The pianist, 65, on swerving the army, being invited to leave school, his massive train-set and life-long love of boogie-woogie
My mother played the piano. She liked old blues music, gospel, classical, as did my father. Growing up in the 1970s, I wasn’t into the charts. My dad would hear me listening to Fats Domino and Amos Milburn and Chuck Berry and steer me into Friedrich Gulda, the Austrian abstract expressionist concert pianist. If you were fortunate enough to have had parents or teachers who opened your eyes, like mine, you can open your own eyes later in life.
Music and art are so important in education because they make people happy. Give people something they’ll love for their whole lives.
