1. Frankie Kennedy was a flute and tin whistle player born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
17 Facts About Frankie Kennedy
1. 2.
Frankie Kennedy was the co-founder of the band Altan, formed with his wife Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh.
3.
Frankie Kennedy used to say, "really I have no tradition," but he had a connection with the tradition which he didn't know himself.
4.
Frankie Kennedy became interested in Irish traditional music when he was 18 years old, through the music of Horslips, Planxty, The Chieftains, and The Boys of the Lough.
5.
Frankie Kennedy learned his Irish as a young man in Belfast's Cumann Chluain Ard and travelled frequently to Donegal to perform at local sessions in Gweedore with Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh.
6.
When Frankie Kennedy was eighteen he took a sixth form summer trip to the Gaeltacht of Gweedore in County Donegal.
7.
Frankie Kennedy went to a session one evening and there met a fifteen-year-old fiddle player named Mairead, daughter of the session's leader Proinsias O Maonaigh.
8.
Frankie Kennedy was advised by a friend that he should learn an instrument if he intended to court Mairead, and so he got a whistle and taught himself to play.
9.
Frankie Kennedy was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a vicious form of cancer, in 1992.
10.
Altan, in accordance with Frankie Kennedy's wishes, continued to record and perform after his death.
11.
Frankie Kennedy was widely considered to be a master of the simple system flute.
12.
Frankie Kennedy learned to play the flute in his birth city of Belfast, as part of a musical community which produced a number of well-known flute players, including Hammy Hamilton, Gary Hastings, Gerry O'Donnell, Desi Wilkinson, and Sam Murray.
13.
Frankie Kennedy's style was characterised first and foremost by the music he played; most of the tunes originated from County Donegal, and his flute style corresponded well with the characteristic Donegal fiddle tradition.
14.
Frankie Kennedy's recorded legacy is almost exclusively with his wife and Altan, although he did perform on Clannad's album Banba.
15.
Frankie Kennedy's playing was smooth and somewhat less heavily ornamented than that of other popular Irish flute players like Matt Molloy.
16.
Frankie Kennedy played flutes made by Chris Wilkes and Patrick Olwell.
17.
Dozens of songs have been written and recorded about Frankie Kennedy, including the following:.