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I was deeply shocked to learn of a
fatal car crash that killed John Mayer. I don't know the
details of what happened but I do know that the World of
Music has lost a great contributor to "World Music".
John came to my attention in the mid
sixties when he was leading a very original ensemble
called "Indo Jazz Fusions." They used all the
traditional Indian instruments along with Jazz players
such as Jamaican sax player Joe Harriott to create
highly original music that was literally East meeting
West.
We did a television show around '67
with John conducting The Nice with a chamber orchestra.
We performed my arrangement of Bach's Brandenburg in G
which we called "Brandenburger". I don't think there is
a copy of the TV show anywhere. Later "The Nice" played
an unusual London concert at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts. John was a great violin player,
having played with both the London Philharmonic
Orchestra and The Liverpool Philharmonic. John and I
performed the Rondo.Allegro from Lalo's Symphonie
Espagnole as a duo-John on violin, me on piano. It
was a great test of sight-reading for me but John was
very encouraging and together we got through it.
When I was writing my 1st Piano
Concerto I linked up with John again to work together on
the orchestration. I'd motorcycle up to his modest
London abode armed with sketched manuscripts all in
concert pitch and we'd sit together at the piano - John
advising me of which members of the orchestra would be
more suited for a particular part. We were both Scorpios
but generally we worked very happily together. We only
had two slight disagreements. I'd written a passage in
triplets and John, having been born in Calcutta and also
studied Indian Music there, wanted it written in talas
because it would give more accent to certain notes. I
said that The London Philharmonic would find this
confusing and I was proved right at the first rehearsal.
The passage was changed back to triplets. After my piano
concerto was released I was listening to BBC Radio 3 in
my car. A live concert with the London Phil was being
broadcast from the Royal Festival Hall. They were
playing a work that they had commissioned John to write
and the last movement sounded suspiciously like the last
movement of my concerto. I called John up the next day.
I was angry. Unfortunately we had a shouting match. But
I decided not to pursue it further. John was such a
gentle soul I didn't have the heart.
Just recently he reformed Indo Jazz
Fusions with his son Jonathan on Sitar. To great acclaim
they were back and doing well selling out theatres and
jazz clubs. Sadly, I missed one of their London Gigs as
I was touring myself. I'll always remember at the end of
our music sessions he'd say, "Well, I suppose now we
could partake of that 'Nectar of the Gods' that you
brought over" - nodding in the direction of a bottle of
cognac.
�Bhagwan Tera Saatch
Rahe�
Keith Emerson
March 16, 2004
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