Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/2
100 mm
1/200
1000

“Take my picture,”
he told me when he spied my SLR on the front row….
right in the middle of his improv performance.

So much for photographers not being a distraction… =)

From a brief Q&A afterward:
“Improvisation isn’t about music or talent. It’s about doing what you do and keeping on going.”

“I like the mystery of creativity, not knowing where I’m going, or what’s going to happen when I get to wherever I’m going–that to me is incredibly beautiful. I walk on stage with wonder, wondering what’s going to come out.”

10 responses to “Bobby McFerrin be Happy”

  1. Always wondered how one could minimize the shutter noise while sitting so close to the stage…

  2. I think he was hamming it up for the cameras. He said the same thing to the guy with the sound muffler wrapped around his Nikon.

  3. fantastic! music does uplift ones spirit… learned something new…always loved improvisation… when i was with semi-professional theater in high school years, we had some warm-up improvisational exercises… a few people would have to start moving randomly on a stage and then create a little play out of it right on a stage without any script involved at all and not knowing what the other one is thinking or doing… try it someday and will see sometimes something magical happening…

    although it does not change other dynamic in a creative process when it is based on intuition-inspiration and a person sort of called to do something (Elizabeth Gilbert talked about it on TED and Peter Diamandis mentioned something very similar in his talk at Stanford – there are other thousand examples one can find)… this one is rather different… sometimes person can be a bit shocked by the “call” itself… and rationally question timing and cause of action…. Since it is rather unusual thing… people who have experienced it know what I am talking about… it is a very different route from the first improvisational one but both complement each other…

  4. and wonderful portrait as usual… i get used to the idea that all your portraits are wonderful anyway, so do not complement much on it but you have a gift for portraits! i feel like taking ton of portraits after looking at yours!

  5. When it comes about creativity, we are left with the artists, in whatever professional category they happen to make a living.

  6. Yea get better shots while mic not in front of face.

  7. Great photo (as ever) Steve!

    Eppie is right – as a performer there is nothing better than seeing the audience beginning to move in time to your music. But it’s not just musicians who need feedback. Clay Shirky recently gave a talk here in Bristol, and when I met him afterwards the first thing he said was "Thank you for nodding; I was using you to judge how my talk was going over!"

  8. Oh, I found my notes. He opened with a great line…. the first words out of his mouth:

    "I’m Bobby McFerrin. I’m 6 years old."

    And off he went… And later:

    "Music is motion. Just keep going."

  9. I was there in the audience. Bobby is just amazing and this pics captures all his joy.

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