Laws of the Flute
- carlos21490
- Dec 8, 2016
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 16, 2024
It must be a miracle. What else could explain that this fragile man with his expresive eyes blows through an empty tube and the most beautiful sounds come out to fill the space from where there was nothing? Those who think they know say it is a matter of laws of physics. You know: air vibrating, wave lengths, frequency, periodicity and their resulting harmonics, interferences, and reinforcements... All these intellectual constructions are fine to explain, at their best, the math behind music. However, none of these laws can account for the beauty of this sound and its effects on our souls. Another laws are needed for that, and that Law has a rather fragile complexion and expresive eyes: it is Hubert Laws (Houston, 1939), Master of the wind, and in particular of flute playing that excels in different musical genders, including what has come to be called crossover: from classical music to jazz, to traditional, to folk, pop, to R&B, and back to classical as needed. He blows and the wind responds in the form of great music, obedient to his command.
The piece offered here is the Negro Spiritual hymn Amazing Grace that is, of course, a treasure on its own, and whose story is, well... amazing by itself. Mr. Laws' version is so beautiful, with the participation of other great musicians like Chick Corea and Harold Blanchard with Quincy Jones conducting them during the good old days of record producer Creed Taylor (remember CTl records?)
Ahh... the late 70's... great music was made then, besides commercialized Disco, as you can hear. If you have a chance to listen to it from a better-quality source, like a CD or the LP on a good turntable (or if you happened to have a time machine to take you back then and tune La Noche Fantástica de la época de Enrique París y Otto Graffeinstein), don't miss it. I am telling you: When Laws blows through that empty tube, miracles happen. Nothing less.
Comments