Jackson’s Morning Brush jig

I’d forgotten about this tune! Joan Hanrahan taught Matt Heaton and I this jig when I had a lesson from her in Ennis on my honeymoon — my first lesson with an Irish teacher. She taught us only the first two parts (dunno if it’s more commonly done as the full version or just the two), and a slightly more graceful (to my ear) version of the thing than what’s here.

Wow, maybe I should teach this one next week at the tune learning session… :) Thanks for the reminder, Kevin!

this sounds kinda similar to other tunes like jackson’s fancy- well, almost. I’ve also noticed a lot of tunes with the name ‘hag’ in them sound silmilar. It’s intriguing: I wonder how tunes evolve.

anyway, this can also be found on the CD ‘santiago’ by the chieftains on the last track, in my opinion the best track, and also I would say this is the best part of that track.

Starts off very like Rose in the Heather also!

Yes, it’s true, micifife, sort of like all the Tinker tunes sound a lot like each other…who was Jackson, anybody know?

I remember hearing somewhere that there was a story behind this name. Something to do with hunting ? And isn

And here I was guessing it had to do with oral hygiene. I usually play it in a medley with that tune about ovine oral hygiene, "Floss the Wethers".

Hey, cool! I just found this jig in O’Niell’s, and was thinking of submitting it. Awesome tune! Thanks Zina.

-Max

Wasn’t me, Max! It was Kevin! :) Sooner or later I’ll get through this writing deadline and post the version Joan taught me and Matt…

The story I’ve heard—and I think this comes from from Seamus Ennis originally— is that the title refers to the brush used by an uilleann piper after playing dance tunes all night, because of the dust kicked up by the dancers. The tune was composed by the 18th century Leitrim piper Walker Jackson. Brian McNamara plays several tunes associated with him. See also:

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/JACKSON.htm#_msocom_3

Sorry, that’s Piper Jackson from Limerick; McNamara is from Leitrim.

I’ve also seen this piece titled as ‘Rogha Mhic Sheain.’

Jackson was an eccentric Monaghan landowner and a reputed piper.

This is such a nice tune. Will your version is out of O’Neill’s is it? That’s the only setting I’ve seen with 4 parts. Others have the 1st 2 or 3 parts. I notice that the 4th part is exactly the same as the B-part of another tune, Jackson’s Fancy https://thesession.org/tunes/1102, and I’m thinking that maybe these 2 tunes have been mixed up somewhere along the line. I play the 3 part setting:

X: 1
T: Jackson’s Morning Brush
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
|:D|DFE EFE|DFA AFA|BGB def|gfg e2D|
DFE EFD|DFA AFA|BGB def|edc d2:|
|:a|fed faf|ede fdB|AFA def|gfg e2a|
fed faf|ede fdB|AFA def|edc d2:|
|:a|fdf ece|dBd AFE|DFA def|gfg e2a|
fdf ece|dBd AFE|DFA def|edc d2:|

The Piper Dennis Brooks played this one for me at the session yesterday afternoon. Dennis said the 4 part version is the original. He also had quite a good bit of interesting information on Walker Jackson….a really fine jig.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the 4 part version is in "The Collection of Pipe Friendly Tunes" by John Walsh, which I got from the Irish Piper’s Club here in Seattle (affiliated with The San Francisco Piper’s Club), which Denis Brooks founded around 1981 when he moved to Seattle from San Francisco.

At a session last week I heard this played with just the 1st and 4th parts.

According to the Fiddler’s Companion, the oldest transcription of this only has 3 parts:

"A volume of his original melodies plus older airs was published in Dublin by Sam Lee c. 1774 (as Jackson’s Celebrated Irish Tunes, reprinted in 1790), and is probably the manuscript O’Neill (1913) refers to as containing the oldest setting of “Jackson’s Morning Brush” (which he finds republished in Grattan Flood’s The Story of the Bagpipe, a version which consists of only the first and third strains of O’Neill’s setting). Soon after Lee’s publication a version with dance directions appeared in Exshaw’s Magazine and Walker’s Hibernian Magazine in 1778; the same dance instructions appear in the Dublin publication The Charms of Melody, 1776. “Jackson’s Morning Brush” was introduced, according to O’Neill (1913) in John O’Keefe’s opera The Agreeable Surprise in 1781, and thereafter was included in almost every collection of Irish music. The melody retains some currency among traditional musicians today."

X:1
T:Jackson’s Morning Brush
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:Jig
S:Jackson’s Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, 1790)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:D
D|DFE EFD|DFA AFA|BAB d2f|gee e2D|
DFE EFD|DFA AFA|BAB d2e|fdd d2:|
|:g|fed f/g/af|fda fdB|AFA dfa|gfg e2g|
fed f/g/af|g/a/bg f/g/af|fed e/f/ge|fdd d2:|
|:g|fdf ece|dBd AGF|EFG dfa|gfg e2g|
fdf edc|dB/c/d/B/ AFA|DFA d2e|fdd d2:|

I just more or less lifted this next one from the Fiddler’s Companion because it resembles what I heard at a session the other day:

X: 1
T: Jackson’s Jig
S: Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; No. 7, pg. 36.
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
D2F E2F|DFA AFA|BAB def|gfg ecA|
D2F E2F|DFA AFA|BAB d2e|fdd d3:|
|:fed faf|gbg faf|fed faf|gfg e2g|
fed faf|gbg fed|BAB d2e|fdd d3:|

I discovered what the original source was for our session, and it is fiddler Frank Collins (1887-1966), via Ben Stephenson and Adrian Barker’s recent recording "Undertones". According to the liner notes of their CD, the tune came from an old acetate disc recorded at a commercial studio in Goulburn, NSW in the 1950s. His grandfather, father, and several of his brothers also played the fiddle. He played this tune somewhere between the feel of a slide and a jig. His version is very close to the one in Kerr’s Merry Melodies. I wonder if he got it from there…

X: 1
T: Frank Collins’
T: Jackson’s
D: Adrian Barker & Ben Stephenson - "Undertones"
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
D2F ~E3|DED DGF|DFA def|gfg ecA|
D2F ~E3|DED DGF|DFA d2e|1 fdd dAF:|2 fdd d2g||
|:fed faf|~g3 ~f3|fed faf|gfg efg|
fed faf|~g3 fed|BAB d2e|1 fee efg:|2 fdd dAF||

Surprise! it’s in Thompson’s!

X: 1
T: Jacksons Morning Brush.
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
|:D|DFE EFD|DFA AFA|Bcd def|gee e2D|
DFE EFD|DFA AFA|Bcd efg|fdd d2:|
|:e|fed faf|faf fdA|AFA def|gee e2e|
fed (3f/g/a/a|(3f/g/a/a fdA|AFA dge|fdd d2:|
|:e|fdf ece|dBd AFA|DFA dfa|gee e2e|
fdf ece|dBd AFA|DFA Bge|fdd d2:|

I read somewhere that the Morning Brush refers to Jackson’s love of foxhunting! Personally I think thats a long shot. Personally I think it refers to brushing hair, or garments. But we may never know for sure!

Quote from O’Neill’s Irish Music & Musicians : "Jackson’s most well-known composition. Has appeared in almost every collection"

This opens Randy Miller’s "Lore of the Fingerboard" (out of print cassette). He only has A and B. Pretty much the same as Dow’s, with slightly different endings. The DF/E/D is a variant not in the other settings posted so far.

M:6/8
L:1/8
K:D
P:A
z | DFE EFD | DF/E/D AFA | BGB def | g-~g2 ecA |
DFE EFD | DF/E/D AFA | BGB d2 e | fdc d2 :|
P:B
g | fed faf | ede fdB | AFA def | g-~g2 efg |
fed faf | ede fdB | AFA d2 e | fdc d2 :|

X:8 from Michael Coleman; I used a recording of his students Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds here.