Habanera

Here’s another gem from way back when… the video quality is horrible, but at least the audio is still fine. The year is now 1996, I am 17, and I really haven’t improved much in the coolness department, but thankfully this old video is so dark, that you wouldn’t be able to tell, anyway. This is another school concert. My friend is on the left, I am in the middle – dude on the right is our beloved guitar teacher, Mr. Gerhard Hanel.

You’ll hear Bizet’s “Habanera” from Carmen. Messed up by our teacher, of all people! Because he insisted on taping his sheet notes together, telling us it’d be easier to flip them this way, and getting a bit annoyed with us because we didn’t tape our pages together as well. And it only took for someone in the audience to open the door, letting a gust of wind rush in, for his now very large taped-together sheet go flying like a sail in the wind. When ours stayed put.

Awesome memories… I doubt that he’d even remember us, but for sure he’s been really influential in MY life… because had it not been for him and the stuff he taught me, I never would have gotten the opportunity to play the bass for Vudu Iguana in Los Angeles, which is definitely one of my most treasured memories in my entire life.