It doesn't matter, they're not listening anyway

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 8 Apr 2007 3:40 am

Classical violinist Joshua Bell tanks on his gig at the Metro:

The people scurry by in comical little hops and starts, cups of coffee in their hands, cellphones at their ears, ID tags slapping at their bellies, a grim danse macabre to indifference, inertia and the dingy, gray rush of modernity.

Pearls before Breakfast

Oh well, he made $32.17 for 43 minutes work -

"Actually," Bell said with a laugh, "that's not so bad, considering. That's 40 bucks an hour. I could make an okay living doing this, and I wouldn't have to pay an agent."... On Tuesday, he will be accepting the Avery Fisher prize, recognizing the Flop of L'Enfant Plaza as the best classical musician in America.

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 8 Apr 2007 5:13 am

deleted

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 8 Apr 2007 7:25 am

Life-sucking indifference like this is the bane of performers in general, and steel players in particular. IMHO, it is probably the biggest factor contributing to the (accelerated) demise of many a steeler's career ...

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 8 Apr 2007 8:54 am

What a great story! Thanks for posting it.

I was a street musician in a small group one summer back in the '70s in San Francisco. We never had a problem generating a crowd for our 20-minute set in Chinatown, but it was a tourist venue, not commuters.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 8 Apr 2007 9:57 am

b0b. Back in the 70s I was hanging out in Chinatown one day and heard two street players that I still remember. They each played mandolin and they were playing Bach and sounded incredible. There were some great players on the street hustling in Chinatown back then.

James Cann · Post by **James Cann** » 8 Apr 2007 10:07 am

Professor Jonathan Hemlock (Clint Eastwood), in "The Eiger Sanction":

"Art is only for those who will appreciate it."

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 8 Apr 2007 10:16 am

Well put, James.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 8 Apr 2007 11:32 am

The article touches on a lot of points, but the most interesting to me was that it's highly likely that at least several people of the thousand that rushed by in that neighborhood are either going to see, or have seen, Joshua Bell play in a concert hall, a privilege for which they will pay over $100. At that time, what they hear will seem entirely different to them - without the context of tuxedos, limousines, champagne etc., they are just unable to process what they're hearing.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 8 Apr 2007 1:25 pm

Hey, that is a nice set list for steel guitar as well as for fiddle. I even played 2 of those 3 at the show in Mesa AZ this year!

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 8 Apr 2007 2:43 pm

You played the Chaconne??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 8 Apr 2007 5:24 pm

Bill Hatcher wrote:You played the Chaconne?

No; maybe in 10 years.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 8 Apr 2007 5:55 pm

What you're saying then Dave, is, it's all in how the music is marketed to them? That's what I'm getting.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 8 Apr 2007 7:30 pm

"And in the naked light I saw, 10,000 people maybe more...People talking without speaking...People hearing without listening..."
Paul Simon

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 9 Apr 2007 5:41 am

I can't tell you how many times I have played with the Atlanta Symphony and in scanning the audience during a performance seen people who actually paid big money for a ticket sitting there nodding off. Maybe the Post should do a story on that.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 9 Apr 2007 6:05 am

Can hardly blame the communters. They are trying to get to work and to their trains after all. Busking on the street in a non-metro setting is a better venue to get a crowd. And you don't know that he didn't have a positive impact on people's day for the little snatch of music they did hear. I've heard great musicians in the subways of Manhattan, but I usually have very little time to stop and listen.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 9 Apr 2007 1:37 pm

Sad indeed, but "pearls before swine" is not an altogether incorrect analogy. Most people obsess today on sports figures, children who grew up mesmerized by "the game". The arts, today, don't even rate as public entertainment. The average professional football, baseball, or basketball player probably makes more in a season than even the best concert musician can hope to make in his entire lifetime. Most people on the street would be hard-pressed to name a half-dozen presently performing, top-tier, classical musicians, while most could probably rattle on the names of a hundred or more sports' stars without batting an eye.

Had I seen Bell that day, I may not have recognized his face, but his mastery of the instrument would have caught my attention, and held my sense of awe, and I would have given him the attention and respect he so richly deserves.

"The job" will be there tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow - but the master may not. Money is everywhere, like grains of sand on the beach. But a true virtuoso, a master of the instrument? They are, indeed, as rare as the finest pearls.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 9 Apr 2007 3:55 pm

I was astonished when one of my daughters told me that she had no idea who Yo Yo Ma is. Here's one of the most celebrated musicians of her generation, and she's never heard of him? Yes, it's sad...

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 10 Apr 2007 6:41 am

What kind of crowd do you suppose Kobe would have drawn in the Metro for a dribbling demonstration?

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 10 Apr 2007 8:34 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:What kind of crowd do you suppose Kobe would have drawn in the Metro for a dribbling demonstration?

Who is Kobe?

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 10 Apr 2007 9:23 am

My guess would be, Kobe would draw significantly more than Bell.

But sticking with music, what kind of crowd would Justin Timberlake draw in the Metro? Actually a two-part question: A) If people recognized him, and B) If he was disguised, so that the performance itself was the only potential draw.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 10 Apr 2007 11:35 am

Earnest - Kobe Bryant, famous dribbler.

Brint Hannay · Post by **Brint Hannay** » 10 Apr 2007 12:27 pm

Of course, the fact that commuters have other things on their minds and places to be and people to see is a factor here, but...

A (commercial) TV producer would have to have a professional death wish to schedule a Joshua Bell concert opposite "American Idol". (Not that they would schedule one anytime, anyway.)

No, commuter distraction isn't really the issue.

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 11 Apr 2007 8:12 am

Hard to imagine a people on their way to work too busy to stop and notice a gifted musician playing unfamiliar songs, NOT! I think b0b made a key point in that he worked the street job in a resort/tourist setting. I know I can be pretty oblivious to goings on around me when I'm heading to work or walking through a public place on business.

Oh, and guilty as charged as far as not recognizing classical music and musicians.

James Cann · Post by **James Cann** » 11 Apr 2007 9:42 am

What kind of crowd do you suppose Kobe would have drawn in the Metro for a dribbling demonstration?

What? Kobe dressing in disguise, going out alone, standing in a Metro station, bouncing a ball simply to see who might stop and watch?

Sorry, but neither the man nor the act fits the experiment.