Search - Fred Morrison :: The Sound Of The Sun

A truly perfect album

Jonathan Wilson | Minneapolis | 02/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am very interested in traditional music and had heard Fred Morrison's name. Someone recommended The Sound of the Sun to me. I particularly loved Donald MacLean's Farewell to Oban. What an absolutely supremely beautiful track! The connection in his music is incredible, a connection so often disregarded in so much traditional/crossover music. Why can't the rest of them express the deep sensitivity that a jazz or classical musician might express? Drumbuie, the last track, also stood out. It had a distant feel, a melancholic but mighty sentiment. I would strongly recommend this album. Its appeal is universal and unforgettable."

Great artistry from the world's top piper

Bert Hoskins | New York, NY USA | 04/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Morrison is one of the world's best pipers and this album underlines this. The Sound of the Sun has immediately become one of the all-time piping classics. Although Morrison is acknowledged as a supreme technician, winning many competitions, what stands out in this album is the sheer beauty of the music. "Drumbuie" is staggeringly beautiful - I keep it on repeat on my CD player and am in pain when I have to switch it off and do other things - and worth buying the CD for alone. Morrison's playing of Alick C McGregor is the best I've ever heard. Virtuosity is of itself almost useless, but when combined with this degree of sensitivity the effect is extremely emotive. Each track is characterised by the twin thrusts of peerless technique and musicality. This is evident across the different instruments that Morrison plays. This is an album I will return to again and again. (As an aside - John Dally's review is a bit ignorant. He uses inconsistent criteria - he doesn't like Morrison's innovations and yet criticizes his alleged "ersatz scholarship" and "overstated tradition-bearing". It seems to me Dally is one of the odd crowd of boring piping pedants that one occasionally comes across, people who put their own sterile criteria for "authenticity" above the music itself. Dally compares Morrison with Miles Davis; his review is amusingly reminiscent of early sceptical reviews of Miles - written by boring jazz pedants who didn't see the point and who were proved so wrong.)"

A masterpiece

Louise Davidson | Scotland | 08/07/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I attended a Fred Morrison concert at Celtic Connections in Glasgow last year and was blown away by his expressiveness and natural approach. It was as if the pipes were an extension of himself. He played as the moment took him, improvising on those great traditional tunes. I was enchanted. I then bought the CD, The Sound of the Sun. I love it. He is so in tune with the traditional music of this area (I am a Scot) and his ability to improvise could be compared indeed to great jazz musicians. I must disagree strongly with the previous reviewer and ask him to listen again."