Ceol: Yeasty musical brew from Beoga

by Earle Hitchner

Legendary jazz composer-bassist Charles Mingus once said, "Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." The quartet Beoga show their creativity in making the complicated seem simple on their self-issued debut album, "A Lovely Madness." Their music, drawn mainly from an Irish traditional wellspring, gives the impression of effortlessness as it seeps into New Orleans jazz, classical, blues, smooth jazz, "Riverdance"-like dance rhythm tropes, and a filigree of funk.

Past experiments in this kind of nervy eclecticism have frequently drowned in dilettantism, shapelessness, or forced fusion, as bands like Reeltime, Kíla, and the Celtic Jazz Collective have discovered. Ireland's Moving Hearts and Scotland's Easy Club were rarities, achieving an integrated, artistically appealing blend of traditional music with other styles. Beoga isn't in the same accomplished category of those two boundary-stretching bands -- at least, not yet.

The circulated comment from Mudd Wallace, their album producer, that Beoga is the most exciting thing he had heard since Planxty will only make the slog ahead for them tougher. Comparing the impact of any new Irish group to the impact of Planxty or the Bothy Band does two things: quickly guarantees attention and almost as quickly guarantees a letdown. The weight of such expectation can encumber a group for years. Look how long it took Dervish to dig out from under the boulder of an early Bothy Band comparison.

Beoga will probably not have to claw out from under this silly Planxty comment because Beoga sounds nothing like Planxty. Forged out of a session at the 2002 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Listowel, Co. Kerry, the all-instrumental Beoga comprises one Derry musician, Tobermore keyboardist Liam Bradley, and three Antrim musicians, Toomebridge percussionist Eamon Murray, Dunloy button accordionist Damian McKee, and Portglenone button accordionist and guitarist Seán Óg Graham.

This dual-accordion frontline of the Ulster quartet makes them unusual. The boxes swing out on the traditional and traditional-styled tunes while guest saxophonist Peter Tomelty lays down some loping Big Easy jazz riffs, guest violinist John Fitzpatrick adds a classical touch, Bradley's keyboards alternate from lithe chording to rollicking or sharply punctuated playing, guest James Blennerhasset's double bass work keeps the percussive thump advancing, and Murray's deft bodhrán beats bind the elements together. And that's just in the opening track, "Prelude Polkas."

What further distinguishes the diverse-sounding Beoga is the fact that the quartet can play hard-core trad music as well as any pure-drop band. Murray and Graham are multiple All-Ireland champions, and Bradley and McKee are firmly grounded in Irish dance music. So the drive and lift are ever-present in the group's playing.

In "Jack Maguire's/The Heather Breeze," McKee and Graham duet on accordions for the first traditional reel, playing off and with each other in a dazzling display of close-cropped fingerwork. They're joined by Murray, one of the most captivating bodhrán players I've heard in years, for the second trad reel, where the two boxes slip into a melodic groove deepened by Murray's nimble, expressive beats. This is a terrific track.

"A Lovely Madness," a medley featuring the traditional "Bill Harte's" jig, McKee's "Blue Eyes," and Graham's "A Lovely Madness," begins with forceful traditional playing that soon yields to the band's penchant for dime-turn changes in dynamics, sly humor in ornamentation, and short bursts of cut-loose soloing. Beoga's yeasty brew of musical arrangement certainly keeps listeners' taste buds tingling.

Graham's "Soggy's/Waterboogie" medley veers into Bill Whelan's "Riverdance" territory, with a buoyant, repetitive rhythm that soft-shoed Irish dancers can easily step out to. It's pleasant but superficial.

The album also has a few too many echoes of Sharon Shannon's playing and style of arrangements, especially in "Exploding Bow/Gimme a Minute/Beoga," which seem virtually plucked from the Clare button accordionist's kit bag. There are some traces of Solas and Lúnasa here as well, suggesting a wide palette of influences.

But that's not uncommon. Most new bands come at their music partly from what they've heard produced by predecessors. The trick for any new group is to make their sound new or, paging Mingus, to make the complicated simple.

The sound of Beoga isn't always spanking new, but it's not principally derivative either. Their album offers plenty of open-eared experimentation and imaginative excursions, such as in the pouring of sax and Rhodes piano into a jazz-flavored cocktail called "Funk in Class/Inver Bank" or in the bluesy blending of box and acoustic guitar in "Amsterdam Blues/Flamin' Hen Factory," spiked by electric guitar, sax, and string quartet. At one point, this latter track breaks into a mini-hoedown. How many Irish bands can do that without slipping on the banana peel of ego?

"Trip to Manila/Daly's," two reels powered by the twin box playing of Graham and McKee, similarly showcase Beoga's ensemble skill and wit. The two accordions play in breathtaking unison with Bradley's piano in spots, and Tomelty's sax blows freely on the second reel as the box-piano combo carries the melody. It's a hoot.

What the Easy Club's founding guitarist Jack Evans said in 1992 still holds true today: "There are no rules to prevent us from creating our own unique contribution to the global ceilidh." Despite a few reservations, I thoroughly enjoyed "A Lovely Madness" by Beoga, an Irish word meaning "lively" or "vivid." Their CD debut is both, making them a band to watch.

My only question is: how will the quartet reproduce on stage all the different sounds heard on their album from such guests as mandolinist-banjoist Brona Graham, whistle player John Duffin, and fiddler Zoë Conway? I look forward to finding out whenever Beoga visits America's East Coast, which I hope will be soon.

[Published on Dec.15th 2004, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper, New York City. Copyright © Earle Hitchner. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of author.]