Happy Hours was Emile Vacher a French accordionist and appears in Matt
Seattle's Yelllow Northumbrian PIpers Pocket Book.
Some years ago I picked up a CD of Vacher and his dance band in a
hypermarket in Calais. It was made from recordings done in the 1920s and
30s and disappointingly does not have the composer playing HH. In his
notes in the Yellow Book Matt notes the tunes probable progression from
French to Scottish accordion and on to Pigg with notes on the sequence
of parts played by Jimmy Shand.
Mairtin O'Connor has Happy Hours listed as being on his Perpetual Motion
CD but actually plays JB Milne, a tune that was also on the Border
Minstrel LP. I assume that either he, (or someone he learned it from )
learned it from the the LP and read the wrong track title.
Ian
Dally, John wrote:
Andy May's new CD is full of great music. I've listened to it over and
over again ever since I got my hands on it a couple of weeks ago. One
tune sticks out, "Happy Hours", which Andy writes he picked up from the
playing of Billy Pigg. Andy slips a very Piggish embellishment in the
second and third times through the tune, which some might consider
improper NSP technique. It works for me. The tune appears on THE
BORDER MINSTREL recording, but, relevant to another recent discussion
on the news group, Andy takes his time with the tune, getting a lovely
lift out of it.
Anyway, I am curious why this tune does not appear in the wonderful
book on Billy Pigg and his music written by Adrian and Julia. The tune
appears to have been played by many Scottish dance bands, including
Jimmy Shand's. Some of these bands toured the countryside of north
Northumberland. Did Billy Pigg pick up the tune from Shand's or
another Scottish dance band? Did the tune originate on the continent,
perhaps France? I found it listed on a French accordion recording, and
also on youtube played by a French box player. Does anyone know the
composer of "Happy Hours"?
This leads to my main question, which is, how much of an influence have
Scottish dance bands had on Northumbrian pipers and music? Billy is
often credited, or blasted, for bringing in Scottish pipe tunes and
ornaments. The most extravagant embellishments that Billy (and also
Andy for that matter) employs are rarely if ever used by Highland
pipers. I don't play piano accordion, but it seems as likely if not
more so that the Scottish repertoire and style that Billy is often
credited or blamed for may have been the influence of Scottish
accordion players, rather Highland pipers.
Thanks,
John
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