Klarinet Archive - Posting 000565.txt from 1998/06

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] overcoming chestnut ennui
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 03:39:34 -0400

It's easy to put Leroy Anderson down, but hard to deny that he was one of
the great melodists of our time. Most of his work, once heard, sticks in
the mind forever. Call them instant cliches, as I have done, but can't you
say the same of Stephen Foster, or Irving Berlin?

Non-musicians like hearing the tunes they know played again and again. That
can drive musicians mad. Try playing a few piano gigs in a lounge. If you
played what the drinkers want to hear, you'd do the same eight or ten tunes
over and over.

I've heard that the New Orleans old-timers who play at Preservation Hall
have a sign up on the wall that says "Requests, $2 - Saints, $5." But
without audiences we'd all be not only poorer, but lonely.

Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>

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