Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3: Majestic Farewell to Mike Kirkpatrick’s Musical Emphasis Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3, is not so much an album but, rather, the conclusion of Mike Kirkpatrick's, a generational composer, unapologetically expansive and uncompromising work, which fiddled with the blends of Irish folk, jazz, and elements around the world, in the most original sense. Released posthumously, the album contains ten tracks devoted to a live celebration of Kirkpatrick's vast artistic range, one of always paying homage to tradition and his boundless exploration of innovation. Kirkpatrick's touch is obvious.
The album starts with a reimagining of the hidden track from The Drovers' 1995 album Little High Sky Show, which intersperses fiddles, pipes, clarinets, and tin whistles into a warm and luxurious collage of layers. The nostalgia of the tune resonates but still draws upon the timbre of ingenuity within the arrangements. The jazz influence is on full display on tracks like “Tomorrow Part 1”, where Billy Harper's tenor saxophone takes charge, ushering along a brass-driven and almost unraveling composition, anchored Scott's dynamic piano part underneath it all.
Across the rest of the album, traditional Irish instrumentation stays remarkably forward-thinking, including Kevin Burke's performing on fiddle, roundly so, on "Teardrop Falls", moving from presence to absence of delicate phrasing, round features, and mournful timber.Kirkpatrick steps beyond any particular single genre. That contrast is realized but covered with rounds of improvisation, such as "Moon Fever", when they shift gears directing with African percussion, bodhráns, and at one point a flute 'choir' of sorts to capture an ethereal and dream-like semblance.
Still, in "Tomorrow Part 2", Eddie Henderson's jazz trumpet rounds out layers of joy and warmth stemmed only through lyricism is presented in part to Kirkpatrick's expansive willingness and curation of talent.
Ultimately, Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3 is an appropriate tribute to many aspects of Kirkpatrick's unflinching lifework, heroic in strength, intricate in overlay, and utterly humane in chorus of professional development: a farewell or, yet, a reminder to all, that great music knows no genre, only possibility for exploration.