William Kennedy was an important if forgotten figure in the history of Irish piping; in fact he may have constructed the first sets of uilleann pipes, in the late 18th century. The Armagh Pipers Club chose to name their annual festival after this figure, but the salient feature of the event is that it is not limited to Irish pipers; musicians from all over Europe appear on the festival stages, making this an ideal introduction for those unfamiliar with the great variety of sounds and styles currently being produced by this proud family of instruments. A high percentage of the pipers are Irish, including such well-regarded figures as Mick O'Brien, Tommy Keane and Cillian Vallely. Other names that will be familiar to more general listeners include Northumberland piper Kathryn Tickell and Highland pipers Gordon Duncan and Allan MacDonald. There are also significant contributions on the Spanish gaita, Welsh and English bagpipes, and three kinds of Italian pipes.

Solo performances predominate, but there are many duos (including a couple of fascinating cross-cultural collaborations) and a few tracks that feature somewhat larger groups. The focus is definitely on traditional performance, though a few original pieces are heard as well. All of this seems exactly as it should be, and the music itself is stunning. With so much emphasis on the collective effort, it seems inappropriate to highlight individual efforts, and with so many to choose from, it would be a difficult call in any case. Festival director Brian Vallely expresses the hope that this will be the first of many recordings that celebrate the Kennedy Piping Festival, a hope that should be shared by all lovers of instrumental folk music.

“Live Recordings from the William Kennedy Piping Festival” - reminds us how central to the European consciousness the sound of the bagpipes has been, and perhaps could be again. Found throughout Europe as pipe, zak, gaita, zampogna, musette, cornemuse, biniou, and so on, the various species of the idea embody the range and variety of Europe's music. The music presented here is taken from concerts at the very successful piping festival which has been run for the past decade by the Armagh Pipers Club. The players include pipers from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Spain and Italy (in most cases the countries are represented by several different types of bagpipes). Every country in Europe has its own tradition/s (I have heard at least four different types of bagpipe in France).

The selection of music is remarkable for the variety to be found in just about every aspect: time, tempo and timbre - and the rest! Juxtaposition of the different instruments and styles allows the listener to realise just how misleading it is to lump all bagpipes together as similar instruments. There is more variety of tone and texture here than in the woodwind section of a symphony orchestra and, together with the differing styles of playing, it should satisfy the heartiest and most eclectic musical appetite.

One item calls for particular comment - the bonus track, a part of The Singing Stream, a piece for four uilleann pipes composed by Niall Vallely and played by Cillian Vallely. This is a lovely, nicely structured piece of music, skilfully written and performed. It is not material for the session, but that's no bad thing - perhaps the session has outlived its usefulness. An excerpt of a more substantial work, it makes me want to hear the whole. Perhaps the publishers would make it available? Like Liam O'Flynn's playing, it brings piping to a different place and exposes possibilities that we are only beginning to discern, a generation after the start of the revival.

What can I say? Allow yourself to be convinced. There is so much bland music being peddled nowadays - various shades of grey all posturing as ‘the alternative'! These recordings are the real alternative. Ignore the preconceptions about bagpipes that you have been hobbled. This is a path into a different set of possibilities. Dare to take it. There is another landscape, different to the ones to which you are accustomed.

It is a safe bet that not a lot of people know who invented the uilleann pipes. It is also a safe bet that among that lot of people who do not know there will be a good many pipers. Very convincing circumstantial evidence would point to one William Kennedy of Tandragee. His obituary in the Newry Telegraph of 11th November 1834 reads - Died, at Tandragee, on the morning of the 29th ult., Mr. William Kennedy, one of the most extraordinary men who have appeared in later times.

Extraordinary he was. Blind from the age of four he started making and repairing toys as a young boy. He was sent to Armagh when he was twelve to learn the fiddle with the great player and composer Moorecroft and lodged with a cabinet maker. Having quickly mastered joinery he started to repair musical instruments and when he got a set of ‘Irish bagpipes' to repair he thought he could do better. Were the pipes he produced the first uilleann pipes? Since 1994 the Armagh Pipers Club have organised a Piping Festival to commemorate this remarkable man. Pipers from all places around the world where piping lives come to Armagh every year to play in celebration of the memory of William Kennedy. All the tracls on this album were recorded at the festival over the years and the artists have shown their generosity in allowing the recordings to be released. And who have we got? Well a sort of who's who of world piping really. Robbie Hannan, Gordon Duncan, Kathryn Tickell, Anxo Lorenzo, Luigi Lai, Ceri Rhys Matthews the list goes on and on and covers twenty tracks. Blown away is the only way to describe the feeling listening to Robert Watt doing the Mason's Apron on the highland pipes.

Seduction comes to mind at the sounds of Kathryn Tickell on the Northumbrian pipes. Sun, brown skin and dark wine are all conjured up by Anxo Lorenzo. There are Welsh pipes, Spanish, Sardinian, Scottish, English, small pipes, war pipes, highland pipes and of course uilleann pipes. If you had a dream about piping this would be it. If the pipes stir your blood then get your hands on a copy of this album a.s.a.p.

The album conveys an exhilarating taste of that cosmopolitan commitment to pipes that makes festivals like the William Kennedy Piping Festival so pleasingly memorable.

Many of the artists who play on this album have come to be known far beyond the borders of their own countries sharing but not compromising their own cultural heritages: Michael McGoldrick, Allan MacDonald, Gordon Duncan, Kathryn Tickell, Anxo Lorenzo, Ceri Rhys Matthews, launneddas player Luigi Lai, Robert Watt, Moebius...even a 2000 mini band from the Field Marshall Montgomery.

The diversity of sounds, the consistent quality of the musicianship and the structuring of this compilation by Caoimhin Vallely make this album a delightfully interesting and rewarding listening experience.

This is a superb recording, and a wonderful introduction to the world of the bagpipes. Hearing this selection of piping and of music from throughout Europe, one could be forgiven for dreaming that our century has come and that the bagpipes willresume their place as instrument/s of choice throughout the continent.

I like everything about this CD. The music is superb and the playing uniformly brilliant. But there is one aspect not usually remarked upon which deserves some comment, and that is the packaging. Once upon a time recordings of traditional music were presented in a sober manner, as recordings of something that had happened rather than as product manufactured for the market, and the presentation reflected this, with simple pictures of the performers, if available, and copious documentation. In recent years more and more ‘traditional music' recordings have been more and more (pop)market- driven, with over-arranged sets of tunes (often stripped of their titles and arbitrarily re-labeled) and staged, image-creating publicity photos. This led me some years ago to postulate a simple test of whether a musician was a folk-musician or simply a performer of folk-music - if the performer had publicity photographs taken then they were in the latter category. I know it's a bit extreme, but it's a useful rough guide.

The point is that there is no creating of images here. There are no photographs at all, and pictures of the performers would have been welcome. In addition, the layout of the CD insert is a model of taste and restraint. The information about the tracks and performers is presented clearly and elegantly, with a complete absence of design gimmickry. The effect, on me at least, is to confirm my assessment of the Armagh Pipers Club as being, first and last, about the music. A fine production!

Now, believe it or not, there are those who baulk at the sound of the pipes; for whom the hum of the drones, the chatter of the reeds, the cranning and the general "busy-ness" of the sound serve as a turn-off! And then there are those, such as we at Pay The Reckoning, who - without wishing to belittle the contribution of any other instrument to the traditional musics of Ireland, Scotland, Northumbria and elsewhere - would unhesitatingly declare the pipes to be the ace, king, queen and jack of musical instruments.

And therefore to those of our persuasion (may our tribe increase!) this album - 21 tracks, recorded between 1997 and 2001 and featuring pipe music from Ireland, Scotland, Northumbria, Asturia, Sardinia, Galicia, Wales and mainland Italy - is a gem. The William Kennedy Piping Festival is a unique event, allowing audiences access to a variety of piping traditions. An education as well as a source of great entertainment.

Irish piping is, as you'd expect, well-represented with Robbie Hannan (Speed The Plough/The Beare Island Reel), Tiornan O Duinnchinn & Cillian Vallely (Excerpt From The Singing Stream III/The Dark-Haired Lass/Dan Breen's Reel), Mick O'Brien (The Green Fields Of America), Michael McGoldrick (a highly spiced set, Jenny Picking Cockles/The Earl's Chair), O Duinnchinn solo (The Whinny Hills Of Leitrim/McGoldrick's No 2), Tommy Keane (The Buck From The Mountain/Cal O'Callaghan's) and Vallely solo (The Singing Stream Part I).

Elsewhere McGoldrick and Jose Manuel Tejedor give us Tejedor's own composition "Barralin" while Tejedor gives a solo rendition of two traditional Asturian tunes "Salton/Floteu de Remis". Gordon Duncan provides Highland flavour with the infectious "Lorient Mornings/Grade Nuit in Port du Peche/Webster's", while Allan MacDonald, The Field Marshall Montgomery Mini Pipe Band, Robert Watt and Moebius give us their take on the Highland pipes. Add to that a fine set of Welsh tunes from Ceri Rhys Matthews (Difyrrwch Gwyr y Gogledd/Dydd Trwy'r Dellt) and some exotic Sardinian and Italian piping care of Luigi Lai and Gianni Perilli & Guido Iannetta, the CD is a truly smorgasbordian affair, brimming with familiar and more strange sounds.

In such a galaxy of superb players and superb tunes, you might think it hard to isolate a single highlight. However, Pay The Reckoning commend Kathryn Tickell's version of Billy Pigg's "Bill Charlton's Fancy". From a brooding, staccato opening, Tickell builds the tune, eventually adding a multitude of superbly-executed decorative triplets to create a technically challenging and genuinely exciting final repeat.

An excellent distillation of an event that goes from strength to strength. After listening to this CD, we reckon more than a few people will be making plans to visit next year's festival!

A fascinating collection of recordings made between 1997 and 2001 at the William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh. Although the likes of Robbie Hannan, Cillian Vallely, Mick O'Brien, Michael McGoldrick, and Tommy Keane are featured and give great performances on the uilleann pipes, this is not all Irish music. In fact, one of the most sensational selections may well be the track featuring Sardinian musician Luigi Lai performing on the Launeddas, a mouth-blown triple pipes played with circular breathing. The album also features some great players of the Galician gaita, the Italian ciaramella and zampogna, and of course Northumbrian pipes (Kathryn Tickell) and Scottish Highland pipes. On the latter, Robert Watt's playing of "The Mason's Apron" is also a show-stopper.

Rating: ****

Ten years on, Armagh's William Kennedy Piping Festival is not only buoyant, but depth-charged with talented interlopers. This live recording is a timely celebration of an event that commemorates an 18th century blind piper who, some claim, invented the uilleann pipes. For listeners who think pipes are a one-dimensional instrument, this gathering of Northumbrian, bag, uilleann, highland and Scottish small pipes is a revelation of colour, tone and articulate phrasing. Some tunes, such as Sardinian Luigi Lai's Ballu Seriu challenge the less-tutored eardrums, his launneddas pipes airing a more playful and intricate pattern than most of his compadres. Positive proof of the strength that lurks in diversity. Compiled by Caoimhín Vallely (whose father Brian started the festival), this is world music like no other.

The William Kennedy Piping Festival commemorates the extraordinary life of the blind 18th century piper and pipe maker William Kennedy of Tandragee.

The album is produced by the Armagh Pipers' Club who have pulled together the world's best pipers in one album.

The album concentrates on the Celtic fringes of Europe, with representatives from Asturias, Northumbria, Scotland, Wales, and Galicia...(and) also one representative from southern Italy playing Zampogna.......(The Field Marshall Montgomery are) one of the finest bands in the world. Official. They have won the World Championship three times, and although I'm of the opinion that if you want to win contests you should take up athletics, there's no denying this band have class. Their set is, in all senses of the word, breathtaking.

Any pipe record comes with a public health warning. If, like playwright Joseph Tomelty, you believe that if there's music in hell it'll be the bagpipes, then this solid hour of crunluath fosgailtes, D crans and popped triplets is unlikely to convert you. If, however, you're already hooked, get your coat on and go out and buy this album immediately.