Piper Profiles - Jimmy O’Brien-Moran
Jimmy was born in Tramore, County Waterford in 1957. There was always music in his family, but there was little or no traditional music to be heard at home when he was growing up. His interest in Irish music and especially the uilleann pipes came from the recordings of Planxty. Planxty gave prominence in their credits to Willie Clancy and Seamus Ennis, and this prompted Jimmy to get their recordings and listen to them intently. At age 17 he started playing on a Matt Kiernan chanter, with a home made bag and bellows. Jimmy got lessons from Tom Kearney and further help from Donncha O’Maidin. Jimmy went to the early Willie Clancy Summer schools of 1975 and 1976 and attended Pat Mitchell’s piping classes. In 1977 he was in Liam O’Flynn’s class. The quality of his playing was recognised in 1977 when he was among the up and coming young pipers selected for the album The Piper’s Rock. The Piper’s Rock (Mulligan) was pro- duced by PJ Curtis and also featured Gabriel McKeown, Davy Spillane, Mick O’Brien, Eoin O’Riabhaigh, Robbie Hannan and Maire Ni Ghrada. He played with the band Scullion from 1977-80 having at this stage also leant the saxophone. Jimmy was in the jewellery trade for a number of years, but in 1992 took a music degree and started teaching part time at the Waterford Institute of Technology. He has followed that with post graduate study at the University of Limerick on the Hudson music collection.
One of the key influences on his life and career was the piper, piano and fiddle player Sean Reid (1907-1978). Sean was from Donegal originally, but lived most of his adult life in Clare where he played with the Tulla Ceili band and taught for many years. It was Sean who presented Jimmy with the pre-1925 Colgan B set of pipes that he currently plays. Jimmy played at the graveside at Sean’s funeral. Jimmy played at the London Sense of Ireland and the French 1996 L’Imaginaire Irlandais festivals and has toured Europe, the USA and New Zealand. He gives workshops, lectures and writes in the field of piping, and has played saxophone in a ten piece band. His solo album is titled Sean Reid’s Favourite (PPP) made in 1996.
For a complete PDF of the original Autumn 2003 Pipers Review this article is from, click here.