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| © 2009 John Bliss |
Last week, across the street from the gig we were playing, a young woman lay dying from the side effects of a medical treatment which had saved her life some years before. During our break, Ben, Fred, and I crossed the street, knocked on her door, and were let in by her care giver. She was propped up in a bed placed in the living room where she could enjoy the warmth and cheer of a gas fireplace. She greeted us warmly and thanked us for coming over. We made a queer trio, with clarinet, tenor sax, and mandolin, but we could just as well have been the New York Philharmonic, seeing the way her eyes lit up. And our repertoire was pretty strange, too: an old Norwegian fisherman's hornpipe, "Klaus' Hornpipe" (which I learned from an old Norwegian fisherman, Klaus), the old jazz chestnut "My Romance,"and the only parts we could remember from a traditional klezmer tune, "Skotschne." Having run through our impromptu song list, she asked if we took requests, then made one; "Someone To Watch Over Me," and even now as I type this a week later, tears well up in my eyes.
Playing to a standing-room-only crowd at Carnegie Hall could not have been any more rewarding.
This beautiful, and the very heart of music.
ReplyDeleteOh, stirs my heart and my tear ducts.
ReplyDeleteI forgot the word "is"
ReplyDeleteThis IS beautiful, and the very heart of music.
Isn't it interesting how music touches not only the receiver, but also the giver.What a beautiful gift you and your friends gave this woman.You'd have to change your style of music, but music thanatology is a gift at the end of life - a bridge from "here" to "there" that I wish I had known about when I was much younger.You'll never know what this meant to this woman.Good fer ya, bro!
ReplyDeleteklaus' hornpipe lives on!
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful, Kerry is right.
ReplyDeleteMusic is all-embracing, a healer. A friend I was losing to Alzheimer's responded to a CD I played for her of Schubert's music. Tears ran down her face, although she hardly even knew any more who I was.
I'm going to have to look up "thanatology".
ReplyDeleteFunny how Klaus' Hornpipe came to mind. It is such a simple, upbeat little ditty. And I associate it with a delightful, happy old man with whom I conversed at great length, despite his limited English and my lack of Norwegian.
ReplyDelete