Jack Gilder has an eclectic musical background that includes classical, baroque, Medieval & Renaissance, Latin jazz, Middle Eastern, and Andean. In 1975, he stumbled onto Irish music, and it was definitely a turning point. Jack organized concertina workshops for Noel Hill and began taking lessons from him about every six months when Noel came to San Francisco’s The Plough and the Stars bar, with fiddler James Kelly.
Since 1985, Jack has taught concertina & flute workshops at Lark Camp in Mendocino California. Besides his band, Tipsy House, he also organized two other traditional Irish music groups with guitar virtuoso Junji Shirota. One was an instrumental band called Jody’s Heaven, featured the remarkable and talented fiddler Dale Russ. The other, Crónán, featured the lovely vocals of Rebecca Marculescu.
As a fixture at “The Plough”, Jack has made friends from all around Ireland and taken numerous trips there to visit and play tunes with them in sessions. Jack still hosts Seisiuns at The Plough on the odd Sunday or Tuesday night, and can be found playing around the Bay Area.