Status Updates From Words Without Music: A Memoir

I would not make a living working full-time as a musician-composer until 1978 when, at the age of forty-one, I was commissioned to compose Satyagraha for the Netherlands Opera. Still, all the years of day jobs - twenty-four years - never bothered me. My curiosity about life trumped any disdain I might have had for working.

Now fifty years later, listening to Tristano's music again, I found what I was looking for. Two tracks: the first, "Line Up" and the second "East Thirty-Second Street." I listened to them and there it was. No, the notes weren't the same. Most listeners would probably not have heard what I did. But the energy, the feel, and, I would say, the intention of the music was completely captured in the "Train."

Listened to the audiobook in my pre-review days and now decided to re-read via the print book thanks to enjoying last night's sold out concert at Koerner Hall, Toronto with the Philip Glass Ensemble performing selections from several major early works.

The first half is about the author’s formative experiences, and it doesn’t start to get into the music for which he’s known until the second half.