Today is Philip Glass’ 75th birtday and I’m glad he’s still around and musically active. NPR has a short article about him with excerpts from some of his music.
No living composer has married music to a wider range of images and movement than Glass has. If you can judge a person by the company he keeps, consider that a very short sample of Glass’ artistic partners includes Byrne, Paul Simon, Ravi Shankar, Allen Ginsberg, Martin Scorsese, Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing, choreographer Twyla Tharp, playwright David Henry Hwang and filmmaker Errol Morris.
I first heard Glass’ music when I was living in Alberta in the early 1980s and I was drawn to it immediately. I’ve only had that reaction with a handful of other musicians or groups: Pharoah Sanders, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and Steve Reich. Glass tours a lot and I’ve been fortunate to see him perform live several times – his music has a power and immediacy when performed live that the recordings don’t capture. I’m hoping I’ll get to see him perform again – especially if I can get a ticket for the forthcoming production of Einstein on the Beach in June.