Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.

Subject: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: GUEST,Marcus Campus Bellorum
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 07:54 PM

What makes a master player?

What makes a master group?

Can anyone recognise the skills of a master?

Can anyone recognise the sound of a "master group"?

What are people who organise festivals/venues looking for: masters or crowd pleasers?

Are masters always crowd pleasers?

Are masters masters of their instruments, performance, teaching, communicating, charismatising (new word) or are they just good at PR and have a good promotional machine behind them?

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 08:30 PM

????????? why start this with 'master' as a keyword? There's no answer to these questions when asked like this....You have what is called 'equivocation' as a logical fallacy built into the question...the word 'master' has too many definitions and such to be anything but a troll-word.....is that what this thread is, Troll-bait?

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: Mark Clark
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 09:07 PM

Oh... like I'd know. Still, this happens to be something I've thought about over the years so here goes.

I think there are some performers (masters), who have taken their art to such a high level that they will be immediately recognized as masters of what they do, even by observers who are not enthusiastic about their particular art form. They are instantly recognizable by both their work and their manner. Performing artists who's work I've actually seen who I believe fall into this master category include Mikhail Baryshnikov, B.B. King, Bill Monroe, Itzhak Perlman, and Pete Seeger. I've seen many, many performers in my life, some of them truly wonderful, but these are the masters and I believe we are very fortunate to have them among us.

Master groups may exist but usually realize their greatest achievements because of a master who leads them. The Chicago Symphony was a great orchestra but became a "master group" under the baton of Sir Georg Solti. One didn't need to be a connoisseur of classical music to appreciate the difference.

Most commercial venues seek acts that can command the higest ticket prices and fill the most seats (crowd pleasers) but I think the true masters always fulfill that requirement. There are performers with great and rare skills who, nevertheless, will not become masters because they lack some mystical ingredient such as sensitivity or the ability to touch their audience through their performance. I suspect that few mastersgo unrecognized just because they are so easily recognized and so universally sought. They may go unrewarded, but not unrecognized.

Of course it's common for the PR machine to laud performers as masters. That's what it's paid to do. And the PR machine may sell some tickets, films and recordings that otherwise would not be sold, but PR isn't what tells your gut that you're in the presence of a master. You just know. I've been "totally blown away" lots of times but very rarely am I in the presence of a master.

"Of course that's just my opinion... yours may differ."

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 12:15 AM

Doc Watson, Victor Borge, the Chieftains, Tommy Makem, Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain, Alastair Fraser. Seamus

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: Jimmy C
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 12:34 AM

Masters of what ? Entertaining, singing, music. There may be some who are very good at one or all these components of a "show", they may even be the best in the world but they are not masters. Nobody can master ones voice or ones instrument - that's why they practice, to keep sharp and to get better. I think Barney McKenna is the best there ever was and probably ever will be on the tenor banjo, but he still has to practice. True, all the ones mentioned above may be "MASTERS" compared to others in the same field, but unless you have reached the very top, with NO ROOM left for improvement, you are not a master.

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 10:32 AM

I suppose its true in any field. Bill Dance is one helluva' fisherman so I guess you could say he was a real master baiter.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 12:12 PM

I can't say what it is, but I know it when I hear it.

Subject: RE: Master Player: What,When,How,Why,Who.
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:23 PM

Masturbation MT? Go ahead....you can say what it is, just don't describe what it is you hear though.

Spaw