Charles' Dad at the Piano, Taking a "Sentimental Journey"
This was recorded about 25 years ago in 1993.
70 years old at the time, he couldn't read a note of music.
He played by ear and had thousands of songs
with millions of notes all stored in his brain.
We lost him to a heart attack in 2007 - and we'll always miss him.
Length ~ 50 seconds
A short story about him: One day he was at the keyboard in a large auditorium in Dallas.
He was practicing the songs he intended to play that evening for a couple of hundred people.
His 'sheet music', as he referred to it, was simply a sheet of paper - or perhaps a napkin - listing the titles
of all the songs. The music was being piped through the PA system. A maintenence worker noticed all the
lights on in what looked to him like an empty auditorium. He couldn't see where Dad was sitting at the keyboard.
He heard the music but assumed it was a tape someone had started. So the guy flipped a few wall switches,
plunging the whole auditorium into darkness. The music didn't stop because Dad just kept playing in the dark.
Another staff member asked the maintenance guy if he ' just turned the lights out on Charlie'.
He said 'Oh, no!' and quickly turned them back on. But Dad didn't miss a beat.
The music was in his head, and his fingers knew where all the keys were.
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