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歡迎2014年畢業典禮演講嘉賓吉米.佩奇先生。
早安,我得看手錶才能確定現在是早晨。實在太美妙了,很榮幸能參與這場典禮,感受各位畢業生散發的活力。恭喜所有畢業生及各位家長,能站在臺上感受這一切實在太美妙了。我不得不說昨晚的音樂會,你們看見我手中拿著稱不上是正式演講的講稿,但我不得不說,自從來到伯克利音樂學院,成為這場典禮的一份子,聽過昨晚的音樂會,這場演講似乎已顯得無關緊要,甚至再也不會被提起。我這個類似街頭音樂家的人竟有幸來到這裡演講,貴校的風氣確實令人耳目一新,昨晚所展現的音樂才華也十分令人感動,呈現所有不同風格的音樂,十分感謝你們對我的作品的詮釋,十分令人感動。我不得不說,Geri Allen、Thara Memory和Valerie Simpson的音樂非常棒,Valerie Simpson昨晚的表現確實出色極了,太棒了。(歡呼聲)(掌聲)
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Oh wow! Well, good morning! I had to check my watch there to make sure it was the morning. It’s so, ah, this is absolutely so amazing. It’s such a privilege to be part of this. All the energy from the graduates. You know, congratulations to all of you. And to the families as well. It really is something being up here and feeling all this.
I’ve got to say, the concert last night, you can see I’ve got something here which could loosely be called a speech, but I must say, after having come to Berklee and been part of the experience and listening to the concert last night, the speech is rendered useless. It’s not even going to be referred to. Here I am: A sort of busking musician trying to busk my speech.
What a spirit there is here! It’s absolutely amazing. The quality of musicianship that was shown last night is really moving, right across the whole of the different genres that were being played. I thank you so much for the interpretation of my music. That was really touching. But, across the music of Geri Allen, and Thara Memory, Valerie Simpson’s music, which is superb, I must say. Valerie Simpson was absolutely superb last night. Absolutely!
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還有貴校的銅管樂隊,昨晚從觀眾席聆聽的銅管樂如此氣勢磅礡、如此精確、如此充滿活力,呈現了所有銅管樂應有的特色。還有美妙的獨奏,整晚的節目都非常精彩動人。我不得不說,身處這樣一所學院,我必須坦白告訴各位,我的音樂都是自學而來。這並非壞事,因為我藉由唱片學習,試著揣摩偶像對音樂的詮釋。在這個過程中,我成了所謂的伴奏樂手。加入這個行業時,我拿到一些和絃譜,奇怪的是,我竟然是被挖角的。我當時看不懂樂譜,但看得懂和絃譜。當時的伴奏樂手需要演奏的音樂類型相當廣泛,如果你是吉他手,你不能只演奏自己擅長的音樂類型。我在青少年時期培養了許多類型的吉他技巧,因此我擁有原聲民謠吉他、滑音吉他等演奏技巧,不過當時這是相當封閉的領域,也許現在依然如此。但身為專業音樂人,顯然也受限於這個領域。不過當時我需要進入錄音室,遵循演奏規則,因為如果你犯錯,就會被開除。我的錄音室伴奏樂手生涯大約歷時兩年半,演奏範圍相當廣,從電視配樂到原聲帶到電影配樂,從《金手指》到奇想樂團,我演繹過各式各樣美妙的音樂,直到有一天,提供給我的樂譜竟然有音符,我認為這似乎是某種暗示。我必須以十分認真的態度學習讀樂譜,因為這個領域存在許多認真的競爭者,大家都十分擅長讀樂譜,因此我必須迅速上手。沒錯,當時壓力相當大,但我克服這個過程,終於能像大家一樣讀懂樂譜。
我只是想讓你們稍微感同身受一下,瞭解讀樂譜是其中相當重要的部分,因為一旦你能讀懂樂譜,就能寫出音樂作品,對我來說這是相當棒的事。
十分感謝各位邀請我來到這裡,令我深感榮幸。十分感謝各位,祝大家未來好運,謝謝。(歡呼聲)(掌聲)
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But also the sheer, to hear the brass section that you have here. Hearing them last night from the audience, just down there, was so powerful and so precise and so punchy and everything about what real good brass sections should be about. Fantastic soloists there. It was just moving, right across the whole of the evening’s event and I must say that being here in a college, I have to sort of be perfectly honest with you all that I was sort of self-taught. Not such a bad thing because I learnt from records and trying to sort of interpret playing of what would be my guitar heroes from there.
Along the way I became a, I think you call it a side-man here, a session musician. And I was going in there and I’d have the charts. I was head-hunted for this, actually, curiously enough, but I couldn’t read music at that time. But I could read the chord charts and the session musicians in those days would play across quite a wide variety of music. It wouldn’t be, like, if you were a guitarist you wouldn’t just be the stylist in your own sort of field. I had quite a number of sort of guitar techniques that I’d evolved over my sort of teenage years so I could apply all of this acoustic folk-picking and slide guitar and etc etc. But it was a very, very closed shop in those days. Actually, probably still, maybe.
But now, obviously, as a specialist musician, you would be contracted in. But, in those days, when I had to sort of go in the door and have that discipline to play because, boy, if you made mistakes, you wouldn’t be seen again. I was in this whole sort of studio role for about two and a half years playing all manner of things from TV jingles to soundtracks and film music, Goldfinger, to The Kinks, to, you know, it was really a wonderful sort of, colourful role that I was playing.
Until, one day the music charts were passed out and there were the notes, and it was a gentle hint, I think, that I had to learn to read music in a very, very serious way. Because there were serious competitors there and everybody was fluent with music then. So I had to come on very, very quickly in leaps and bounds so it was, yeah, it was quite a pressurised moment but I had come through it and then I was reading like all you guys do.
So I just wanted to give you that little bit of empathy and understanding about having to learn. Reading music is a major part of it and of course, once you can read, write it down, read others’ work, that’s great. Thank you so much for inviting me here, it really is an honour and a privilege and I thank you all very much. Good luck in the future. Thank you.