Word: pianistics
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...things about post-Katrina New Orleans that weigh heavily on the souls of New Orleans musicians, it's the city's silence. It was the first thing legendary jazz pianist Henry Butler noticed when he returned to his hometown after Katrina. Blind, Butler relied on friends to detail the devastation of his Gentilly home, but his other senses served up a potent picture of what had befallen the city...
Jazz musicians have taken inspiration from the classics before, but surely songwriter-singer-pianist Barber is the first to base a song cycle on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Her Pygmalion is sweetly yearning, her Persephone sexy over a Latin beat. In the hard-edged Whiteworld/Oedipus, the Greek King is an arrogant white imperialist in the Third World. These intricate, ruminative works are a long way from the blues in B flat--and they're worth the stretch...
Fidel is so overpowering. When you talk to him he looks at you directly, into your eyes. He makes good use of his pale, long fingers, very much like a pianist's, touching you to make a point. He speaks in a circular way, taking you on a fact-filled detour and then back to the main point. Once when I was interviewing him, he turned to his secretary and said, "She is from Galicia, but from a very different background from mine." He then started telling the story of Galicia--the Spanish region from which his father came...
...about a little night music from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice? In keeping with tradition at the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit--where each leader performs at the gala dinner--Rice, a gifted pianist, chose a Brahms piece to reflect the world's "serious" mood. Here's a look at other great--O.K., maybe just memorable--performances over the years by political figures on nonpolitical stages...
...Since moving out of the West Wing to take over State in early 2005, Rice has returned there often and has remained close to the President and First Lady. Now the President's hopes for becoming a Middle East peacemaker lie with the imperturbable and at times inflexible concert pianist and childhood championship ice skater he calls "an unsticker"--a solver of insoluble problems...