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You are here: Home / Cycle-of-Life Season / 4 Ripening / Being Versatile

Being Versatile

Noel Coward

The ability to do one task well is valuable. The step beyond that, into excellence, is characterized by the ability to perform many tasks well – to contribute to the whole in whatever may be needed.

Real

True Narratives

Noël Coward is an exemplar of versatility: "Success came easily in at least three ways. It came early . . . It came fluidly . . . And - most remarkably of all - success came in a dizzying array of disciplines."

  • Barry Day, ed., The Noël Coward Reader (Knopf, 2010).
  • Barry Day, ed., The Letters of Noël Coward (Knopf, 2007).
  • Philip Hoare, Noël Coward: A Biography (Simon & Schuster, 1996).
  • Graham Payn, My Life with Noël Coward (Applause Books, 2000).

Other versatile figures:

  • Rüdiger Safranski, Goethe: Life As a Work of Art (trans. David Dolienmayer) (Liveright Publications, 2017). “He built roads. He oversaw mines. He shrank the deficit.”

Imaginary

Film and Stage

  • Kind Hearts and Coronets: Alec Guinness plays eight roles

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Trumpeter, conductor and music educator-ambassador Wynton Marsalis has excelled at both jazz and classical music, and trumpet showpieces.

  • Haydn, Trumpet Concerto in E flat major
  • Hummel, Trumpet Concerto in E flat major
  • Leopold Mozart, Trumpet Concdrto in D major
  • “Baroque Duet” album with Kathleen Battle
  • Live at the House of Tribes
  • Jazz Jamboree, 1983
  • At the Newport Jazz Festival, 1989 and 2005
  • At the North Sea Jazz Festival, 1982
  • Leading the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in 2004, 2015 and 2019
  • Wynton is a champion of various styles of and perspectives on jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald’s songbook, Dave Brubeck’s music and elegant jazz.
  • With country singer Willie Nelson
  • With Norah Jones
  • Wynton in Stuttgart
  • Wynton Marsalis Septet at Amnesty International concert in Chile
  • Jazz in Marciac, 2009: Part 1; Part 2
  • The Abyssian Mass
  • With Lucky Peterson in Marciac
  • With Eric Clapton, Layla
  • Arban, Carnival of Venice
  • Rimsky-Korsakov, Flight of the Bumblebee

Blues artist Rory block demonstrates her versatility by adjusting her styles to emulate other great blues artists.

  • “Blues Walkin’ Like a Man: A Tribute to Son House”
  • “Shake ‘Em On Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell”
  • “I Belong to the Band: A Tribute to Rev. Gary Davis”
  • “Avalon: A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt”
  • “Hard Luck Child: A Tribute to Skip James”
  • “Keepin’ Outta Trouble: A Tribute to Bukka White”
  • “A Woman’s Soul: A Tribute to Bessie Smith”

Here is a collection of albums illustrating the emotive versatility of the many kinds of fiddles, only a few of which are represented here:

  • Jouhiorkesteri, “Nikodemus” – Finnish bowed lyre: celebratory, from Finland;
  • Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Akbar Moradi, “In the Mirror of the Sky” – Persian spike fiddle and plucked tanbur: haunting, from Persia;
  • Sakar Khan, “At Home” – bowed kamancha: personal and intimate, from India;
  • Ram Narayan, “The Art of Ram Narayan” – sarangi: evocative and intellectual, from India;
  • Raushan Orazbaeva, “Akku” – two-stringed kobyz: contemplative, from Kazakhstan;
  • Stelios Petrakis, “The Art of Lyra” – Cretan lyra: steeped in tradition, from Crete, off Greece;
  • Yu Hong Mei, “Erhu Chant” – erhu: dreamlike, from China;
  • “The Art of the Gadulka” – gadulka: purposeful, from Bulgaria.

Artists who are proficient at several instruments:

  • Roxy Coss (several instruments in the saxophone and clarinet families), “Chasing the Unicorn” and “Restless Idealism” albums

Other albums:

  • David Helbock, “Tour D’Horizon – from Brubeck to Zawinul” (2018)

Fictional Narratives

Novels and stories:

  • Nana Nkweti, Walking on Cowrie Shells: Stories (Graywolf Press, 2021): “Nkweti writes across multiple genres including science fiction, young adult literature, literary fiction and suspense, showcasing a host of voices . . .”

August 24, 2010

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