Tony's big Moment - and an IBMA HoF induction, too.

What is it I love about bluegrass?  Plenty, actually, but this is an outstanding illustration of at least one of the reasons:  magnificent humanity.

To nobody's surprise, Tony Rice was inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame, and through the magic of YouTube, we can all see how this went down.

I am not given to awards ceremonies.  They're dull, and usually reek of a sense of unwarranted entitlement among both audience and recipients.  When I stumbled across this link, it was merely the wanting to hear what Rice had to say, that caused me to make the effort.  I'm glad I did.

Turns out that the presenters were Peter Rowan and Sam Bush, and this definitely helped in making the introduction interesting.  Rowan, for all his obvious talents, still strikes me as pure space cadet, but Sam is a genius combination of little boy, master gentleman, ridiculous musical talent--and a savvy understanding of personalities.  And it shows here.

Then Rice came on, delivering the same upfront humility that I have seen so often in other contexts.*  Great, lovely.  But then, at about the eleven minute mark in the YT video, he begins a lead-up to a capital-M Moment that I was completely unprepared for.

If you hear nothing else, listen starting at 11:00 on the timeline.  At the 12:38 mark, he simply blasted my socks off--not with what he said (although that is, itself, beautiful), but with the voice he said it in.

This is what human beings are capable of.


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* All of this is much more interesting and poignant the more you know about the backstories of each of the names that come up;  it throws everything into much sharper definition.  Suffice it to say that magnificent human beings don't always start out that way, and sometimes they do regrettable things.  But if the measure of a character is what someone does in the wake of any of that, then I'm even happier to see Rice honored for his influence here. 

Brubeck, Take Five.

Stumbled across this YT of Dave Brubeck's quartet performing "Take Five" only a few years after it was first released.

Most interesting.  My first impression is that it's too fast to let the tune really breathe.  For me at least, one of the many brilliances of "Take Five" as originally recorded is that it is just at the edge of as-fast-as-possible, but distinctly under it.  Whenever I sit down with the piece myself, I tend to like it slower and slower, regardless of my ability to play it.  There are so many little ridiculously tasty nuances that Desmond puts into both the melody and the blowing...and they necessarily race past, here.

Now, that said:  I quite love this.  You can get a much greater appreciation for Morello by watching him, and he is on fine display here.  Desmond does a great job at handling the higher tempo, although to my ear he sounds like he feels rushed, even when blowing.  It's great to watch Brubeck play, even though this tune is not a vehicle for him.  I don't know much about Gene Wright;  from long listening I would pay him the compliment that I never really notice the bass in Brubeck's recordings.  (I tend to think of bass players in three simple categories:  the ones who grate on me, the ones I never "notice", and the ones that may not in fact be human.  That middle category may be the working definition of excellence in craft.)  As a group:  pretty solid, to be sure!

Anyway, I wanted the YT to be available here.

Strength in Numbers on YouTube

More documenting.  Again from YouTube, this old jewel about newgrass supergroup Strength in Numbers, which features a rousing performance of "Blue Men of the Sahara" starting at 2:38.

I first saw it on a VHS in the early days of my attending the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and of course what immediately struck me about the performance was the interplay between Edgar Meyer (bass) and Mark O'Connor (fiddle).  Edgar is full "goad mode on" here, and O'Connor just tears it up.

At the time, my wife (who wasn't exactly heavy into bluegrass) commented that that fella may look like a truck driver at first glance, but then he does things you don't usually expect truck drivers to do.

And then some.  O'Connor does things you don't usually expect mortal human beings to do.