Moments musicaux

I barely came home from another jazz concert that I attended, this time at BYU. At this particular concert, much of the charts they selected weren't my taste (which is okay). I was listening with disdain, wondering when the intermission would come. 

However, right after the intermission, the lead tenor came out on stage. With the spotlight on him, and no one in the background, he started to play a simple bluesy rift. Bop-bop-baaaaa....over and over again. 

Pretty soon this simple rift became a maelstrom of notes. He was playing bass for himself, melody, and even high color notes. All single handedly.Mind you, there were some parts where he wasn't even playing notes. He was merely tapping keys and breathing air through his instrument and it was still musical. 

The band meandered out after five minutes and complemented his solo. He then went off: up and down, up and down, playing two notes at a time (which is nie impossible on a saxophone). Oh my goodness, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. 

The piano had a solo about halfway through the song, but he had to wait for about one minute for all the applause to die down from the tenor solo. He then plinked out a few notes, but the audience wasn't listening. We were still in shock from the tenor player. Luckily, he got back up to finish of the song.

Now, I'm not a big fan of standing ovations. I feel like many people give them out of sympathy, rather than actual musical genius (and especially in the Utah area...we give them out like free samples). I especially am not a fan of it in the middle of a concert. But, when this tenor was done with his song, I was up (luckily with the rest of the crowd) because I had experienced what I considered to be one of those profound "musical moments" that only happen in life a few times. 

These "musical moments" occur when something you just witnessed and heard shot through your body and made you gasp in awe. Every time you experience them, they make you feel like your life had just changed in some awesome crazy way, merely by listening to sound. A beautiful, ravaging, phenomenal sound. 

I can name only a couple of other "musical moments" (i.e. singing beautiful choral tunes in a NY cathedral, witnessing Sissel sing an absolutely piercing (in a good way) european christmas carol, being blown away from the first hearing of First Circle by Pat Metheny).

A couple summers ago, I was working in landscaping mowing lawns. I was listening to a new live album from John Mayer. He covered a song called "I don't need no doctor." My goodness, I stopped mowing and stood still with a shocked look on my face. Like "did I seriously just hear what I think I did?"

Anyways, musical moments! Look for them, appreciate them!

And as an anecdote, Thank you SO MUCH to all the musicians who have put on a performance. Thanks for sacrificing other things to be a part of a group that creates music. Thank you for promoting music in school and in other places where we can grow to appreciate and cherish it.