Maggie's Farm

--i count three people, BD, Paxety, and Cooper with direct links to or life-changes due to the guy --it really is a small world ("unless you have to paint it" --Steven Wright).

XRay, it IS a simple thing by the time anyone sees it --they're really just keeping time in public performance --like the fellers said. Audience can't usually see him queing the instrument sections --unless a film is being made by cameras right in there with the orchestra, and the conductor happens to be especially expressive.

This guy Daniel Barenboim, with his voung people's orchestra, HQ'd in Spain and deliberately mixing north African talent Jewish and Muslim, is on the youtubes with just such a close-up camera technique.

The URL here is among several, most of which are shorter --but lack the must-see intro where the maestro answers questions about the music as it relates to people's deepest emotions.

He's not in Bernstein's class as a marquee name, and he wasn't designed as a classic conductor by the almighty as was Bernstein --in fact he's just a short dumpy elderly little guy --but watch him transform on the spot when the music starts --into the most rubber-faced human this side of Red Skelton, cueing sections with eyebrows, mouth, tongue, cheeks chin nose ears & eyeballs bulging, sometimes a giant grinning up onto his tiptoes, throwing his hands out it looks like 20 feet reaching for the notes, then cueing darker passages rising up out of a hole glaring fierce at the kids making the sound --aw heck he's a total animated action trip, as is his band of 20-somethings, who play like they're decades more experienced --certainly due (you see it in their faces) to the music but as expressed in the old man's philosophy and personality.

And it's all right there plain to see due to the un-noticed camera work, which is the valiant thing that kept all this subtle but powerful action from being a total secret (instead of just a complete mystery) to the audience.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vypj9NCINdM
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http://tinyurl.com/kxjejf9


--for juan paxety the trombone player.

Maggie's some months ago featured this ChooChoo from 1941's "Sun Valley Serenade" --however, since then, this URL has surfaced, and it's much MUCH better; no cuts, superb sound quality (try headphones --there's a lot happening in that rhythm section), and most of all the video is far clearer, which is great when Dorothy Dandridge comes on for the big finale. Watch her in her opening cakewalk from your right to your left across stage, when one of the Nicholas Bros behind her leaps across the caboose and suddenly appears in front of her. Watch her 'surprise!' reaction. Priceless!