|
"Michel Camilo (born April 4, 1954) is a pianist and composer from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is known as a great jazz, latin and classical pianist with superb technical ability, and has played and recorded with many world-famous musicians. Michel lists some of his main influences as Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Art Tatum."
(Sited from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Camilo)
I myself also play the piano, and was classically trained since age 4. Before entering Berklee College of Music, I had no idea what jazz or latin or blues were. To transfer from one music genre from another is already difficult, so I was having a hard time accepting other music genres other than classical music.
Until one day at school, I overheard someone talking about how excited they were because a great musician is having a workshop at Berklee performance center. So I decided to check it out.
I arrived early that afternoon and i sat at the first row of the audience. When the workshop began, I saw a middle-aged man, dark hair, dark eyes, walked on stage with confidence, and sat at the grand piano on stage. He did not say anything, and then he gently placed his hands on the piano keys. Music started flowing out. He was playing "Blue Bossa". He started improvising, and that was when I was totally bedazzled! When he was improvising, even when i was sitting at the front row, his fingers were playing too fast for me to see clearly. His technique was way better than any recent classical pianist that I have seen, but he was playing Latin jazz piano. I was completely amazed by how easily he could combine the two elements and make it a perfect whole.
When he finished, he started telling us about the techniques of solo piano, and how not to make it sound too isolated and empty. I took out my notebook and tape recorder, and I started talking notes.
After that workshop, I started to pay attention to his schedule. Everytime he comes to our school, I always went and see him perform. One time he was performing at Blue Note in New York. I went with some friends from Boston to New York to see that performance. That performance was then made into a live performance album. I bought that album and when the next time he came to our school, I asked for his autograph.
Here are some video links of his performance. Please take a look, I'm sure you will be amazed by him as I am^_^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXT07AnkYRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFp6F5EQiYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0mNSP1452o
|
コメント（0）
