Watching the documentary 'Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037,'' Ben Niles (2007) drove home the very real, physical, metaphysical, cerebral, psychic, and mystical connection and total similarity between art and craftsmanship. The Steinway workshop, in Astoria, New York, is a massive, hallowed studio, which also doubles as a de-facto art gallery, showroom and concert hall in two senses. The first sense is the obvious, when the masters come to the basement of the workshop to select an instrument for performance. Kenny Barron sits down at an instrument and plays it for less than 2 seconds before getting up and quickly moving to the next. He starts playing this one, and instantly he is digging in hard, with deep fast chords. "Mmmuuhhhh," he lets out. The second sense is the constant 'work' going on in the upper levels of the workshop. Small teams of master craftspeople weld their tools, instruments and lives and the sounds come to life and coalesce, not to be described. Two ends of the line, coming together. The journey as beautiful and valuable as the center of the line, the performance. There are few true craftspeople left. Let us truly respect them.
