Retired Scarsdale IBM exec is legendary Irish pianist

SCARSDALE - Felix J. Dolan's living room is quietly understated, with a few good pieces of furniture covered in white throws, pictures of turn-of-the-century folk dancers on the walls and a simple electric keyboard on a bare stand under double windows.

Dolan will debate the place of a piano - and an electric one at that - in traditional Irish music. He'll argue against the encroachment of rock and jazz rhythms in the centuries-old tunes that are among Ireland's most distinctive legacies.

But unless he's asked specifically, he won't say that he is considered one of the most legendary, sought-after and revered traditional Irish musicians today. He prefers to remain in the background like the piano accompaniment that is his trademark.

"I don't particularly care for Irish melodies played on the piano, because I think it's too percussive," Dolan, who turned 70 on Tuesday, said. "If I want to play the melody, then I would play the flute, because that's how the music should flow. The key thing is not to be intrusive. You are following (soloists). The presence is felt when you stop playing."

Dolan has been playing music professionally since his late teens, helping support himself with bar gigs on the button accordion while in college. But his introduction to Irish traditional music goes back to his childhood, when he and his mother played accordion together at local dances and gatherings, and he listened to hours of tunes sung and played by the last century's masters on 78 rpm records while his mother cleaned house every Saturday.

"I learned tunes without ever realizing I was learning tunes. It was osmotic," he said. "When you are around it - I learned how they played it, what they were doing, why they were doing it. It doesn't lend itself well to explanations. It's like telling a blind man what red is. I learned most of my music from listening to the records ... and Irish (radio) programming."

The Bronx-born Dolan attended Catholic schools through high school and at one time contemplated becoming a teaching brother. Instead, he opted for a family life, marrying Joan Lynch in 1959.

Dolan received a bachelor's degree in economics from St. John's and a master's in computers from Pratt Institute. He worked for IBM from 1963 until his retirement in 1996. He began as a computer programmer in the research department and became involved in early computer and information security. In 1981, he and his wife and four children were sent to Paris for the company. Back in the United States in 1984, he continued in management and was IBM's director of information security when he retired.

While his children were young, he restricted much of his music playing to family gatherings and the occasional party. Now that they're grown, he's back playing in public two or three times a month.

"When it comes to Felix Dolan, he's an icon. He's a legend," said Joanie Madden, a Yonkers resident and the guiding musician behind the respected Irish traditional band Cherish the Ladies. "Felix is a man who has made music with the greats in history. He's been a real trailblazer. He really broke the molds when he came along. We're very fortunate to have Felix in the tri-state area."

In his early musical career, Dolan played with many Irish music talents of his day. In the mid 1960s, Dolan, Andy McGann and Joe Burke recorded what has become the seminal trio recording of Irish traditional music, "A tribute to Michael Coleman." Most earlier recordings are of soloists or a soloist and a background player - Coleman himself was recorded with a piano player - and it was unusual to have three instruments playing as a group.

"It became (that) everybody who was a serious musician owned a couple. People would come up to me and say 'I wore out a whole track trying to learn 'The Girl Who Broke My Heart,' " Dolan said. "Our names became synonymous with that record, which became legendary."

When Dolan returned from Paris in 1984, he and his wife visited the Eagle Tavern in New York to hear the Irish music when someone on the stage recognized him and announced that Felix Dolan was in the audience.

"Somebody came up to me and said 'I've been looking for you for years. Where have you been?' and (Sligo fiddler and Westchester District Attorney) Brian Conway said: 'You ought to get a keyboard. You could be playing. I would love to play with you,' " Dolan recalled. "At Brian's prompting I bought a keyboard and I started doing gigs with different people and it just kept happening."

Dolan doesn't recall all the records he has made, playing keyboard - as background - with traditional Irish bands, soloists and in small groups. Right now, Conway has an album due out this fall with Dolan on backup, and Dolan, Burke and Conway have recorded a musical tribute to Andy McGann due out in the summer from Clo Iar-Chonnachta Teo records in Connemara, Ireland.

Conway, who often plays with Dolan at Dunne's in White Plains, said he enjoys the time he spends with the older man. Dolan was a friend of Conway's father, which is how the two met.

"Felix is one of those individuals that I've always looked up to, admired him on a personal and musical level," Conway said. "He's a solid individual and a solid musician. I've never failed to enjoy playing with him."

On Tuesdays, when his son Brendan is finished giving music lessons in Pearl River, the two Dolans sit down and play flute together while they sip tea and exchange tunes. Brendan Dolan also plays tin whistle and piano.

"It's great. I just love to play with him," the elder Dolan said. As for the rest of his musical gigs, he said he keeps the bookings spare to keep them from becoming a burden or interfering with his other hobby, fishing.

"I wouldn't like to feel like I had to do something," he said. "That's not as much fun."

Felix J. Dolan

Born: March 13, 1937, to Felix and Bridget Broderick Dolan in the Bronx

Siblings: a sister, Mary McAleer of Woodlawn, the Bronx

Residence: Scarsdale

Married: Mary Johanna (Joan) Lynch on Oct. 24, 1959

Children: Phelin, 45, of the West Village, Manhattan; Siobhan, 43, of Edgemont; Brendan, 41, and Dierdre, 38, both of Brooklyn. Seven grandchildren.

Instruments: button accordion, piano, flute

Career: IBM, 1963 to 1996, retired as director of information security

Musical career: played with his mother as a child, with New York's legendary Irish musicians until his early 20s and recorded "A Tribute to Michael Coleman" with Andy McGann and Joe Burke in the mid-1960s. Took a hiatus while his children were young and began playing in public again in 1994. Currently has two recordings in the works, one with Brian Conway due out in the fall and "A Tribute to Andy McGann" due out in the summer.

Copyright The Journal News

March 17, 2007