NO IMPROVISING FOR THIS FIDDLER
No, Cape Breton musician Natalie MacMaster isn’t a closet jazzhead, even though she’s headlining the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival’s main stage June 30. The 42-year-old Canadian queen of jigs, reels and strathspeys talks to Patrick Langston about jazz and Celti
Q Are there ways that Celtic music and jazz are similar?
A I don’t know jazz music that well. so I can’t comment. Jazz isn’t what I grew up with. I keep meaning to get Stéphane Grappelli plastered all over my iPod, but with six kids ... (she trails off ). I went through a Nina Simone phase about 20 years ago, and I’ve played with Diana Krall a little bit.
Q How much improvisation do you do in concert or when you’re playing by yourself?
A None. A Cape Breton fiddler who’s considered high up in the ranks is one who doesn’t improvise, who plays the music as it was written, at least generally. Each tune only lasts about a minute, and you play it through twice then you go on to a new tune. You might have seven tunes in one medley, so that’s where you get your variety from. You might put a slur or a triplet in, but those are tiny subtle differences.
Q So why is a Celtic musician playing at a jazz festival?
A You should ask the organiz-
ers. I think it’s really cool to have other styles thrown in amongst the jazz, or a jazz musician at a Celtic festival. It provides the listener a slight refreshing of the ear and then back into the jazz or Celtic.
Q You’ve played with everyone from banjo player Béla Fleck to cellist Yo-Yo Ma. What do you get out of working with such diverse musicians and styles?
A Anyone you play or collaborate with pulls something different out of you that you didn’t know was there because you’re responding to what they’re playing. To go back to the improvising, if I get playing with a Béla Fleck I’ll do stuff I’d never do playing by myself or at a square dance because he’s not there to make me think of it. So I suppose, in a sense, it’s improvising.
Q When you play festivals, do you get a chance to listen to the other performers?
A Unless we’re there for a weekend like at a bluegrass festival, we don’t really hear anyone else; we might hear the band before
us and after. Oftentimes we go, we play, we leave. It’s not like I’m leaving because I want to get out of there, but I’m booked. And when we’re there, I’m so focused on my show: I have set lists to write, and children to keep track of, and I have put on makeup, and I’m ironing clothes.
Q Along with your music, you’re a mother of six and live on a cattle ranch near Peterborough, Ont. You don’t improvise with your music, but do you in your family life?
A We’re as improvised as you can get. Every day there are people at our home for work. We home school — our friend takes the kids two days a week, and I do three. Our office is run out of our home. We have rehearsals here. There are babies being born, so my parents are here right now. Then there’s calving season, there’s riding the horses, there’s the business trips to Toronto. It’s absolutely crazy. It’s wonderful.