Bracing myself, counting the blessings

After the untimely passing of master tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain at the age of 73, I have been casting my gaze apprehensively over other “stars” who have illuminated my musical firmament all these decades. I had almost forgotten that I saw Zakir Hussain with John McLaughlin and Shakti in London in the 1970s. Similarly, when I heard earlier this year that Phil Lesh died, I realised I had almost forgotten seeing the Grateful Dead in London in 1972 (?).

Still, the music goes on. Yesterday evening I attended a concert in Bath Abbey that was nothing like those concerts. For one thing, it was mostly choral - my wife was in one of the choirs. It was also decidedly formal. All the performers dressed in concert clothing (mostly black and white). The conductors strode to the podium, bowed to the audience, turned to the choirs, conducted, then turned back to the audience and bowed again. It was all well rehearsed. Most of the singers and players were amateurs living locally. The organ thundered, which reminded me that I don’t much like church organs as they are generally used. All in all, musically very different from those concerts, except for one piece. It was an arrangement of “O come, o come Emmanuel” played solo on the piano by Will Ashworth, a young man who had arranged the piece. It was steeped in ECMness.

Beautiful and poignant in itself, it filled me with an urgent yearning to listen to veteran ECM artists who are mercifully still with us, and to others who sadly aren’t.

A desire to avoid tempting Providence prevents me from saying whom and what I listened to when I was back home. But I will say that I am grateful for the pleasure that I have enjoyed thanks to Manfred Eicher and his vision.