In May 2006, my friend David got me to join him at the Regatta Bar in Harvard Square for an amazing show by Randy Weston and his African Rhythms Trio, with Weston on piano and Alex Blake on bass and Neil Clarke on percussion. Weston is one of the living masters of the Jazz piano tradition. His playing breathes the history of Jazz piano while sounding joltingly current, much belying his 81 years of age. Blake and Clarke are amazing, younger musicians (though both are probably old enough to be my father), and the trio was hot!
Flash photography was not allowed, but photos without flash were okay, so I was snappping photos, and then suddenly, Neil Clarke was standing up from his seat at the drums and was asking me if I was taking video, which was explicitly forbidden. I had to explain in front of everyone that my camera is a still camera. It has a flip out monitor that from across the room made it look like I was taking video.
After the set, I apologized to Neil Clarke for disrupting the show. He was totally nice about it, saying, "No, no, that's cool, as long as you weren't shooting video. You do your thing..."
After I posted the photos to flickr, I sent an email to Neil Clarke via his website. I don't know if he saw them, but many months passed and then last week his webmaster emailed me and asked if they could use one of the photos on Clarke's website. Not for pay, but in this case, the fame and glory are payment enough.
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