The Chieftains
Live At Montreux 1997
(Eagle Rock Entertainment)

What Irish supergroup with six Grammys continues to redefine Irish music? No, not U2. This pleasure-packed DVD commemorates the Chieftains' 35th anniversary with a performance at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival—a surprisingly fitting setting for this traditional Irish band.

The fiddling is as fiery as ragtime ("Donegal Reel"), the singing is as quick as bebop ("Changing Your Demeanour"), the drumming has the drive of swing ("Kerry Slides") and every tune is a standard. Here's the lineup: Paddy Moloney (founder, Uilleann pipes, tin whistle), Matt Molloy (flute, tin whistle), Kevin Conneff (bodhrán, vocals), Martin Fay (fiddle), Seàn Keane (fiddle) and the late and much-missed Derek Bell (harp, stride piano).

Fans and musicians of every genre will enjoy studying this virtuoso sextet close-up. A spotlight reveals Conneff setting the beat on the bodhrán ("O'Neill's March" and "Roisin Dubh"). The crowd claps along, making it slightly difficult for Molloy to play his flute in time. He's clearly displeased, but he and his mates ride that tempo like foam on a pint of hard cider. We get a glimpse of the delicate dragon that decorates Bell's wooden harp, a peek at Donny Golden, a great teacher of Irish dancing, as his partner's dancing shoes bend with her nimble toes ("Murphy's Hornpipe") and singer and piper Bea Riobo charms us in traditional Spanish Celtic dress ("Guadalupe"). "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" becomes an ancient Irish ballad, then gives way to Conneff's sweetly mournful "Mo Ghile Mear," followed by a vamp on the Stones' "Satisfaction," and we're suddenly on "The Rocky Road To Dublin." Onstage and on recordings, the Chieftains have devoted decades to ancient music. On DVD, they beguile time itself and they are ours still and forever.—Annie Dinerman