Jan 24, 2012
Violinist surprises pianist Dave Brubeck, starts improvising from the audience
In this clip, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is performing at the Moscow Conservatory when a rather gutsy young musician in the audience starts playing along. You can see from Brubeck’s reaction that he is both surprised and delighted…
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Awesome.
I can’t even explain how much I love this. <3 It totally distracted my kids, too.
very generous of mr brubeck, and very rude of that jackass.
Glad I’m not the only one that felt that way.
I thought so too.
seriously!!! Finally someone said this. what an asshole.
Totally agree! It sounds great but bust into a practice not a performance! So disrespectful.
Oh please.
What world you live in?
First: this is a CONSERVATORY, not a theater performance.
Second: if Brubeck didn’t care and was humble to play along with him, who are you to judge?
Third: because this “jackass” has the guts to try to create a special moment, you had the opportunity to see mr. brubeck playing.
Finally, the world is a better place with this moment. Simple as that.
Normally I would agree with you, Brian, and say that it was rude… however, if you know anything about Dave Brubeck, you know that he absolutely loves to have “jam” sessions and collaborate with all kinds of musicians. Brubeck’s face literally LIT UP when the young man started up with the violin. It wasn’t a look of surprise to mask being annoyed – Brubeck genuinely enjoyed it.
Yes, I did enjoy seeing his face light up like that, but the violinist had no business interrupting Mr. Brubeck’s concert. It seemed like he was just an attention hog to me.
WORD.
Yeah. Notice at the end when Mr Brubeck went to shake dude’s hand, and dude jumped on stage?
Keep in mind that this performance was at a Conservatory of Music.
I didn’t get the feeling that he was being an attention hog. Had he been an attention hog, he’d have been facing the audience and doing more physical “tricks” to get their attention. He kept his attention focused on Brubeck and about half-way through, you can see that there was an unspoken conversation between them of mutual respect.
Had the violinist wanted to be disrespectful, he’d have A) chosen a different musician to do this with, B) started to play a different song rather than the same one with melody and harmony dancing a playful contrapuntal tune, and C) he’d have gone up on the stage immediately – not at the end to shake Brubeck’s hand.
Oh, and as for that latter bit… It didn’t seem to me that this violinist was jumping up on stage afterwards to “get his due credit” or to be an attention hog. It looked awkward for Mr Brubeck to be leaning over the side of the piano and stage to shake the young man’s hand. I bet he felt he was doing Brubeck a favor by coming to him.
That all said, I wasn’t there so I can’t be sure of intent or anything of the like. All I have to go on is knowing of the man Dave Brubeck is, knowing how he loves to collaborate on all scales, and what I could see in this video.
Now see, it’s attitudes like this that make musicians hesitate. Spontaneity, improvisation, and harmony should be applauded, particularly when it is well executed. There is no reason for this! This was all around enjoyable, and no matter his reasons for doing it, the audience enjoyed it, the pianist that was “interrupted” obviously enjoyed it, and it’s a credit to their talents that they could cooperate so smoothly with no rehearsal or even a heads up. For goodness’ sake, life isn’t a Disney movie! These things don’t happen every day. When they do, you DON’T call shame on it.
Agreed
I really don’t think this video tells enough of the story to judge the violinist negatively. For all we know, the folks in charge asked him to do it since they knew Brubeck would like it so much.
I know nothing about the circumstances or the violinist’s guts, but I know that was most certainly Joyous music making! Good gracious, Dave!
I agree with Michelle, Jessica and Abraham…It certainly seems like it was planned spontaneity. Firstly, the violinist was in the front row, with his instrument out of the case, and secondly, there was a microphone readily at hand to make sure he was heard in balance with the piano. I applaud it! It was a moment of joyful surprise for the audience and Mr. Brubeck and it is impromtu musical moments like this that give humanity cause for wonder and exuberance at the gift of music.
^^^THIS^^^
I love the pure collaboration and selfless musicianship! It isn’t about credit or fame, just pure, enjoyable music for the sake of the audience.
they hauled him off to the gulag after the camera stopped rolling.
I’d be inclined to say that those above ranting about how rude the violinist was have never been to a jazz concert or heard of Dave Brubeck because, as stated above, he enjoys that kind of jam session. at worst, the violinist could be accused of being presumptuous, maybe even arrogant. And I’ll say that when I played the Volga Boat Song in my piano lessons, it never sounded that good. (but I learned it when I had been playing only a few years and when I was older I never returned to it as I thought I’d mastered it. considering this performance, I can unequivocally say I was wrong in that assumption.)
Brubeck is not much of an improviser.
He like the interrupting Russian, but he couldn’t help him.