Gordon Turnbull profile picture

Gordon Turnbull

About Me

I'm a traditional musician living in Edinburgh and play Irish and some Scottish music on the flute and whistle.
I've played for local set dancing groups and am a founder member of the band for an Irish Dance Group called Absolutely Legless . We've played at all sorts of events in Scotland and across Europe, including CIOFF festivals, Towersey and Sidmouth and generally have a great time.
The last year or so has seen me step down a little to concentrate on work and family, but I still play with Edinburgh's The Big Squeeze Ceilidh Band and our smaller acoustic version for less formal gigs — The Wee Squeeze — with fiddler Cathy Sharp and bouzouki player Kenny Curtis. Kenny and I first met nearly 20 years ago and played together in Culra; must be time for some kind of celebration. You can usually catch The Wee Squeeze on a Monday night in Sandy Bell's.
Oh, and when I have time I also write and run The Flow , a web site dedicated to Irish flute playing. If you haven't checked it out, maybe you should.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/14/2007
Band Website: http://www.theflow.org.uk
Band Members: Gordon Turnbull (flutes, whistles, programming).

About the music:

Mullingar Lea/ The Galtee Ranger:
Two Irish reels played in my kitchen with Belfast fiddler Bernie Stocks . Music in the kitchen is part of the heart and soul of traditional music, even if this is a bit rough about the edges. Recorded by Bernie maybe about 1998, this originally appeared on his Global/Local web site. The second tune is sometimes known as The Doon Reel, but there is also another tune by that name.

The Milltown Jig/ The Rose in the Heather/ The Shores of Lough Gowna/ The Geese in the Bog:
A set of Irish jigs played in my kitchen with Edinburgh/ Belfast fiddler Sophie Hale. This is from a recording session one afternoon, getting some new material together for Absolutely Legless. Paul Newman added guitar backing afterwards.

The Fire in the Hearth:
A slow air written by Scottish accordianist Freeland Barbour. I first heard this played by flute player John Skelton on a recording by Shegui back in the early 80s and have been trying to play it ever since. I've never heard anyone else play it. This is just the first part of the tune and sometimes forms the opening of Absolutely Legless sets to set the atmosphere for the performance. This was recorded in Leeds a few years ago by Paul Newman, who also added the synths.

Seet Pea:
By contrast, this is a piece of music written as a soundtrack to accompany a short stop-frame film of a sweet pea growing from seed. Not at all traditional, all programming, loops and electronics done with Garage Band.

Influences: Traditional:
Josie McDermott, Paddy Carty, Peter Horan, Matt Molloy, Desi Wilkinson, Conal O Grada, Harry Bradley, Davy Maguire, Niall Kenny, John Martin, Bernie Stocks, Doug Patience, Rebecca Knorr and many others...

Other:
James Newton, Anouar Brahem, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Radio Tarifa, DuOud, the ECM sound, Jan Garbarek, Nils Petter Molvaer, Bugge Wesseltoft, Esbjorn Svensson Trio and many others...
Sounds Like: Traditional Irish flute playing. Well, that's the general idea, at least...
Record Label: none

My Blog

Absolutely Legless on the BBC Saturday 23rd May

In an update to the previous post, Absolutely Legless will be on Tonight's the Night on BBC 1 Saturday 23rd May 18.50 and again on iPlayer.
Posted by on Wed, 13 May 2009 01:59:00 GMT

Absolutely Legless on BBC

Absolutely Legless, the Irish dance group that I play with, are to be filmed and broadcast by BBC North East England.The filming took place today and the soundtrack for the dancing was from a promotio...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:11:00 GMT

Into Spring

It's been a busy old while. I've been working in East Lothian Primary schools delivering creative music workshops and since January have been working as a tutor with the RSAMD Musicworks traditional m...
Posted by on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:57:00 GMT

Visiting Musician

I am currently working as a Visiting Musician in East Lothian Primary Schools, helping the children to create their own music as a class over a series of workshops. There have been some very impressiv...
Posted by on Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:10:00 GMT

Sandy Bell's monday night session

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=69fMw7Q1kV4
Posted by on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:21:00 GMT

The Flow web site updated

The Flow web site on Irish flute playing has finally been updated, containing news of recordings and resources for those interested in Irish and related flute playing.My apologies for the delay, but u...
Posted by on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:46:00 GMT

Ormeau Cafe

In Belfast and just dropped into the Ormeau Cafe. Watch out for some great music from here in the future.
Posted by on Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:49:00 GMT

St Pats and unofficial warmup gig

Absolutely Legless Irish dancers have a St Patrick’s Day (-1) gig at Oblo in Eyemouth this Sunday and I’ll be there with my wife (dancing) and son (just having fun). On Saturday it might b...
Posted by on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:39:00 GMT

AbLeg rehearsals begin again.

It's February break just now, so I'm getting a bit of _me_ time back (still going into school tomorrow, though). Friday saw me attend the first Absolutely Legless band practices for at least a year. K...
Posted by on Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:13:00 GMT

Music in the kitchen

Where it should be played, of course.Funnily enough it was the Bb flat again. It somehow suits a more reflective mood. I also fished out Lesl Harker's collection of Mike Rafferty transcriptions and re...
Posted by on Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:20:00 GMT