The Caucus reel

Submitted due to a request from “cluaintarbh”.

This reel was composed by (Canadian) Jean Duval in honor of the “Caucus in Secaucus” (Secaucus is a place in New Jersey usa). It was recorded by the Raffertys on the Dangerous Reel cd.

Its a great tune.

Thank you very much for posting this. Appreciate it.

A fellow flute player

I posted this as a “Gan Ainm” yesterday, but you beat me to it.
Conal O’Grada played it at Hammy’s “flute-meeting” in Ballyvourney 2 months ago, so it’s made it down to Cork. Glad to have the name and composer of it. Great flute tune.

Jean composed the tune for Mike Rafferty, whom he had just met for the first time at a Comhaltas Convention (the caucus in the title). He worked it out early on the Sunday morning in the hotel bedroom we were sharing. I was still prostate after late night sessions but listened to the whole process. Jean asked me for ideas for a name, and I came up with “The Caucus _at_ Secaucus.”

Just noticed that the first phrase in particular does not correspond to what Jean wrote. Here are the ABCs he himself gave me recently:

T:30. The Caucus at Secaucus
M:4/4
L:1/8
C:Jean Duval 06-04-1991
S:for Mike Rafferty and Rosín McLaughlin
R:reel
Z:Jean Duval
K:G
d|“G”eddB g3 d|“C”egdB “D”A3 d|“G”eddB gabg|“D”abge “G”g3:||
a|“G”b ~g3 “D”agea|“G”gage dega|b ~g3 “D”a2 bg|abge “G”g3 a|b ~g3 “D”agea|“G”gage dBGA|B2 BG “D”AGEG|“G”GEDE G
3:||
d|“G”edgd ed (3Bcd|“C”egdB “D”A3d|“G”edgd ed (3Bcd|“C”gabg “D”a2gd|“G”edgd ed (3Bcd|“C”egdB “D”A2GA|“G”B2 BG “D”AGEG|“G”GEDE G3:||

Mike McGoldrick taught this at a Comhaltas workshop in Leeds (gan ainm), roughly so,

T:Caucus at Secaucus
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:G
dBBd g2gd|egdB AGAB|dBBd g2bg|abge g3~z ||
bgg2 agef|geeg dega|bgg2 agbg|abge g3~a|
bgg2 agef|geeg dBGA|B2BG AGEG|GEDE G3~z :||
edgd edBd|egdB A2Bd|edgd edBd|gabg abgd|
edgd edBd|egdB A2GA|B2BG AGEG|GEDE G3~z :||

Here’s what we learnt recently from Aoife Johnstone of Dublin at a festival in NSW. Aoife is a gracious and very effective teacher.

B|:dGBd ~g3d | egdB AGAB | dGBd gabg |1 abge g3e:|2 abge g3a||
|:b~g3 agef | g~e3 dega | b~g3 agbg | abge ~g3a|
b~g3 agef | gage dBGA | ABBA AGEG | GEDE G2Bd||
|:edgd ed (3Bcd | egdB A2Bd | edgd ed(3Bcd | gabg abgf |
edgd ed (3Bcd | egdB A2GA | ABBA AGEG |1 GEDE G4||

Paddy Egan(concertina) plays it after The Castlebar Traveller

http://youtu.be/igEmovkcg88

play video

Watch Joe and Joannie Madden play this tune with Felix Dolan: https://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_284_5_joe_and_joannie_madden/

Here’s a version I got from a Jack Coen concert at the Blarney Star some time ago. Got around to transcribing it. A nice variation.