A Jazzy Evening
This evening, my sis and I went to a Jazz Piano Duo recital. As it was free-seating, being the typical "kiasu" type, we went a little earlier in order to reserve good seats. We managed to get really good seats, and after waiting for some time, the concert started quite punctually at 8pm.
Initially, we were very fascinated by the duo's playing. They really have fantastic technique. Super fast fingers and fantastic clarity. However, as the concert progressed, we began to get bored. The way they played sounded almost the same for every piece. The only differences were the titles of the pieces. Even their solo pieces sounded about the same.
One of them announced that he would be playing a popular piece which the audience would know, without telling what was the name of the piece. He then went on to play it. I'm sorry to say this, but by the end of the piece, I still have no idea what he was playing. However, his own composition, "A Deep Breadth" was quite nice. At least I could hear the melody!
Then the other pianist also performed his own composition, "Tango Sentimental". We were trying to catch the tango rhythm, and it only appeared about 5 minutes into the piece. And all of a sudden, we heard Bach. We looked at each other, then back at the pianist. We were wondering what was Bach's music doing in the middle of a jazz piece, and after hearing more, we were amazed by the way the pianist cleverly used some Bach influence into his music and it actually sounded quite nice.
However, as the concert was quite monotonous, we dozed off, as usual. It finally ended at about 9.15pm, with an encore given by the duo. The audience (except us) loved them, and they were given a standing ovation.
Kudos to the duo for their superb technique. As for sitting through such a "all sound the same" concert without dozing off, I think I still have a long way to go.