Jazz man

Music has been in his soul from his early schooldays, and he has progressed with his talent and knowledge to become one of the most respected musicians in the midlands. Adrian Harrington is popular among his peers in the music industry, and has paid his dues as a musician due to a lifetime of playing music, and in music training. He is an Athlone man, born and reared in Coosan Road, and was the eldest of four siblings. His late father John Harrington was greatly interested in music and theatre. He performed as a soloist boy soprano in St. Michael's Church in Dun Laoghaire and encouraged Adrian in music, by buying him his first piano accordion, from McCullough Pigotts in Suffolk Street, Dublin, whilst he was in second class in the Marist National School. It was the early 1960s, when Adrian and other pupils were taught music by Br Joseph and Br Flannan. Adrian's father worked at CIE in the District Manager's office and played a big part in the social fabric of Athlone, until his untimely death in 1977. He was an FAI referee, performed in many plays in The Little Theatre and was associated with the All-Ireland Drama Festival for 25 years. He also devised and presented CIE shows in Tops of the Town. Adrian's mother, Philomena is a native of Athlone. "In national school, we practised to perform at our annual school concerts and the Cor Fheile, which was great fun, and I can remember we played in St Mary's Hall and The Dean Crowe Hall," he said. "Our band was reminiscent of the celli bands of that time with a mix of popular tunes we liked to play. We wore dark red corduroy jackets, white trousers and were known as the Red Jacket Band." This band regularly played at Feiseanna, including Feis Sligeach and won the perpetual Sligo cup, three years in a row as well as individual success in solo competitions. "Both my parents were keen in supporting me in music, and I remember the accordion they bought me for my 8th birthday which cost a lot of money in those days," said Adrian. "I also remember Dad coaxing me to practice, but I was also interested in football so practice was at times, compromised.'' In secondary school, music took a back seat but by the time of his final year, the seeds were planted for the then new Coosan Church to have a folk group, which was revolutionary at the time. The group was founded by Athlone man, Paul Kavanagh, who by now was teaching in Marist College and who is still a close friend of Adrian's. "The highlight of our year was midnight mass and I remember one year we were keen to re-introduce percussion to the group and a silent collection was taken up by those who attended that night, to present the group with a set of congas," said Adrian. As the years moved on, Adrian played for the Simpson Daly senior dancing troupe in competition and was also invited to represent Ireland at European Folk Festivals. He played for Irish dancing groups from Galway and Cork in performances at the festivals, which could be deemed precursors to Riverdance, especially when the group danced the treble reel. His first festival was in Brittany and he went on to play in other festivals in the Pyrenees in Southern France, Spain and Belgium. After finishing secondary school, Adrian commenced working with Irish Cable and Wire Ltd. During this time 'Tops of the Town' started and for five years CIE always competed with Athlone Apparel. "You could cut the air on final night, such was the tension in the hall," said Adrian laughing. "I usually played piano accordion in the pit as part of the orchestra, and it all seemed very simple and innocent. The truth was that both teams tried to outwit each other over the years, in coming up with new ideas in set design and performance in an attempt to win. I was delighted to have been associated with Ericsson who went all the way to the final of Tops, in the late 1980s." Adrian was invited by the late producer Edward Farrell to perform in his early concerts in Athlone. By this time, Adrian played an electric accordion and Edward's 'Big Top productions' shows started in the Dean Crowe Theatre and then transferred to the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. "These concerts comprised of a mix of local and national artists and Edward used to bring over big names from the UK, with proceeds going to charity," said Adrian. Adrian was invited to perform at numerous concerts as a guest with Athlone's popular Charity Singers, and then became interested in playing continental music. It was around that time he decided to learn piano accordion classically with the Paddy Kavanagh School in Churchtown, Dublin and completed three years of training there. "I travelled up every second Saturday for tuition," said Adrian. In 1979, Adrian won an All-Ireland title for piano accordion, sponsored by Walton's of Dublin. "There were 72 competitors and my competition number was 58, which was my Dad's age when he passed away two years earlier, so I think he was rooting for me, because he was proud that I was going back to study the instrument," said Adrian. Adrian then found a niche in music that he liked, and that next level for him after trad music was Jazz. He liked chords, in particular the complexity and tone that he could achieve in the sound of these chords. "This was when I started spending more time at the piano and listening to jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Bill Evans and the big band sound of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. I liked composers such as George & Ira Gershwin and I got to hear great musicians at the Cork Jazz Festival like Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich and Maynard Ferguson," said Adrian. He played in the successful Athlone group, Route 101; with the McDonald family in the late 1980's working on a sound similar to that of James Last. "There was no other band out there with brass instruments playing our brand of music," said Adrian. "We played on different TV shows and I remember the morning we performed live on the Gay Byrne show on Radio 1. The following week, the Irish Times jazz critic who heard us playing gave us a favourable review. Then I met with jazz pianist and composer, Jim Doherty, who had been well known from RTE's elderly person's 'Going Strong' programme. I did jazz appreciation with Jim and it was all about listening and learning from other musicians, similar to sitting in on a good trad session." Adrian was married for many years to Noëlle Byrne, who had studied music in Maynooth and taught in the Bower and in Cornamaddy NS, and who worked determinedly on memorable stage productions. Adrian and Noëlle both grew up in Athlone, but sadly she passed away in 2000. They had two sons, John and Conor, now both grown up. "Noëlle lived a very short but full life, and was very involved in music and choral work in both schools in Athlone, and produced 'Annie', 'Me & My Girl' and 'The Wizard of Oz' for the Bower transition years," said Adrian. "All of her students who were involved got a wonderful appreciation of stage performance which they will always remember. I helped out by playing piano accordion in the first of these shows namely 'Fiddler on the Roof', performed by the Bower National School 6th Class, in the Little Theatre. Such was its success, it played twice again to full houses in the Bower National School hall." After several years, Adrian met Olga and got married in 2006. Olga is originally from St Petersburg, and her forte is in athletics, in particular the high jump, in which she competed internationally. She has lived in Ireland for twenty years, and has competed in athletic meets, and she won three All Ireland titles in the high jump event, and has also coached athletics here. Their family now includes Olga's daughter, Julia. When Nexans (formerly Irish Cable & Wire) ceased operations in Ireland, Adrian, having worked there for over 30 years, for the latter part as Financial Accountant, decided to take time out for two years to study jazz piano and he enrolled online with Berklee College in Boston. "The internet is a brilliant medium for education and music is no exception and this provided a platform for me to play the music I really like," he said. Adrian spent ten years with Coosan Folk Group, until around 1984, and in recent years, he has returned to playing with St. Mary's Church group, Anam. Adrian has a website which gives good examples of his music work, and which also shows him on video playing some easy listening classics. These days he mostly plays mellow jazz on piano and continues through his jazz piano performance to give pleasure to many, as he has throughout the past few decades. http://www.adrianharrington.com