A Non Linguistic Title

Last night mah girl and I went to see Bobby McFerrin in concert. I thought I had purchased front row tickets in a rare act of self-indulgence. Alas, apparently when you use the little web interface to select the seats at the very front of the theatre, they decline to show the three rows ahead of you which are apparently reserved for the rich and famous individuals that don't trouble themselves with silly things such as purchasing venue tickets. I was excited to have front row tickets for the first time in my life. I even marched right up to the very front row and was about to sit down until my girlfriend pointed out that this row was labeled "AAA" while our tickets had a lowly "A". Kind of a disappointment.

As for Bobby McFerrin, well... Let's just say that, quite literally, all of his music I've heard is the cover of Come Together he did with Rob Williams and bits of Don't Worry, Be Happy. Truth be told, I'm not even a fan of the latter can't bring myself to listen to it all the way through. So that amounts to about 1.75 songs. Why spring the extra bucks to buy (apparently not) front row seats? I heard that his concerts were a really special experience. Then between his Grammys, a short TV profile, and my girlfriend's appreciation for vocalists, I figured why not. I find a lot of improv-driven music to be a bit grating, but maybe this would be worth it anyways. 

It's hard to describe what exactly the show was like. If you wanted to be a bit dismissive, you could call it two solid hours of scat with some beat boxing mixed in. But it was more like Bobby was a composer and conductor, playing people like instruments. He had four other vocalists on stage with him, plus four groups of middle school students. He'd go to each of the middle school groups and sing a passage which they emulated and looped. The four other vocalists helped out or added their own parts. It was kinda like watching a musician work with a looping guitar pedal, but somehow more organic. It was hard not to be transfixed as he went through and a song started to grow out of the stage like a beautiful tangle of vines.

I thought the improv (and it was improv - watching the students react and try to catch on was proof enough) and non-linguistic quality might grow old or pretentious. There's some jazz I can't stand for these reasons, the seemingly endless and objectiveless meandering kinda gets to me. This concert was much different, though. Each song seemed to be a joy to watch unravel. It was like watching a textural tapestry unfold in front of you.

Good vibes. It just filled me with good vibes to hear (and see) seemingly simple melodies intertwine into one piece without any planning or instrumentation or anything. I feel like the world is a better place for having this kind of beautiful creation and creativity in it. Who'da thunk something like that could be so enjoyable and so human.

Experiences like that certainly seem to be rare, and I was really, pleasantly surprised. And despite the seating fiasco, I think I got my money's worth.
-Cril