Clash of the pianists

Gad zooks, I forgot to write on the Web log! But there is still time to get something in under the wire.

Tonight Howard and I went to Kleinhans Music Hall to hear a pianist who has a wonderful name. It is Abdel Rahman El-Bacha!

Now, this is funny but just the way I know more than one person named Yuri I know more than one person named Abdel Rahman. The other one is the jazz drummer Abdul Rahman Qadir whom I ran into at Jubilee not long ago and we were talking in the rice-and-beans aisle.

Here is a picture of Abdel Rahman El-Bacha who wore old-fashioned tie and tails which we loved.


When Abdel Rahman El-Bacha sat down to play the Rachmaninoff First he flipped those tails over the bench behind him and he just looked so cool. His encore was the Rachmaninoff G minor prelude. Darn, I wanted to post Leonard Pennario's performance, because it would knock you out, but it does not seem to be on YouTube any more.

Back to Abdel Rahman El-Bacha. What a contrast between him and what we saw later when we went to the Hyatt. There was a very big man in the lounge and he was wearing a skirt!

He was wearing a big skirt down to his knees and this is not a kilt we are talking.

It was a big skirt!

Jocko said: "I would not want to tangle with him."

Jocko also told us about this guy named Frank Mancuso who had been in the lounge but had just left. "He was very big in movies," Jocko said. Here is a photo of Frank Mancuso is the former CEO of Paramount Pictures. He is at the extreme right.


Jocko said that years ago Leonard Pennario played the piano at a few of this Frank Mancuso's parties. That is not surprising because Pennario always played the piano at parties. That was what he was like.

Then Jocko said that this Mr. Mancuso had said, "But Jocko, I like your playing better."

Ha, ha! That is Jocko!

Without him the evening is just not complete.