Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

I’ve always loved that quote from The Merchant of Venice, I can almost see the face of Godrej Engineer, my form teacher (and English teacher) from way back in 1973, the first time I heard those lines delivered by someone who knew how to.

Talking about marking the music: a reader, commenting on my Victor Wooten bass post, pointed me at yet another incredible Wooten video, a true slap guitar battle; the way Victor redefines the sounds his instrument makes brought something else to my mind: what John Mayall did in Room to Move many many years ago. And, not surprisingly, there’s a video out there of the Mayall session (though not the studio version, which if I remember right was done without any percussion).

These things, like the proverbial London bus, tend to come in threes. And so it came to pass, that while checking out my Facebook news feed, I noticed that Laurel Papworth had posted something that fit right in with Wooten and Mayall, at least insofar as unusual sounds and instruments were concerned. So take a look at Daft Hands to complete the set. [My thanks to Laurel].