So there I was at the [Spirit](http://www.spiritof66.be/) once more yesterday, in front of me one of the greatest bass players of all times, [Tony Levin](http://www.tonylevin.com/), and he told us this moving story. How he went to Atlanta, to the [Language Research Center](http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/) at Georgia State University, by invitation of his old friend [Peter Gabriel](http://petergabriel.com/), in order to play along with him and with two bonobo apes on the keyboards. (Peter is a great fan of experimental and world music.) One of the two apes was [Panbanisha](http://www.greatapetrust.org/bonobo/meet/panbanisha.php) and Tony said Peter said „Panbanisha, this is Tony, he’s going to play bass with us today“. And Panbanisha started playing the keys with her flat hands, but Peter said: „Panbanisha, I liked more how you played yesterday.“ And she actually understood and switched to only using her index fingers, playing two notes at a time. Tony expressed that this and the next two hours of playing really took him a very long time to process and realize what happened there. (He also mentioned a funny anecdote that after the „gig“ he took a taxi to the airport and the taxi driver looked at him in amazement and said: „Hey, isn’t this the monkey place, what are you doing with a guitar in there?“)
The song „Fragile as a Song“ was an instrumental initially, but after this experience he added lyrics to it. He performed it yesterday on the keys, a beautiful and calm song with jazz-like harmonies that made me grin like a Cheshire cat the rest of the evening (although the lyrics are somewhat greasy). The song can be found on his current album [Resonator](http://www.pauladams.org/TonyLevinInterview.htm). My final remark: this concert will need a long time to process for me, too. It was freaky, partly atonal, groovy, resonant and mostly amazing. Good Lord, what a musician!