I went to see another pianist play a couple of years ago. Now this guy has had the sort of career that most people could only dream of – playing with and writing songs for some of the most famous artists in the world.
The thing was – he dropped so many names into his bits of chat between songs that if the audience didn’t know the above already, they surely would by the end of the night.
And it took away from the music he played.
Conversely, there is a fiddler that lives locally here in Sligo who has rubbed shoulders and played music with many of the same famous artists and more, but he would never mention it himself – you would only ever hear about it from others.
And it adds to the music he plays.
You play your best music when you are in the moment, connecting in real time with your fellow musicians and your audience. Who you have or haven’t played with before doesn’t really matter. It’s better to let us find out for ourselves – we can if we want to.
