Minor Swing

Just as there seems to be two kinds of abstraction ("fabricated" and "lived"), there seems to be two kinds of improvisation, "fabricated" (as in "what can I do with that?") and "lived" ("the music makes itself through me").

Stéphane Grappelli is a supreme master of "lived music," a genuine model for people who, like me, aim at the most simple and sincere source they can find within themselves.

When I was about 15 (many many years ago), a friend's father gave me his whole collection of the "Quintette du Hot Club de France" records (78 rpm), hours of music that opened me to the mysterious world of improvisation.

I have gratefully never recovered from that discovery, so sketching (with/to) this beautiful "Minor Swing," a piece I have long wanted to listen to with my eyes, was a loaded experience, and especially, an experience of moments of pure joy.

Musicians are: Stéphane Grappelli (violin), Django Reinhardt (guitar), and the Quintette du Hot Club de France