'Your instrument is your baby': why musicians dread careless airlines

By Amanda Holpuch

 

Ballaké Sissoko with a kora. He says his instrument was ‘impossible to replace’. Photograph: Chris Christodoulou

 

If Yacouba Diabaté drives too rough over a speed bump on his way to a gig, he automatically apologizes to his instrument, secured in the backseat.

 

The renowned cellist Lynn Harrell can see his cello from his bed and says he is effectively sleeping with it.

 

The virtuoso Wu Man still gets upset when she thinks about the time a flight attendant dropped her pipa, a Chinese lute, in 2013.

 

For musicians, she said, an instrument is like a baby.

 

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/14/musical-instruments-airlines-broken

Dave Carroll had his guitar broken by United Airlines who refused to admit responsibility.

 

After arguing with them for a year, the singer/songwriter wrote a song and put it on youtube in 2012.
It went viral. One of the highest watched videos ever. Five years ago it had 11 million hits.

He wrote another two songs which caused global embarrassment for United Airlines.

You can watch the other videos (songs 2 & 3) after this one has finished:

 

This boring forum needs new talent here to bring it up to current times & i am 70 later this year ???? ye harrr!

I remember the renowned solo basist Gary Karr telling me that whenever he flew with his favourite instrument he always booked "her" a first class seat next to his own.

 

Naturally, he always insisted that Koussy (bequeathed to him by the admiring widow of the Russian virtuouso, Serge Koussevitzky) use the seatbelt!

 

A wonderful artiste and a loveable man who beguiled audiences around the world for over forty years before he retired. Thankfully Karr, 79, is still going strong - as is his magical music.

Edited February 15, 20206 yr by Krataiboy