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Agosto 19, 2005
Bruce Hornsby
Last night I got several fixes. Best of high school top 40, Greatful Dead Improvisation, and musical mastery all in one. Bruce Honsby played the Tivoli in Chattanooga. It was fun to take in the show with Jim Ward and his brother Dick.
I have this great memory of the first time I heard his break through album. We were on our senior trip in Ecuador - riding the bus back from Salinas (on the Pacific coast) through the city of Guayaquil up the mountains to Quito. We started the trip just as the sun was setting, and were 100 miles from the start of the mountains, in the midst of a sultry tropical haze. But the setting sun caught Chimborazo - the tallest mountain in Ecuador - and the snow cap lit up like a fire hanging in the middle of the sky. "That's just the way it is"... and that great piano solo.... will always bring that image to my mind.
Hornsby also reminds me of Dave McNamara - my college buddy / housemate - who was a big deadhead. (who else do you know who would give up the dead for lent?) Hearing all that improvization and extended combination of songs that the dead were famous for has really affected what I appreciate in live music. As Horsby said last night when taking requests, "If you want it just like the record, you can leave now." Hornsby and the band did some wonderful combinations, extensions and reinterpretations - adding interest to his book. Creativity in the moment, improvisation and curious combinations - that is what makes live music great for me.
There was also some great musical mastery - even showboating - going on. Which is always what the live setting is mostly about anyway. Good times.....
| By rob | 07:40 AM
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