Paul Shaffer has an
interesting story about Sammy Davis Jr. and artists. Davis was scheduled
to perform on the Letterman Show and Shaffer could not get hold of him
to discuss his song and rehearse. Finally he caught Davis by phone and
Davis said," 'Once in My Life' will be fine, Paul. Key of E going into
F." Shaffer wanted to rehearse it but Davis did not. He arrived clearly
unwell and again declined to practice. Shaffer had made a tape with his
band and asked if, at least, Davis would listen to it. Davis reluctantly
agreed.
Davis listened and said, "It's swinging man, but think of how much more fun we could have had if I hadn't heard this tape.'
Shaffer
wrote, "His words still resonate in my ears; the notion still haunts
me. Sammy swung that night but as he was performing I couldn't help
thinking that his carefree feeling about time -- as opposed to my
lifelong notion of the pressure of the time -- was coming from a higher
spiritual plane. As a musician, I've always thought I rushed. I still
think I rush. The great players never rush. It reminds me of that moment
when I watched Ray Charles turn to his guitarist, just as the young guy
was about to solo, and say 'Take your time son. Take your time.' "
No comments:
Post a Comment