Review: Sax and Violins
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2014
At first glance, this short book seems to be about the author's friendship with a fellow violin maker, Art, who died in his fifties. James McKean tells of completing a cello that Art had started. He and their mutual friend, Guy, work on the cello over the next few years as a kind of tribute to Art, and to keep him alive in their memories.But I found that I wasn't convinced that Art and McKean were very close friends. It seemed to me that the story was more about the friendship between McKean and Guy, and the even closer friendship between Guy and Art. Either way, it was interesting to read about how craftsmen make violins, violas, and cellos.In addition to the story of the creation of a cello, the book tells of the difficulty of making a living at violin making. McKean made it work by repairing instruments as well, and by writing articles about the craft, and by writing books. As much as he loved making instruments, he seemed not to be as enamored by the music of those instruments. He never says so, but he mentions the music he listened to while working in his shop -- Charlie Parker, Lionel Hampton, or the Rolling Stones, but rarely anything that featured violins or cellos. On the one occasion in the book that he goes to a concert, he seems to be there only to see his handiwork in action as a musician plays a cello that he made.The result is that the book is not the tearjerker that you might have expected (or feared), but that it's more about the life of a violin maker.