Dirty Projectors - Who knew

Last night I went to concert at the Wilbur Theater in downtown Boston to see Dirty Projectors, one of the hottest bands who are just coming off a world tour.  They will end up on the west coast in a couple of weeks.  Their music is quite something, hard to describe, but so inventive and advanced while at the same time popular.  The crowd was grooving and wildly enthusiastic. Kinda gives me hope for the future.  This was some kickass music with influences from many sources.  Man, the vocals were amazing.  They even used hocketing to achieve the most marvelous sounds. Damn....

Click on the vids to see them in full wide screen. 

 

The thing is that the bass player, Nat Baldwin, was one of my former students.  In fact, the rumor is that I help start him on bass, but in truth, my memory is getting hazier and crazier, so who knows.  I can say this.  He was one of the brightest and most gifted kids I ever taught and his work ethic was off the charts.  He is music incarnate.  He was a blast with whom to work and it was really quite humbling.  You know, when you see someone that is just sooo good, sooo gifted, well, it helps keep one's ego in check.  Here I have been a musician for over fifty years and I ain't got a tenth of what this kid has. 

I went with a couple of great friends, colleagues who are more like brothers and who had known and worked with Nat back in the day.  And his parents and family were there from Maine  While watching what was truly a remarkable and inspiring concert, I flashed on a memory of  maybe fifteen years ago, watching his father, Ben, also a fine musician, upon hearing Nat's first bass solo.  Ben was in the wings, offstage and I don't think he knew that Nat was going to play.  The kid was/is such a monster player.  Now I know you can imagine a father's face hearing the power and magic of his son's playing for the first time.  Yeah, ponder that one...

Now the world is discovering it with a little help from others like  Bjork and David Byrne. 

Ah.... the intangible rewards of teaching.... manna....