Stuff of Great Import.
I saw Bobby McFerrin yesterday. This is the second time I've seen him (last time was around this time last year in the Barbican in London), and I can't tell you enough how absolutely stunningly amazing it was. The tickets cost €65 (second most expensive in the house), and they were actually worth every penny, and I would've paid €100 and still say that I got my money's worth out of it. For some sense of magnitude; a normal concert is between €20 and €30. (This concert would probably've been about $100-$150, for my American friends.)
It's hard to say how it was so amazing - I can say how it was completely improvised, apart from the solo rendition of Bach's 'Air on a G String' (not that Bach ever gave it that name) and when he got the audience to sing the melody to Gounod's 'Ave Maria,' while he sang Bach's arpeggios underneath it - I can say how he got a dancer up from the audience, and she sang to him singing, and he sang to her dancing - or how he got an impromptu choir up from the audience - how he brought two tradtional Irish musicians with him as surprise guests and improvised in a traditional Irish idiom with them - how some of his music was extraordinarily beautiful and delicate and immensely alive - how he started singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to finish his concert, but then got carried away, and very quickly went through the entire 'Wizard of Oz,' finishing by throwing a glass of water on himself and melting into the floor of the stage - but I can say all this, and completely fail to communicate how it is that Bobby McFerrin, to me at least, is the most superb musician alive, and that his shows are not to be missed at any cost, so long as you physically have the money in your pocket. He reminds us what it is that makes us love music, what it is that makes music so unspeakably enriching. I implore you all to see him next time he's performing in your or an adjacent country.
--
After that concert, a very nice Polish girl accosted me in the lobby. We talked for about five, perhaps ten, minutes, and then, because I suspected that she was interested me for potentially romantic reasons, I legged it as politely as I could. If, in the off-chance said Polish girl comes to this site - rather unlikely, to put it mildly, as she doesn't have any personal information about me at all, not even my name - then I have a girlfriend, so I'm not interested, but I'm regretting running off so hastily now, because perhaps you just wanted to make a friend, and you do seem interesting, and I'd quite like you as a friend.
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I take no responsibility for the last few posts, and am probably as confused as you. It was loving vandalism on Kate's part. May it never end. Apparently, they're all birds, and so stand for the B of BA. Nothing stood out at her as an expansion of the 'A', and I hereby issue an official request: Go on... Go on!... You do such superb vandalism.
--
Dinner beckons. Toodles.
-James
It's hard to say how it was so amazing - I can say how it was completely improvised, apart from the solo rendition of Bach's 'Air on a G String' (not that Bach ever gave it that name) and when he got the audience to sing the melody to Gounod's 'Ave Maria,' while he sang Bach's arpeggios underneath it - I can say how he got a dancer up from the audience, and she sang to him singing, and he sang to her dancing - or how he got an impromptu choir up from the audience - how he brought two tradtional Irish musicians with him as surprise guests and improvised in a traditional Irish idiom with them - how some of his music was extraordinarily beautiful and delicate and immensely alive - how he started singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to finish his concert, but then got carried away, and very quickly went through the entire 'Wizard of Oz,' finishing by throwing a glass of water on himself and melting into the floor of the stage - but I can say all this, and completely fail to communicate how it is that Bobby McFerrin, to me at least, is the most superb musician alive, and that his shows are not to be missed at any cost, so long as you physically have the money in your pocket. He reminds us what it is that makes us love music, what it is that makes music so unspeakably enriching. I implore you all to see him next time he's performing in your or an adjacent country.
--
After that concert, a very nice Polish girl accosted me in the lobby. We talked for about five, perhaps ten, minutes, and then, because I suspected that she was interested me for potentially romantic reasons, I legged it as politely as I could. If, in the off-chance said Polish girl comes to this site - rather unlikely, to put it mildly, as she doesn't have any personal information about me at all, not even my name - then I have a girlfriend, so I'm not interested, but I'm regretting running off so hastily now, because perhaps you just wanted to make a friend, and you do seem interesting, and I'd quite like you as a friend.
--
I take no responsibility for the last few posts, and am probably as confused as you. It was loving vandalism on Kate's part. May it never end. Apparently, they're all birds, and so stand for the B of BA. Nothing stood out at her as an expansion of the 'A', and I hereby issue an official request: Go on... Go on!... You do such superb vandalism.
--
Dinner beckons. Toodles.
-James