Joe Burke (11 April 1939 – 20 February 2021) was an Irish musician. He was noted for being a pre-eminent
button accordion
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons. This differs from the piano accordion, which has piano-style keys. Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs categorize it as a free reed ae ...
player, recording and performing traditional music for over half a century.
Early life
Burke was born in Kilnadeema, south of
Loughrea
Loughrea ( ; ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies to the north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains, and the lake from which it takes its name. The town's cathedral, St Brendan's, dominates the town's skyline ...
in east
County Galway,
on 11 April 1939.
[ He started playing traditional at age four, and bought his first accordion in the 1950s.] He won the All-Ireland Senior Accordion Championship in Thurles in 1959 and again in Boyle the following year. Together with fiddler Aggie Whyte, he won the All-Ireland duet championship in 1962 in Gorey, Wexford.
Career
Burke co-founded of the Leitrim Ceili Band with Padden Downey in 1956. Other members of the east Galway-base band, which won All-Ireland Championships in 1959 and 1962, included flute players Paddy Carty
Paddy Carty (1929–1980) was a three-time all-Ireland champion Irish flute player from Loughrea, County Galway. He was well known for his flowing rhythm and his virtuoso skill on his Radcliff System flute, on which he could play freely in key ...
, Ambrose Moloney and Tony Molloy; button accordionists Mick Darcy and Sean McGlynn; fiddlers Michael Joe Dooley, Paddy Doorhy, Aggie Whyte and Séamus Connolly; drummer Sean Curley and pianist Anne-Marie Courtney. The band toured in England and released an LP on the New York-based Dublin label.
Burke first toured in the U.S. in 1961, and lived mainly in New York from 1962 to 1965, during which period he formed a musical partnership with fiddler Andy McGann
Andy McGann (1928-2004) was an Irish-American fiddle player and a celebrated exponent of Sligo-style fiddling. He was born in New York to immigrant parents from County Sligo, living first in west Harlem before moving as a child to Mott Haven in t ...
. With McGann and pianist Felix Dolan, he recorded an LP, ''A Tribute to Michael Coleman'', first released in 1966 on Burke's own Shaskeen label. Burke would later record again with this trio, issuing ''The Funny Reel'' LP on the Shanachie label in 1979. Other musical collaborators over the years have included Belfast fiddle great Sean McGuire, piper Michael Cooney, harper Máire Ní Chathasaigh, fiddler Kevin Burke, pianist Charlie Lennon
Charles Lennon was a Republic of Ireland international footballer.
Lennon was capped three times for the Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consist ...
and his wife Anne Conroy Burke (guitar, button accordion), whom he married in 1990.
Burke's first solo LP, ''Galway's Own'' was released in 1971. He also toured extensively for the next two decades, including with groups sponsored by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (; meaning "Society of the musicians of Ireland") is the primary Irish organisation dedicated to the promotion of the music, song, dance and the language of Ireland. The organisation was founded in 1951 and has pr ...
. From 1988 to 1991, he lived in St. Louis, Missouri where he had a musical residency at John D. McGurk's Pub and hosted radio programmes at two stations, one of them the "Ireland in America" programme on KDHX. He represented Ireland in 1989 and 1992 at the International Accordion Festivals, in Montmagny, Quebec
Montmagny () is a city in the Montmagny Regional County Municipality within the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Quebec. It is the county seat and had a population, as of the Canada 2011 Census, of 11,491.
The city is on the south shore of the Sai ...
, along with accordion greats who included Cajun player Marc Savoy
Marc Savoy ( ) (born October 1, 1940) is an American musician, and builder and player of the Cajun accordion.
Early life
He was born on his grandfather's rice farm near Eunice, Louisiana. His grandfather was a fiddler, who occasionally played w ...
and jazz accordionist Art Van Damme.
After residing in the US from 1988 until 1991, Burke returned to Kilnadeema in 1992. There, he carried on teaching and performing music. He died on 20 February 2021 at Galway Hospice. He was 81.[
]
Awards
Burke was named RTÉ's Traditional Musician of the Year in 1970. He went on to win both the AIB Traditional Musician of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the ''Irish World'' in 1997.[ A Joe Burke Tribute Concert was held in April 1997 at the Town Hall Theatre in ]Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on ...
, on his reception of the AIB award. Three years later, he received an award in Musical Mastery from Boston College.[ Burke was later conferred Gradam an Chomhaltais in 2003.]
Discography
Solo albums
* ''Galway's Own'' (1971). Outlet SOLP 1015, reissued as ''Joe Burke'' on Outlet PTICD 1015.
* ''The Tailor's Choice'' (1983)
Collaboration – Joe Burke, Michael Cooney and Terry Corcoran
* ''Happy To Meet Sorry To Part'' (1986)[
]
Collaboration – Sean McGuire and Joe Burke
* ''Two Champions'' (1971)[
]
Collaboration – Joe Burke and Charlie Lennon
* ''Traditional Music of Ireland'' (1973)
* ''The Bucks of Oranmore'' (1996)[
* ''The Morning Mist'' (2002)][
]
Collaboration – Joe Burke, Andy McGann and Felix Dolan
* ''A Tribute to Michael Coleman'' (1966)[
* ''The Funny Reel. Traditional Music Of Ireland'' (1979)][
]
Collaboration – Joe Burke, Brian Conway and Charlie Lennon
* ''A Tribute to Andy McGann'' (2007)
Collaboration - Joe Burke, Jerry Sullivan, Terry Corcoran
* ''Happy To Meet Sorry To Part''
Released 1986
References
External links
*
Biography of Joe Burke, Irish accordion player
AllMusic biography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Joe
1939 births
2021 deaths
20th-century Irish people
21st-century Irish people
Irish accordionists
Musicians from County Galway
People from County Galway
Irish folk musicians
20th-century accordionists
21st-century accordionists
Green Linnet Records artists
Shanachie Records artists