|
Good story dling it
now.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:59
PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Segovia anecdote
(was Re: The Kaplan Money)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com,
"Patrick Gillam"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]...>
wrote:
> It must have been the mid-1970s. I attended a Segovia
performance
> at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City. As will happen in a
hall of
> 2,700 people, someone had a cough. In the middle of his
playing,
> Segovia stopped, rested his guitar, looked at the offender
in the
> audience, slowly brought a handkerchief from his breast
pocket,
> and coughed into it once.
>
> The audience
laughed nervously. A few clapped. The offender jumped
> up, bustled
past the knees of others in his row and hustled out the
> door. When he
returned at intermission, I have to think he had his
> throat lozenges
already unwrapped and ready.
Cool story, Patrick. I *love* cool
concert stories.
My brother told me of one at a solo Keith Jarrett
concert. You kinda have to know Jarrett to get the
magic of this
story. He was a classical pianist
studdying at Julliard when he got
a call one day
from Miles Davis asking if he'd like to play key-
boards
for him. Jarrett didn't hesitate for a moment.
He walked away from
his scholarship and never looked
back. At one point he started
playing solo concerts.
If, as a meditator, you don't know the album
called
"The Koln Concert," you have missed a great deal.
One of
these solo concerts is the setting for this
very Zen story. In front
of a full house in an Opera-
style auditorium, Jarrett walked out to
thunderous
applause and sat down at the piano. And sat. And
sat.
And sat. No music, no movement, nada. He just
sat
there, as if waiting. This went on for nearly
five
minutes.
Finally someone from the upper balcony shouted out,
"B-flat!" And Jarrett's hand shot out and hit that
note once,
hard. Then, after a moment, he hit it
again, and smiled. He
turned to the balcony and said,
"Thanks...I needed that."
Then he
played the note again and turned it into two
unbroken hours of pure
improvisation. Pure *magical*
improvisation.
The man had no
earthly idea when he walked onstage what
he was going to
play.
To subscribe, send a message
to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/
and
click 'Join This Group!'
To subscribe, send a message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/
and click 'Join This Group!'
Yahoo! Groups Links
|
