Music can be immensely powerful. What music gives you goosebumps?
Yesterday I wrote a post on leading change that reminded me of the title of an earlier post called “Nothing happens until somebody feels something“.
For me, music can be immensely powerful for me “feeling something”. In that earlier post I finished it by sharing a jazz track by Oscar Peterson, “Bye Bye Blues“, a live performance from the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival that hit such heights of artistic genius and flow that you can hear the exultant rapture of the ovation given to him at the end of his climactic solo. Every time I listen to this track I get goosebumps. Every time.
Today I’ll share a very different track with you, but “goosebumps” is the consistent theme.
Around fifteen years ago, the GlobalScot network gathered for a conference in Edinburgh, and one evening we were invited for a black tie dinner for several hundred held at the National Museum for Scotland, held in the biggest space there, the five-storey atrium of the museum, a spectacular space with each upper floor having a wraparound walkway looking down to the ground floor.
At one point in the evening, we heard the sound of bagpipes as a pipe band started up several stories above us. We all looked up to see the band, all lit up to draw focus to them, play some stirring standards for us. A wonderful and traditional Scottish moment.
However, a few minutes in, we could gradually start to hear additional pipes playing the same music, but with the sound coming from elsewhere in the building and gradually growing in volume. After a while, as that grew louder, the pipers were accompanied by drumming, and then, one could say “It all kicked off!”. It was my first experience with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Proudly Scottish and absolutely modern. The young band of pipers and drummers then emerged into the main hall, ramped up the volume, and ran around the tables where we all sat in our formal wear. They raised the roof!
Fast forward many years and this week I was reminded of a very special live performance in more recent times. A young Scottish artist called Tom Walker had a global breakthrough a few years ago, with one of his powerful ballads being “Leave a Light On”. I love that track, but when I saw him play it live on Scottish television accompanied by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, wow, the goosebumps when the pipes come in! Enjoy!