IT’S ALWAYS “SUMMERTIME” A lifetime commitment to jazz

Writer: Liz Clarke

In Andrew Herriot’s words, his recently compiled 254-page documentary-style personal narrative “My Living Soundtrack” dips into the evolving mindset of a child, a boy, a teen, an adult and a senior citizen over a lifetime of myriad musical experiences.”

That said, his 107-chapter recollection is not one that you can pick up and read from cover to cover in a few sittings, but rather a celebratory collection of anecdotal material spanning many countries and continents, much of it centred on musical events in Stanford, to be explored over time and whenever the mood takes you.

Much of the material appeared in the River Talk, a one-time popular village chronicle.

One could even go as far as to say that the methodology he has used to collate information – over several years - has a unique historical value in terms of study reference.

“That wasn’t my intention” says this 80-something jazz pianist, mathematician and music teacher. “It was compiled for my family and friends, but there might be merit in getting it to a wider audience.”

In essence, the tome celebrates and documents Andrew’s love of jazz, the luminaries of the jazz firmament and his personal place within that genre.

A random “dip” into Andrew’s book delivers some interesting snippets. Here are just a few:

• Jazz pianist, Bill McGuffie, Andrew’s 50s hero, had nine fingers. Another ‘hero’ jazz pianist, George Shearing, was born blind and learnt to play by ear. Other great jazz artists from those early times with infirmities include stone deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who played at the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, and partially blind jazz pianist, Art Tatum.

• Chapter 27 is devoted to Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, singer, civil rights activist who had “nine passports none of which was South African” and who returned to South Africa in 1990 with the help of Madiba.

• A contemporary heroine is Diana Krall, a brilliant swing jazz singer… “the fact that she plays the Steinway par excellence has influenced me hugely.”

• In Chapter 62, Andrew’s introduction to the Butterfly Centre is recalled and his musical interaction “with children who are developmentally different.”

• Most of us know the words, “Pick yourself yp, dust yourself off, and start all over again. But few may know the author, Dorothy Fields, who wrote more than 400 songs for Broadway including “The Way You Look Tonight”, “On the Sunny side of the Street” and “Big Spender”. She worked on 15 stage musicals and 26 musicals – a good one for a quiz evening!