There
is more to traditional Scottish music than the bagpipes (but don’t get us
wrong, the pipes are cool). The fiddle was a big part of it, but that old school
Gaelic music had fallen out of favor for years. Alasdair Fraser helped reassert
Scottish fiddle playing (and cello playing along with it). His role in the Scottish
cultural reawakening is documented in Tommie Dell Smith’s The Groove is Not Trivial (trailer here), which screens during
the 2018 Margaret Mead Film Festival.
If
ever there was a title that deserved an “amen,” this would be it. Although
trained as an engineer, Fraser was always a keen musician. He played staid
classical in school, but his heart yearned to cut loose, like his wild highland
ancestors. Ironically, he really started his deep dive into the traditional
Scottish repertoire when British Petroleum transferred him to San Francisco.
There he found fellow musicians willing to research and experiment, as well as
audiences that were eager to listen.
For
a while, Fraser was a one-man evangelist, but he started releasing recordings
just as Scottish cultural pride and political nationalism starting to swell up
again. Soon, he was spreading the music through camps and workshops. He also
reached whole new audiences through his collaborations with cellist Natalie
Haas.
It
is blatantly obvious both Smith and Fraser hoped the film would end with the crescendo
of a Yes victory on the Scottish independence referendum. Instead, they work
their way through the “No” hangover. At least, they got a little bit of
independence from the Brexit victory. Hey, if they don’t want Westminster
making decisions for Scotland, it must be even worse to be bossed around by
Brussels, right? Right?
Regardless,
the music is pretty cool, even if you are not well versed in Gaelic/Celtic forms,
or even general string band traditions. There is indeed a strong groove to it,
so most music fans will feel sound as a pound (rather than a Euro) when
immersed in it. Sometimes Fraser’s ensembles also use their fiddles to create
drones, which also hits you someplace deep in the ear and the stomach.
There
is some stirring music in Groove, but
also some rather silly politics that most viewers will have the good sense to
tune out. It runs just over an hour, but could still be trimmed by five to ten
minutes (which would make it more programmable later for PBS outlets).
Regardless, it is a pleasantly upbeat documentary. Recommended for fans of
Scottish music and string bands, The
Groove is Not Trivial screens this Friday (10/19) as part of the Margaret
Mead Film Festival, at the American Museum of Natural History.
