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Nigel, says Emrys Baird, is in touch with his feelings

and wants us to be, too. Back last December, Mr. Baird went to Club 606, which, he tells us, is ‘the cosiest of all London venues.’ He wrote a review of the gig for Blues and Soul, and I can’t for the life of me account for the fact that I’ve only just come across it now ! The thing with Mr. Baird is that he always enjoys Nigel’s concerts so much that I feel immediately in empathy with him and what he writes about them strikes so many sympathetic chords with me that I get the feeling that I was there too, even though the whole Atlantic Ocean divides us, one from the other.

Here’s a small sample of the kind of stuff I’m talking about:

‘Garrick [one of the other two violinists playing with Nigel and Omar Puente] headed for his pedals and total annihilation…………good attempt, but NK has more pedals than most death metal guitarists and won’t get blown into the bulrushes quite so easily. It’s a kind of musical sonic contact sport, the contortions, twists, enveloped in a swirl of screeching, wailing flurries that provide NK with an unleashing cathartic release. To get to the sweet stuff, the mellow, the gentle side of his playing, you have to endure the flip side, and, like life, it can be brutal, nasty and ugly. This guy’s in touch with his feelings and he wants us to be, too.’

It’s a kind of prose equivalent of the music, isn’t it ?

Mr. Baird notes that Nigel is a generous player, and encourages his fellow players, even to the point of egging them on…………….even the owner of the club, Steve Ruby, joined in for a while, playing what Mr. Baird calls ‘a superb melodic flute !’ He draws special attention to the bass player, Alec Dankworth, and says that he held down the group ‘like Captain Ahab chasing the whale in a Force 9 gale.’ It was, he tells us, ‘electrifying stuff !!’

It must have been. I wish I’d been there !

If you listened to Andrew Ford’s conversation with Nigel on ABC Radio, you’ll know that this year marks the fortieth anniversary of the death by misadventure of Jimi Hendrix. Nigel suggested that we should throw a party and Mr. Ford said that Jimi would have done ! I don’t know if it’s merely fortuitous, but Tom Jacobs has written an article for Miller-McCune Magazine, in which he discusses what might be the explanation for Jimi’s ‘enormous creativity.’ A psychologist called Stephen Christman, writing in Laterality, suggests that this enormous creativity derived from the fact that Jimi was what he calls ‘mixed-handed’…………….he wrote and ate with his right hand, but combed his hair and played his guitar with his left. This, says Mr. Christman, indicates ‘unusually strong interaction between the brain’s right and left hemispheres.’

Jimi was able to ‘integrate the lyrics and melodies of his songs and perhaps even to integrate the older blues and R&B tradition with the emerging folk, rock and psychedelic sounds of the 60’s.’ He could ‘use his right hand to fret the strings and his left hand to pluck the strings and manipulate the pickup selector and tone, volume and tremolo controls on the body of his instrument.’ In this way, he could ‘generate otherworldly howls, shrieks and siren-like sounds on the guitar.’ An example would be his ‘irreverent rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, recorded at Woodstock !’

If you’d like to hear this rendition, just click HERE.  One commentator said that he could hear the wail of the bombs falling in Vietnam. Another one said that this was the most important moment in rock history.

Jimi’s death occurred before the era of sophisticated brain scans, so this is all necessarily speculative. But here’s Nigel with his take on Jimi:

‘I think that’s what’s interesting about Hendrix – the lateral consciousness that he has. I think integration in music is what really makes originality.’

I’ll take Nigel’s word on anything musical, won’t you ?



A propos of absolutely nothing at all, except maybe just the mention of Nigel’s name, if you would like to listen to a shredded rock version of part of ‘Summer’ from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, click HERE and hear Joe Satiriani play it.

If you think that I’m letting YouTube do all my work for me this month……….. well, that is what YouTube is for !

As you know, as well as I do, Nigel and his fellow conspirators are playing a Bach/Ellington program in Australia at the moment. If you don’t live in Australia, there’s no need to get despondent about missing this, since they’re going to be playing this program far and wide in the coming months…………just make sure you get your tickets in time ! Some people have wondered about the juxtaposition of these two composers and just how Nigel came to make it.

A critic from the Sydney Morning Herald, who prefers to remain anonymous ( ? ) noted that Nigel would be playing Bach along with Ellington and asked him why he would put Bach and Ellington on the same bill ? Nigel replied as follows:

‘It reflects my background and what I like in music. Both were great harmonic masters who wrote beautifully. I’ve recorded the Bach part of the show before, but I’m altering it here. The jazz musicians are going to provide some improvisational insight into the Bach, which is not strange , because the Baroque period was one of the great periods of musical improvisation.

Then, for the Ellington, I’ve written all the big band shit for the strings to play. So I’m bringing a little of each genre into the other. And they’re going to blend. Hopefully.’

In conversation with Daniel Ziffer, of The Age, he reiterated that ‘Bach was the first great harmonic master,’ and went on to say that ‘Within jazz, Ellington’s mastery displayed that it was real music, not just show tunes or entertainment.’

Nigel says that he ‘would have thought they’d appreciate each other. In the same way that Bach would have thought equally of someone like Stravinsky. Or………….he might have hated both of them !’

What did people think of it all when they actually heard it ?

A critic writing in Paramatta Blog had to take time to adjust ! He writes:

‘Merging with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra musicians were members of Kennedy’s jazz quintet, although the sight of drummer Krzysztof Dziedzic’s brushing his way through Bach and Orphy Robinson’s marimba doubling with Neal Peres da Costa’s harpsichord did take a little getting used to.’

But get used to it he did. By the end of the concert he felt able to write that

‘This was a night that bore out Ellington’s memorable aphorism: “You know what it is about music ? When it sounds good, it is good !” ’


Harriet Cunningham, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, had this to say about it:

‘Officially, this was a two-hour concert of concertos by J.S.Bach and arrangements of Duke Ellington’s big band greats. The reality was a 3-plus-hour jam session where a cadence could be a harmonic trampoline to melodies from every corner of the musical spectrum; where “what if ?” meetings developed into searing musical partnerships; and where Kennedy nudged, cajoled and tickled musicians and audiences out of their comfy concert zone and into a musical lovefest.’

As for Nigel himself, Ms. Cunningham says that in the end it’s simple:

‘The man plays in perfect octaves like no other, has a tone that makes concertmaster Dene Olding’s sound merely good, and triple-stops his way through a jazz riff without ever sounding ugly. Unless, of course, he wants to.

You can do anything when you’re King Kennedy.’

Well, yes……….but ANYTHING ? Even when it’s Nigel, one has to draw the line somewhere, doesn’t one, girls ?

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Too Much Kennedy Will Kill You………….

Now there’s an interesting proposition if ever there was one ! Apart from the fact that it sounds to me the ideal way to go, since eventually we all do go, it makes me wonder how MUCH Kennedy is TOO much, and how do you tell ? I’m reminded of John Keats and his poem Ode to a Nightingale, more specifically the lines about how great it would be ‘to cease upon the midnight with no pain/While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad/In such an ecstasy !’ Yes, well, actually when you put it like that, it seems a somewhat excessive way to show how much you enjoyed Nigel’s performance, doesn’t it ? And that’s quite apart from how Nigel would feel if people started keeling over left, right and centre in response to his pouring forth his soul abroad. They would have to start printing disclaimers on the tickets……………listen at your own risk, that sort of thing, and getting people to sign waivers before they let them into the hall !

In case you were wondering, I found the original statement in a blog called A City on Earth, which claims to be ‘about the way of life in Istanbul and nothing else.’ If you try to find out who writes this blog, you’re doomed to disappointment………..’It’s just me being me’…………..you’re reading what Admin has written and that’s that. Any way, he was at Nigel’s concert in Istanbul at the Babylon Club when he came to the conclusion that too much Kennedy will kill you. Here is what he says:

‘Last night in Babylon I learnt a few things about performing music. To start with, violin is a weird instrument. Think about a Bach double violin concerto and then think about tunes from Jimi Hendrix coming out of its strings……..you see what I mean ?’

Well, no, I don’t, actually, any more than I am surprised that Nigel can ‘still make (good) music’ with ‘a cord dangling from [his] very own violin bow.’ I’ve seen THAT more times than I can remember, haven’t you ? Admin also tells us that Jarek Smietana, whom he calls ‘old and fat,’ (which seems to me to be totally uncalled for !) was wearing a sequined T-shirt and I don’t see what that’s got to do with it, either ! if you read on, still seeking enlightenment, you find that Admin left after 5 or 6 songs..……’otherwise, I’d have learnt a few more things about performing music and had more words to talk about the Kennedy legacy,’ talk of which is surely a touch premature ?

Admin concludes that ‘Nigel Kennedy is a superb violinist, btw.’ And that’s it. If you can figure out where he’s coming from with his remark about too much Kennedy, I’m sure we’d all be grateful if you’d enlighten the rest of us. Maybe Admin will himself read this and write in ? You think ?

While I’m on the subject of Nigel playing Hendrix…………well, I was, in a way……….the Concert Hall in Brisbane has put out a short promo for Nigel’s Hendrix concert there in March. Hendrix, they tell us, was crowned ‘The Wild Man of Pop,’ but almost 30 years after his death, it’s in the world of classical music that he has caused a stir. They mention The Kennedy Experience, then go on to say that

‘Kennedy sees Jimi Hendrix as a traditional composer trapped in traditional rock format. Hendrix, he insists, should be up there with the all-time greats, on a par with Mozart, Bach, Liszt or Chopin.’

This really intrigued me. Does Nigel really think that ? I have to admit that what I know about Jimi Hendrix wouldn’t even make a satisfactory Facebook message. In fact, if Nigel knew how little I know, he would probably disown me…………..that’s if he didn’t punch me in the mouth or something ! So I googled Hendrix. Here’s some of what I now know about him.

What we hear routinely today in rock music was actually started by Hendrix…………he invented it. He created an entirely new sound, using effects as extensions of the instrument when everybody else was using them as gimmicks. He did things with the guitar which no one else had even thought of. There have been great guitarists since his time, but most of them owe their careers to what he left as a legacy of truly astounding guitar-playing skill. Hendrix was one of the musicians who popularized the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock which he often used to deliver an exaggerated pitch in his solos, particularly with high bends and use of legato based around the pentatonic scale. As a record producer, Hendrix also broke new ground in using the recording studio as an extension of his musical ideas. He was one of the first to experiment with stereophonic and phasing effects for rock recording.

But what struck me most forcefully was this comment by somebody using the pseudonym ‘mockcarr.’ Here’s what he wrote:

‘He wrote and played a simple number like Little Wing and summoned ache like you’ve never felt. Other guitarists play the same notes………..and get notes. His playing gives me as vivid a feeling as I get in Beethoven’s Sixth, a Mozart concerto or a Chopin nocturne. As vivid as going down to the bottom with Armstrong or to Pee Wee Russell’s wistful spot beyond the rainbow. But then there’s the electric power of it too, the thick roar that attacks you from room to room and sits you back down or maybe makes you stand up. That one trilling string that seeps into your ears before the song begins, followed by a cascade of power chords that involuntarily nod your head in metronomic prayer.’

Somebody else, identified only as ‘ibanez_zz00’ sums it up:

‘I think really only a true musician can understand the intensity of Mr. Hendrix.’

I’m going to ask Nigel which Hendrix album I should buy first. I’ll let you know what he says. Meanwhile, you can listen to Nigel’s version of Little Wing on YouTube………just click HERE.

Actually, it turns out that there are things I don’t know about Nigel, believe it or not ! Somebody has seen fit to let us know that Nigel has been given permission by Aston Villa to have his ashes scattered on the pitch at Villa Park when the time comes. Eric Cantona, it seems, wants his scattered at Old Trafford. Well, I suppose ! With the Villa doing so well right now, anything’s possible. I wonder where Gabriel Agbonlahor wants his ashes to end up ? Somewhere in Erdington ? That’s where he was born.

Speaking of the Villa, I read an interesting little snippet written by a Dave Woodhall. Dave says that he was standing outside the ground where the Villa were about to play Arsenal……this was just before Christmas. ‘As usual,’ he writes, ‘there were plenty of Villa fans looking for tickets. None were available and then up popped Nigel Kennedy.’ He goes on:

‘Celebrity supporters usually come in for some stick and quite rightly so. Most of them wouldn’t have known one end of a football from the other before “the beautiful game” got fashionable, but Nigel isn’t like that at all. Anyone who, like him, stood on the open sewer that used to masquerade as Chelsea’s away end or always sits with the Villa supporters on away trips when he could be in the directors’ box is a genuine fan, whether they’re famous or not.’

Nothing surprising there, is there ? One thing you can rely on is the fact that Nigel is ALWAYS genuine, no matter what he does. He doesn’t know how to be anything else.

Anyway, back to Dave’s story. Nigel offered him a small package, which Dave could see contained six tickets to the game. ‘A’right, mate ?’ he asked. ‘Can you get rid of these for me ?’ It turned out that a family party who were going to the match had been reduced to Nigel and Agnieszka, hence the spare tickets. ‘And he wouldn’t take a penny for them,’ Dave tells us. He concludes:

‘So , on behalf of the six very fortunate Villa fans who thought they had no chance of watching the game and the Salvation Army collector who had a windfall when one of them insisted on giving something for his ticket, thanks, Nigel !’

In the midst of so much nonsense that masquerades as newsworthy comment these days, it’s refreshing to read something written about Nigel in which I can actually recognize the guy I know and actually hear the ring of truth in what I’m reading !

A couple of tantalizing snippets to end with……………..Nigel may be appearing at the Llangollen Eisteddford later this year and he may also turn up and play something at the Henley Festival as well. I’ll tell you about it if he does.

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Did you think you’d heard the end of Mr. Violinhunter ?

Yes, well. So did I ! I thought he might have crossed Nigel off his list of people to write about in his blog, Prone to Violins. Not so. The occasion of Nigel’s birthday on December 28th seemed momentous enough to him to inspire him to draw it to our attention. ‘Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist born on December 28th, 1956,’ he writes and then goes on to inform us that Itzhak Perlman was 10 years old at the time, and leaves us to draw our own profound conclusions from this fact. Yes, but wait ! There’s better to come.

‘He is famous for wearing a funny outfit on stage, his funny haircut, and his very slow rendition of the Brahms violin concerto.’

No, seriously. I am NOT making this up ! When is the last time you casually dropped the name “Nigel Kennedy” into a conversation and everyone said : ‘Oh, yes, that’s the guy who plays the Brahms violin concerto so slowly, isn’t it ?’ As for his ‘funny’ outfit and haircut………..well, I suppose that might depend on one’s definition of ‘funny,’ but draggy Brahms ? Oh, come ON ! We’re not talking about what individual listeners might think about Nigel’s Brahms, but about what makes him famous. I wonder if Mr. Violinhunter has ever come across some obscure concertos called The Four Seasons or some composer bloke called Vivaldi ?

There’s more. Oh, yes ! Try this:

‘A few critics have said that his classical playing style lacks discipline, insight, and finesse, although that opinion is really open to question.’

This is so laughing-one’s-ass-off funny that it’s almost endearing, isn’t it ? ‘Open to question,’ indeed ! It’s positively delicious ! ( I would like to hug you, Mr. Violinhunter ! ) I do challenge him, though, to name the critics he had in mind when he wrote that and, what’s more, let us know where we can find their pronouncements and read them for ourselves. Honestly ! I don’t know if even music critics really deserve such bad press !

I hope that when Daniel Hope’s birthday comes around, Mr. Violinhunter will tell us how old Nigel was at the time !

Meanwhile, a gentleman calling himself simply Massimo also felt that he wanted to mark Nigel’s birthday by writing about it in his blog at educacionmusical.es. He tells us that Nigel is one of his (many) favourite violinists:

‘Obviously, I especially like his playing, but I also like his character, which, contrary to what is usual these days, is not built by the record company, but is a sincere reflection of his personality. I have the pleasure and honour to know him personally.’

Well, I have that pleasure and honour too, and it’s downright refreshing to find somebody who tells Nigel like he is, rather than mindlessly repeating what the press make up about him. Gracias, Senor Massimo !

Amongst other things that make Nigel’s birthday worth celebrating, Senor Massimo mentions the warmth and closeness of his rapport with his audiences as well as ‘his respect and concern for all types of music.’ It turns out that Senor Massimo HAS heard of The Four Seasons and has some interesting things to say about it. He tells us that he likes a lot of historicist interpretations and the sound of period instruments, but goes on to say:

‘I also like executions of character, looking between the notes of the score to find something that reinforces the likely intentions of the composer…….[in Nigel’s playing of Winter] we have several examples: the use of sul ponticello effect, bringing the bow to the bridge where the string offers greater resistance to produce a sound of almost chilling cold [and] the use of spiccato arc blow, which allows the production of lightning quick finely chopped notes and exaggerated accents.’

Senor Massimo knows that the violins of Vivaldi’s time were not capable of such effects but wonders whether something might have been possible along those lines, given that the end of the Baroque period was a time of what he calls ‘historical-artistic exaggeration.’

He also draws our attention to the introduction to the second movement, which, he says, ‘feels improvised………almost a cadenza ante literam, preceding rather than following the main music. In short, Kennedy gives a studied performance of the smallest detail, without giving up the fascination of improvisation.’

One might describe this performance as demonstrating ‘discipline, insight, and finesse,’ might one not ? Clearly, Senor Massimo hasn’t been reading the right critics !

Someone else who hasn’t been doing that either has been watching Nigel playing ‘Purple Haze’ on YouTube. He identifies himself as TheMank999 and has a nice incisive way with words. He sums up his impressions like this:

‘Nigel……… Mad as a bucket of chips. Brilliant and one of a kind.’

I don’t know about you, but I can relate to that just fine. I know exactly where the guy is coming from, don’t you ?

Let’s bring on some big guns now, shall we ? John Fordham is a highly respected critic who writes mainly for The Guardian. He is slightly hung up on Nigel’s habit of ‘wandering the stage with a bottle of beer, swearing and calling everybody “man”’……………he mentions that every time he writes about him ! But, he goes on, ‘there’s nothing frivolous about his demeanour once he tucks the fiddle under his chin.’ Mr.Fordham was impressed with Nigel’s performance at Ronnie Scott’s last year:

‘The former Yehudi Menuhin protégé was in imposing improv form on his summer gig at Ronnie Scott’s, cruising through Latin swingers, funk romantic ballads and uptempo jazz themes.’

This boded well for what was, at the time Mr. Fordham wrote this, the upcoming gig at Club 606. The two other members of the three-fiddle frontilne there would be Chris Garrick and Omar Puente, ‘who share [Nigel’s] breadth of view and technique.’

I’m sure that Mr. Fordham must have gone to Club 606 for this concert, but if so, he hasn’t said anything about it. Not that I can discover, anyway.

If you were at the Tower of London Festival on September 10th, you’ll have enjoyed the contribution of Orphy Robinson on Hammond organ. Mr. Robinson tells us that he first met Nigel when he was signed to Blue Note Records and that they got on really well, but that they hadn’t seen each other since. He goes on:

‘We hadn’t seen each other since that time, but when I bumped into Nigel in the street one day in the summer, it turned out that he was about to embark on a project that he would love me to be involved in. This turned out to be his Bach/Ellington project for small band and orchestra. So some rehearsals were hooked up, leading to me performing with Nigel's own small ensemble plus the Philharmonic orchestra at the Tower.

‘I had a really good time hanging with his regular jazz band,who are both excellent musicians and good people. Early next year,I will be touring with this project in some pretty cool locations and a possible recording is also in the pipeline!’

These ‘pretty cool locations’ are, in fact, in Australia in February and March. Mr. Robinson will join Tomasz, Adam and Krzysztof, along with Doug Boyle (guitar) and of course Nigel to play Nigel’s Duke Ellington arrangements.

In that regard, I’ve come across what purports to be the program for the concert at the Festspielhaus in Baden Baden in May. I should warn you that Nigel will probably totally ignore this schema and play exactly what he likes, but the chances are good that he will in fact play some of the pieces listed here ! Anyway, for your entertainment, here it is :

For what it's worth !

'Open to question !'  Dear heaven ! I 'll have to get used to it !

Talk to you again in February.

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I  guess you all know about double-longas, don’t you ?

Unless you’re like me and haven’t encountered any yet ! (Don’t worry too much…..they’re not carnivores !)  What’s happened is that I’ve read a short poem on my friend Samuel Thompson’s Facebook page entitled ‘Double-Longa.’ It was posted by Mike Anestor.............I'm afraid I don't know if Mike composed it or is simply quoting it from somewhere. Sam is the Hurricane Katrina violinist and if you don’t already read his blog, you should ! You’ll find it at Life, Musicmaking and the World…………..just click.

Anyway, the poem. Here it is:

Double – Longa (a rest in 32 counts)

    Take the bow off the string

   And breathe

Inspire more than just brevity

Maintain this sensation of peace beyond the end of the measure

This is more than a rest

It’s a quest to get whole

A journey where sanity is found between bars

Written with stillness in between

This is not about the absence of noise

But about the quality of a silence

 

“The quality of a silence”………………..yes, well, I know what you’re all thinking…………what does this have to do with Nigel, right ?  There’s one kind of silence we all know about, in connection with him, and that’s the silence which ensues when he stops playing. Fiona Maddocks, in the London Evening Standard, wrote about Nigel’s performance of the Elgar at the Festival Hall last spring:

‘As an encore Kennedy…..glittered through the tracery of the Prelude of Bach’s E major partita. It was a perfect and eloquent answer to an audience stunned to silence.’

Stunning us to silence.....

 

Stunned to silence is right ! It’s what we expect to be when we go to Nigel’s concerts, isn’t it ? I’m thinking as I write of one concert in particular where I was part of an audience at the Philharmonie in Koln listening to Nigel play the Elgar. At the end of the Andante the final hushed notes were followed by one of the most eloquent silences I’ve ever experienced…………….we forgot to breathe, so compelling was the quality of that silence, and it became part of the concerto itself, as important as the music in creating the overall effect. There’s only one word for it………..WOW

But silence in music can be more closely connected than that. Nigel told Graham Reid in an interview for Elsewhere that he enjoyed working with Kroke because of the greater sense of space he discovered in their music:

‘I like that essence of space. All music comes from silence in the first place and you need to be aware of that. Sometimes I’ve become tired of hearing myself play lots of notes and when playing with others I’m often asking them to play less. If it’s in the improvising genre the last thing I want is someone taking a solo and just playing blistering notes for half an hour. That’s all been done and it’s how you throw spins and what space you leave which actually gives some perspective.’

As far as silence in jazz is concerned we couldn’t do better than to listen to Tyra Neftzger, writing for All About Jazz. She tells us that silence is not just ‘the canvas on which music is painted………..it is one of the colours on the composer’s palette.’ She goes on:

‘What sets jazz apart from other music forms is that each musician (through improvisation) is also a composer and needs to know how to use silence effectively…………Knowing when to play notes and fill a void or when to lay back is just as important as playing the right notes…………….In terms of tension and release, silence can release tension when it follows a phrase , but it also builds tension as the listener awaits the next phrase.’

Three voices out of five.....a whole new world of sound

(Courtesy interia.pl)

Getting back to what Nigel says about too many notes, we can understand where Ms. Neftzger is coming from when she explains that ‘music can become muddy when too many people spout off idea on top of idea………knowing when and how much to utilize silence is part of listening, one of the skills of any musician.’

I had to learn how to listen to jazz when Nigel started playing it in a big way. I was so accustomed to hearing him play classical music where he performed and the other musicians listened to him and accompanied him that I was simply confused when I found that it doesn’t work that way with jazz. Jeff, who has become the jazz editor for this website, taught me to listen to what Nigel is NOT playing with as much respect as I was used to listening to what he did play. To my surprise, a whole new world of sound and colour emerged for me when I did that. The meaning of the term ‘quintet’ was revealed to me and I found that I could HEAR five voices where before I could only hear one. And listening to what Piotr and Tomasz and Adam and Pawel, who has now become Krzyszstof, were NOT playing meant that I heard what Nigel WAS playing in an entirely new way.

It’s a whole new world as far as I am concerned.

I do have to quote Leopold Stokowski on the subject of music and silence, because it’s funny ! He found that an audience was too noisy at one of his concerts and chided them as follows:

‘A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their music on silence. We provide the music, and you provide the silence !’

Dare I add that Stokowski was conducting the concert, not playing an instrument in it ? ! ! !

Newspapers in Lublin in Poland are having a great time with attention-grabbing headlines, such as ‘Nigel Kennedy Goes to Jail,’ and ‘Nigel Kennedy in Custody !’ You have to admit that you would read the rest, wouldn’t you ? Nigel was booked for two concerts in Lublin on the first and second of December, where he would be playing with Kroke. Apparently Nancy Kusio with some other initiators at the prison in Lublin came up with the idea of inviting them all to come and play a short concert for the inmates. Apparently, such visits are part of their rehabilitation program. They seem to have made a list (and no doubt checked it twice !) in an attempt to find out who’d been naughty or nice………………..if you were on the ‘nice’ list, you got to go to the concert. I’m not sure what happened to the ones who ended up on the ‘naughty’ list, apart from the fact that they were NOT allowed to go to the concert.

Helping to rehabilitate.....nice, eh ?

(Courtesy Agencja Gazeta)

It took a bit of negotiating, mostly because of Nigel’s busy schedule, but in the end Nigel, along with Kroke, turned up and played a few songs for the inmates. Reports say that ‘he was clearly delighted at the meeting……… he joked in broken Polish, evoking peals of laughter among the residents and storms of applause.’

After a short concert, questions were invited. Nigel answered them with the help of Agnieszka, who was there to assist Nigel with the audience. Naturally he seized the opportunity to complain that he’s a henpecked husband……….’pantoflarzem !’

‘Where’s "Purple Haze” ?’ someone asked from the floor. Nigel immediately played it as a violin solo. ‘ The answer was much easier than I expected,’ he admitted with a smile. ‘What is the food like ?’ he asked the audience.

‘You must stay and try it ! ‘ shouted one of them.

(There’s no comment on whether or not he accepted this invitation !)

Nigel concluded, ‘It was fantastic to play here. !’

There is a short video of bits of this concert in custody ………….you can view it HERE. Be patient with the introduction………….eventually Nigel and Kroke will appear !

Whatever you find to celebrate on December 25^th, drink one for me !

Back in the New Year.

  

ELSIE