Marc Sachnoff asked,

> Has anyone in our Digest ever heard Cook play live?"

I remember a TV interview with him that included his being asked to
"play a few bars".  I think it was "The Old Piano Roll Blues".  Live
playing was not his professional focus, but he was able to get through
a few bars of it.

> Larry Givens several years ago, he mentioned having Cook visit his
> shop in Pennsylvania during the 1960s, and was shocked to discover
> that Cook could barely play.

I can't play anymore, and haven't for years.  That doesn't mean that
I don't know what notes of what duration and what sequence to specify
in an arrangement.  William Walton (the English composer) cheerfully
admitted that he couldn't play *anything*, but could hold his own in
a choir.  Berlioz originally played guitar, but by the time he was
composing full time couldn't play that anymore.  Schoenberg's cello
playing was described as "awful, really awful".  The list goes on and
on.

Yanni, however, and Marvin Hamlish both play very well.

George Bogatko - gbogatko@intac.com
http://www.intac.com/~gbogatko