An Evening with Mary Youngblood
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Mary Youngblood was in Charlotte this past week doing some recording for a documentary about Sacagawea. She was kind enough to take the time out of her busy schedule to conduct a workshop on embellishment and improvisation.
If you’ve ever heard Mary’s music, you know that she can do amazing things with a flute. As a player, I try to figure out what is going on when listening to her CD’s, but that isn’t always easy to do. I’ve seen her in concert multiple times at Musical Echoes in Florida, but we’re always a good distance from the stage. This time though, it was up close and personal — and that made all the difference. I thought I knew how she did a few of the embellishments, but watching her play from 10 feet away really highlighted the subtleties for me.
Every time I’ve heard Mary play — and speak — I’m always so impressed with her. She’s so friendly, and as someone commented at the workshop, she’s so “real”. There’s nothing pretentious about her. She’s just a humble musician who is willing to share what she knows with other musicians.
By the way, stay tuned for some more Mary-related news. Once the details are ironed out, I’ll fill you in.