GLENN GOULD – MAESTRO – MADMAN

Had Gould been born 50 years earlier than in 1932 he would probably have been destroyed musically by electric shock treatment – at the very least.

Gould was obsessive, with many tics and tocs – he didn’t like people, was rude and abrasive, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He hated Concert Halls and did his greatest oeuvre on his fetish Steinway, sat on a low, little folding stool in the recording studio, often humming, moaning and groaning as he played.

He was also analytical, intellectual, contentious, more perhaps for his manner, than his highly distinctive performance.

He was, in the opinion of many Bach lovers, the greatest baroque and contrepoint Bach master of the century.

GOULD’S GOLDBERG VARIATIONS AND HANNIBAL LECTER

Reportedly the music you have just listened to was the delight of Hannibal the Cannibal when he was carving a new victim or « having a friend for luncheon ».

Sadly Glenn Gould didn’t live to learn this bit of filmic gossip. Suffering a massive cerebral attack which paralyzed his left side and later left him brain dead at the young age of 50. His father had the sad duty of instructing the doctors to shut off his artificial life supply.

Johann Sebastion Bach (1685 – 1750) continues to inspire through to today and beyond. . .

THELONIOUS MONK – MAESTRO – MADMAN

Monk (1917-1982) was distinctly weird, a man of fetishes who had difficulty dressing and performed little circular dances on stage when he wasn’t at the piano. He played with his massive hands and fingers impossibly flat.

He was also – you got it first time – analytical, intellectual and musically highly eccentric.

And a genius.

His early years were difficult as his compositions were considered too difficult to play… however his Ellington collection established him in the Jazz milieu and when he teamed up with Coltrane the world recognized their genius.

A BRIDGE BETWEEN BAROQUE AND BEBOP

Where is the difference? In my book there isn’t any. None whatsoever. These giants from different centuries, cultures and languages march together from the past into the future.

TOCCATA – FUGUE – OFF MINOR IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING.