jlee's blog

Come on out and join the band on February 6th at 8pm in NYC at McFaddens Saloon located at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue.

The band will be making a guest appearance as well as a 3 hour session by the best Celtic band in NYC Shillelagh Law.  

For more info click this link

The FDNY Pipes and Drums would like to welcome Side Drummer Dan Saalfrank home from Kuwait. Dan has been in Kuwait since the end of the summer serving in the Air Force Reserves. Dan is a Fireman in the Air Force as well as a member of Ladder Company 169 in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Dan is very happy to be back and very much looking forward to getting back to the Firehouse. The Pipe Band is very happy to have Dan back and looking forward to seeing him at some gigs real soon!

Our Drum Major Liam Flaherty was deployed to Haiti 2 weeks ago as a member of the NY USAR Task Force 1. They were dispatched in the aftermath of the terrible Earthquake to give whatever help they could to the people of Haiti. The Task force made many rescues while in the Country, most notably two children a Brother and Sister ages 8 and 10 who were trapped in a Supermarket that had collapsed. The children were trapped in a pancake type collapse under about 5 layers of concrete. Liam said he was glad to part of this effort, but he was definitely happy to back in the USA. Liam is a Captain in the Special Operations Command and was a Fireman in Rescue 4 in Queens and a Lieutenant in Rescue 2 in Brooklyn. The members of the FDNY Pipes and Drums would like to welcome him back to New York! All the members of the NYTF-1 will be honored today at City Hall by New Yorks Mayor Michael Bloomberg. To see more about their efforts click here for video. To read more about it click here for the Daily News Story

CD Baby which is the company that we sell our CD's through has decided to donate $1.00 for every CD sold and every Digital Download that is over 8.99 on their site. This money will go to the Humanitarian refief effort that is under way in the Earthquake ravaged Country. To purchase our CD or Digital Downloads click any of the links below.

All Hands Working MP3's 1999 

All Hands Working CD 1999 

Transmit the Box MP3's 1982 

It is with deep regret that the FDNY Pipes and Drums announce the passing of P/M George M. Bell. George was a driving force on the US Piping scene. He has taught many of the Judges in EUSPBA as well as our past and current instructor. George was a well respected Piper and Judge and will be missed. For more info on George see the links below.

Viewing and Funeral Information

Pipes / Drums Article 

EUSPBA Website 

The FDNY Pipes and Drums will be once again holding it's raffle to help raise money for the Pipe Band. Tickets are $100.00 each.

The Prizes are $10,000, $3000, and $2000  if you are interested in buying one of the 300 tickets that will be sold contact Jerry Wood at jwood@fdnypipesanddrums.com for further details. The drawing will be held on St. Patricks day and you do not have to be present to win! Good Luck! 

The members of the FDNY Pipes and Drums would like to wish all of our friends and their families a healthy and happy holiday season! We would like to thank you all for your constant support of our band!

The FDNY Pipe Band would like to Congratulate George Jacimovic of Squad 252 and Sven Jenson of Ladder 11 on passing their grueling bagpipe auditions. Our piper prospects have to go before a panel of 5 Pipers and play a total of 20 band tunes. These 2 made it through the nerve racking experience and are now full fledged pipers with the FDNY Pipes and Drums. Congratulations to these 2 on all their hard work!

The FDNY Pipes and Drums Competition band finished as the 2nd place overall points winner in Grade 4 for the 2009 season. The band did have the highest amount of points per contest though! The band is looking forward to another successful year in the competition circle, with some new blood joining the band for the 2010 season!!

The FDNY is happy to announce that our Grade 4 competition band took 1st place in New Hampshire this weekend. The band traveled up there with high hopes coming off of another 1st place win at the Hunter Mountain Pipe Band Championships a month before. The band played the quick march medley selection on Saturday and placed 1st out of 13. The judges gave the FDNY 2 1st's in Piping, 1st in Ensemble and 2nd in Drumming. On Sunday the band entered the New England Open Medley Challenge. This was a contest open to Grades 2 through 4. The Band ended up placing 5th out of 9, beating all the grade 4 entries along with one of the Grade 3 bands overall. It was a tough contest which ultimately ended going the the Stuart Highlanders Grade 3 band from Massachusetts.

For video of the Marches on Saturday please click here

For video of the Medley on Sunday please click here