ikeinblackriver

I recently bought the Miles Davis Note for Note transcriptions of Oscar Peterson's famous works. It's only this long after his death I blew permanently some of my recordings of his, and started playing them again. I can be very emotional, and as he lived close enough to me, and I followed his career both before and after his stroke very closely, and pilgrimaged to Toronto to hear him numerous times. After his death all it took was the opening bars of Hymn to Freedom to start me welling up and I just couldn't listen.

I can say that I'll never be anything like OP or Glen Gould (who I encountered during my University days in 69). However following the sheet music that I can do, often taking scores or using my wife's Norton scores etc. But this book has bought me great joy, and I've tried to take some musical ideas from Oscar's jazz tunes and stick them into my terrible improv skills. If this kind of thing tickles your fancy grab a copy from this website's store and enjoy.

I was certainly not on any boat up the Black River in a marina when 5 London firefighters got arrested for public drunkenness. I was in the bathroom being overcome like a landlubber only to emerge to see them being carted off in Police Cars. I waited at least 4 hours or 10 minutes, snuck back on the boat, and slept overnight until the return of the other 5 awoke me for the trip home.

I for one would never have had a beer on the Black.

LOL.

Oh and I played 6ths and jazz chords in church. Horror of horrors. My brothers and I were forced into a trio when I was 14. I sang bass and played the piano until on fateful Christmas we were to sing Silent Night at the Sunday evening service. My middle brother could look at anyone and make them laugh. He'd be 12, the youngest 9. I'm playing the grand, mic in front of me, my 2 brothers with a big headed mic that almost hid your head, and we had been warned NOT to slur Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Well since the Wed. night rehearsal with the choir director my middle brother kept up the slur practicing it everywhere, grinning from ear to ear. P.......e........e...a.....c .....h. slur up the crescendo, exaggerate it..well he took on look at my younger brother just before the phrase and the 3 of us disintegrated into laughter. The end of the Conley boys trio.

My parents have their 60th wedding anniversary this summer (I was born 9 months to the day of the wedding later!), and we plan on resurrecting the trio and doing that song for Mom. I don't know if she will see the humour.

John Conley
Musica est vita