the Looney Tunes Scott’s compositions include lively clarinet Alison Eales completed a PhD in 2017 other parts in the ensemble and the clarinet’s and Merrie Melodies animated shorts, for parts. They also showcase drums particularly on the history of Glasgow Jazz Festival, later solos. ‘To the North London Metropolitan which he was musical director. Later, Scott’s well; indeed, McFall’s drummer Stuart Brown and is currently researching and writing a line’ is the composer’s tribute to a particular compositions would be used in cartoons that has worked extensively to bring them to new history of jazz in Scotland from 1945 to 1990. London Underground route with which he is heavily referenced the golden age of American audiences through his own sextet’s two She has taught at the University of Glasgow, especially familiar; its trains, Garland writes, animation, such as The Ren & Stimpy Show Twisted Toons albums, along with festival the University of Strathclyde and the Royal ‘speed up significantly on the late shifts, and Animaniacs, rendering his music familiar appearances, a UK tour, and children’s Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a member creating ominous clattering rhythms’. There to a new generation – even if they were not all animation workshops. This album features of the band Butcher Boy, the Glasgow is a satisfying symmetry to the piece, with the familiar with his name. four Scott compositions in arrangements Madrigirls choir, and leads music-walking strings and drums creeping in at the beginning by Robert McFall. The whimsical title of tours of Glasgow.. and creeping out at the end – a train emerging Scott was fascinated by the musical potential Curley Cue is a reference to both the pretty from the tunnel at one end of the platform, of electronics, and in 1946 founded the twists and turns that ornament its melody perhaps, and then disappearing at the other.