Last night Karen and I went to see Max Raabe at Benaroya Hall. I wasn’t sure what to expect – only that our friend, Sharon, had told us that it was music from the 20’s and 30’s and that it would be a great date night.
What we got was a sumptuous feast of 70-year-old melodies set in captivatingly creative arrangements. It was a powerful reminder that art transcends culture and age. These definitely weren’t the songs I was raised on. Since half of them were in German, much of the audience didn’t even understand the texts. But we were transfixed nonetheless.
What impressed me almost more than the music, however, was Max Raabe’s sense of timing. His slow, sometimes halting delivery, spoken with a wonderful German accent, was perfectly paced. The audience hung on every syllable. His dry humor hit the nerve each time he introduced a song. Before singing the classic, Salome, he noted that the sheet music calls it “an oriental Foxtrot. Of course, there is no such thing as an oriental Foxtrot. But after listening to it, you can’t help but think that this is… well, an oriental Foxtrot.” And we all erupted in laughter. It wasn’t the words themselves, it was his perfect timing.
As I reflected on the evening, I couldn’t help but feel a certain jealousy. I had just sat under the spell of a master communicator and I had savored every minute of it. It reminded me that communication is an art form. And if Max Raabe works as hard as he does to communicate the music of the art deco era, how much more should I work on communicating the beauty and glory of the Gospel. God, give me the discipline and the grace to do so!
Steve Pecota - a Pastor in Seattle 
Moin, Moin from Texas!
If you like Max’ music and the Golden entertainment of the 1920s, you might like Brendan McNally’s dark comic novel “Germania” (Simon & Schuster, 2009), about the Flying Magical Loerber Brothers, four somewhat magical, Jewish vaudeville entertainers and onetime child stars who were the toast of Berlin before WWII and who reunite during the surreal, three-week “Flensburg Reich” of Admiral Doenitz, Hitler’s very unlucky successor.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll have to check it out.
Moin moin from Texas just cracked me up. Had to think of moin moin, y’all.