The two musicians tuned quietly before the rehearsal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bassist wore a black-and-white keffiyeh around his neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pianist a Star of David.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For several minutes neither mentioned either one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally the pianist spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I suppose we’re going to have the conversation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bassist smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Which one?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The one everyone else is already having for us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bassist nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Probably.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pianist played a chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I wear this because Palestinians deserve dignity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pianist looked at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I wear this because Jews deserve not to be murdered just because they’re Jews”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I figured.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Me too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bassist hesitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You know, people keep assuming that if I wear this, I must hate Jews.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And people assume if I wear this, I must agree with every action of Israel’s government.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Do you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“No.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“No.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drummer, who had been quietly assembling cymbals, looked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Would either of you mind arguing after the soundcheck? I still have to figure out why my floor tom sounds like wet cardboard.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bassist resumed tuning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My grandfather left Palestine.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pianist nodded slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Mine survived Europe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither story cancelled the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pianist touched the keys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The audience will probably spend more time looking at what’s around our necks than listening to what comes from our fingers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For sure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The two musicians tuned quietly before the rehearsal. The bassist wore a black-and-white keffiyeh around his neck. The pianist a Star of David. For several minutes neither mentioned either one. […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[899],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-improvising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}