The Cocktail reel

An unusual tune this, but I like the change of key (mode ?) in the second part. At a Willie Clancy school flute class years ago Roger Sherlock played a tape of Northern flute players Gary Hastings and Gerry O’Donnell playing this reel, and it’s since been recorded by Desi Wilkinson, Liz Carroll, and is on the last “Beginish” CD, where they point out the obvious similarities to the “Dublin Reel”.
It has a strange feel to it , and I hope I’ve transcribed it properly - sounded OK on ABC.

Nice to see this tune appear and it’s more or less the way I play it having learned it from Gary Hastings c.1980. I believe Gary learned it from McConnell who probably learned it from the late Eddie Duffy, himself a great old flute-player. It has taken a while to get beyond the border and into general circulation. So it’s no longer quite the party piece it used to be. Marcas O Murchu and McConnell himself have also recorded it.

A version of this tune appears on Mick O’Brien and Caoimh

i disagree with quirls transcription of the Caoimhin’s version (i’m not gonna bother with the accent above the i). on the cd, the last measure goes | cAAG EFGE :| like listed in the first version posted. it was hard to tell which one was right, but when you listen to that last note of the first part going into the A of the second part, the interval is definately a 4th, and not a 2nd.

i hate to be nit picky, but my ear hears it is “=cBcG”. both of them natural, of course. i do really think quirl did a good job of transcribing, because for some reason i couldnt get this tune at all, even slowed down. but there were just one or 2 things i noticed that i hear differently.

I came across Gary Hastings’ playing of the tune broadcast on RTE Radio a few years ago, and recorded it. The archive page of the programme isn’t available any more, so I uploaded it onto SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-roving-bachelor/gary-hastings-the-cocktail-eddie-duffys-jig-away-the-donkey

I did a bit of research and found this isn’t on any commercial recordings. It was recorded a few years before this video was recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgBg9PmDGtk

play video

This version (setting #2) is closer to how Mick O’Brien and Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh play it on Kitty Lie Over.

As taught by Liz Carroll, Swannanoa 2018

Learned this setting years ago from Rob Greenway.

A version in C major played by Nathan Gourley and Laura Feddersen on the album Life Is All Checkered.