Is there a musical instrument that you just can't get your head around to appreciate? No matter how good someone is supposed to be, no matter how amazing a piece of music, it doesn't matter because the instrument being played just doesn't appeal to you, or even worse, make any sense, to you. Well for me that instrument has always been the piano.
Yes that's right the piano, from the time I was a kid it's done almost nothing for me. I look at those eighty-eight keys and I can't even begin to comprehend anything about it. Everybody else I know, even those who've never played piano in their lives, can sit down at a keyboard and soon be picking out something that sounds like music. I don't even know where to start.
Part of that comes from the fact that the only musical instrument I ever received any formal training on was the cello, and the other part is that I'm hopeless when it comes to recreating a sound that I hear. A musical scale means absolutely nothing to me, and to randomly arrange notes into a pattern that constitutes something musical, like it appears people do on a piano, is a skill so beyond my comprehension you might as well ask me to build a rocket ship.
Therefore, it takes somebody of quite extraordinary talent playing the piano for me to be able to appreciate what is being performed. Up to this point only classical pianist Glen Gould has managed to break through the fog that surrounds my brain when it comes to performances on the keyboard. Finally, after many fruitless years of listening, I can add a second player to the list: Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck.
Dave Brubeck Live In '64 & '65 is part of a series of concert discs called Jazz Icons that's been put together by Reelin' In The Years, featuring live performances from some of the greatest names in Jazz. I hoped that because this disc featured Brubeck in concert with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, that I'd have a better chance of appreciating his piano work as part of the group then if he was playing solo.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Maybe you're just allergic to ivory Richard. Good review though.
-Glen