What are we missing?

bikezappa

If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?

This is a long article and you probably don't have the time to read it.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?hpid=topnews

fatchowmein

That's because it wasn't Anne-Sophie Mutter playing. For the male population, she would have stopped traffic just standing there.

bikezappa

fatchowmein

As Lenny Bruce said It's all about "**** and ****".

fatchowmein

I guess that's why men's magazines have women on the cover and women's magazines have, well, women on the cover.

bikezappa

Or as Frank Zappa said "People wouldn't know good music if came up and bit them in the ****".

Jstas

Finally got a chance to read that article.

That piece was spectacular!

I've spent alot of time in large cities across the country where you can find a street performer on many corners. I'll stop and listen if it sounds good. It doesn't even have to be music I like, just good. I certainly would have stopped and listened there. I'd probably make myself late for work just to listen and maybe get a chance to meet the guy.

I was in Hawaii, walking down the main drag in Waikiki coming back from the International Market and there were these two Jamaican guys sitting there on the sidewalk with a number of buckets around them. They were playing them as drums. Everything from rock beats to reggae and they were incredible. I had to run but I came back later and sat down across the plaza and just listened. When they started packing up shop I stopped a dropped a 20 in the bucket for them. He picked it up and handed it back and said "I dun need your money, man! Just your respect!" Turns out they were tour drummers for Ziggy Marley who was in town or passing through or something for a concert. They did it because that's what they did at home in Jamaica and they were bored. They borrowed the buckets from some workers in one of the plazas and the only reason they stopped was because it was quittin' time for the workers and they needed thier buckets back.

Philly is an excellent city for street musicians, especially acapella quartets. I had a friend in school who lived in South Philly and in the summer terms, we'd go back to his house after classes, he lived a block and a half away from Geno's and Pat's. We'd get cheese steaks and go over to his uncle's house and just sit on the porch and listen to these kids on the corner for hours. They did everything from the Temptations to Boyz2Men and they we excellent. Between them singing and the mute hustle and bustle of center city Philly in the middle of July, it was an experience just like the movies make it seem.

I watched guitar players in NYC. I've stopped outside a jazz bar in New Orleans just to listen to the music. Didn't go in, just stood off to the side and listened. I even watched a xylophone player at the airport in San Francisco. He asked me where I was heading and had to stop and tell me to go so I wouldn't miss my plane!

I even had to be a street performer in a sense in high school. Part of our music class was to participate in a music program at a local mall where a group of students would be put together, given a few pieces to rehearse and then go to the mall with one of the teachers and play for an hour or so. It was a great way to get yourself over the butterflies of a public performance. Nothing puts you out there like standing on a street corner and playing.

bikezappa

Jstas wrote: »

I was in Hawaii, walking down the main drag in Waikiki coming back from the International Market and there were these two Jamaican guys sitting there on the sidewalk with a number of buckets around them. They were playing them as drums. Everything from rock beats to reggae and they were incredible. I had to run but I came back later and sat down across the plaza and just listened. When they started packing up shop I stopped a dropped a 20 in the bucket for them. He picked it up and handed it back and said "I dun need your money, man! Just your respect!" Turns out they were tour drummers for Ziggy Marley who was in town or passing through or something for a concert. They did it because that's what they did at home in Jamaica and they were bored. They borrowed the buckets from some workers in one of the plazas and the only reason they stopped was because it was quittin' time for the workers and they needed thier buckets back.

.

Great stories. I remember in the 60s they would have Love Ins on the Cambridge Common in MA on Sundays. There would from 3 to 10 drummers in the park with all kind of drums, bukets and metal cylinders. People would join and leave the group of drummers for hours. The music/drumming never stopped for hours.

Today you would be arrested for that in Cambridge.

F1nut

You'd be arrested for farting in Cambridge these days. :rolleyes:

bobman1235

Tell me about it.

We refer to it as the People's Republic of Cambridge. The sad thing is the people of Cambridge where that name as a badge of honor.

shawn474

I picked up my paper this morning and read it when I got to work. A great article! Just made me realize that I often have tunnel vision; need to take some time and take things in. Thanks for posting the link.

Shawn