Every now and then, you are witnessing something and you get such pleasure that you can’t understand where it comes from, like a tsunami of emotions.
Those kind of sensations happen to children and teenagers frequently and with great intensity. That might be the reason why all adults listen for the rest of their lives to the music they discovered when they were in their teens. I do too. I still put on an album of Dire Straits or Toto from time to time. For some reasons, although The Police is still, to this day, my favorite band, I rarely listen to them. Maybe because I know by heart every millisecond of their production.
But those teenage thrills don’t stop there. At least not for me. Just the other day, I was discovering the Impromptus of Schubert played by Philippe Cassard (He was born in the city I grew up in!). It was marvelous. Schubert piano music is absolutely wonderful, don’t you know? It was another Wow! moment. I was very surprised because I thought that Schubert might have aged funny or that it might not be very interesting and I would get bored. But no. Oh, no! Everything flows in a magical way, the themes, the transitions, the developments. Schubert is a wizard and he guides you with a very confident hand. And Cassard is a master interpreter.
As for shows, I think I talked not too long ago about a recent trip my Sweetie and I made to New Orleans. Over there, it’s every day the fireworks of music. You take a gloomy, foggy, kind of cold, kind of damp day. Substract all crowds from the streets and leave maybe a few pedestrian here and there. Go into an empty street, where the cloud erases the gutters of the houses. That’s the set up. It’s not a mind blowing kind of décor. Muted colors, deserted streets. Now, put one electric guitar player sitting on his amp and sweetly singing a high pitch melody that you’ve never heard. His voice is not shrill but almost tender, the tempo is slow, like he’s playing to someone who’s falling asleep. Now, the décor plus the music equal, you guessed it: tears rolling down your cheeks. Mind blown.
When I saw the new production of Tommy at the Steppenwolf theater I got some chill too.
I am a musician and I practice a lot. That’s true, but I keep in mind that when I play I need to be more than excellent, I need to be magic.