Montage-final 10/11/06 3:04 PM Page 29 Page 29

MONTAGE their already self-selected applicants. ern and archaic: the vital cultural func- strengthened by legacies. Golden does Golden cites as examples of purely tions performed by some research univer- not dwell on this nontrivial aspect of the meritocratic, “wealth-blind” institutions sities. Such costs are assuredly not university entity. Caltech, Cooper Union, and Berea Col- financed by government grants or corpo- There are larger ambiguities, too. lege. Each has real strengths, and Cal- rate philanthropy. In recent years, presi- Golden decries preferences for athletes in tech’s scientific work is incredibly expen- dents including Yale’s Richard Levin and “patrician sports.” But he would retain sive. But none of those institutions Princeton’s Shirley Tilghman have de- them for other sports, as measures of the spends, say, $100 million per year on ac- fended legacy preferences precisely be- “candidate’s own hard work and excel- quisitions and sta∞ng for its library sys- cause of these larger functions supported lence,” not “parental achievement.” Not tem, nor o≠ers dozens of languages mod- by donors, some of whose ties are entirely true: success in even some main-

on more than 300 albums. Blue West is his ninth record as solo PERFORMANCE pianist; he recorded the first five between 1984 and 1991 for Windham Hill, and has released the last four on his own Sweet- grass Music label, launched in 2000. Big Sky Blues The Sweetgrass Hills, where Aaberg lives, would be “moun- tains” to many, but a hundred miles east of the Rockies, “We In high school, Philip Aaberg ’71 took train voyages lasting 12 call them hills,” he says. Aaberg is an intensely regional musi- hours each way between his hometown of Chester, Montana, cian, and in his liner notes for Blue West, he says, “I hope you and Spokane to study piano with master teacher Margaret smell sagebrush, see Big Sky, hear the train, and feel the river.” Saunders Ott. Four decades later, Ott is 86 and Aaberg still Coming east to Harvard was a big switch for the rural Mon- makes the same rail jaunt on occasion, and sometimes even tana boy, who attended Harvard on a scholarship endowed in takes a piano lesson. You can hear railroad rhythms in both 1961 by Leonard Bernstein ’39, D.Mus. ’67. Leon Kirchner (then Aaberg’s music and his backyard: each day, 47 trains rumble Rosen professor of music) and Luise Vosgerchian (the late through Chester, where, four years ago, Aaberg returned after Naumburg professor of music) “kept me in school,” Aaberg 27 years in the Bay Area. says. In the Harvard libraries, he heard original blues artists like A Great Northern Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Son House for the steam engine ap- first time on Folkways LPs, and, he says,“It was an awakening.” pears on the cover He played in jazz and rock bands during college, and accompa- of Aaberg’s newest nied the Freshman Glee Club; he also studied classical piano at CD, Blue West, a col- the New England Conservatory, where, one day, he played a lection of bluesy Haydn sonata especially well. His teacher remarked, “Maybe compositions, and you’ll specialize in Haydn sonatas.” “That idea was so foreign Aaberg notes that to me,” Aaberg recalls. “I couldn’t imagine ever being so re- the familiar boogie- stricted.” woogie rhythm may Since then, although he says the classical repertoire re- even have originated mains “the well,” Aaberg has ranged nearly everywhere in in rail travel—many music. He spent a year in Iowa working on the Beethoven of the early blues piano sonatas, had a stint at the Marlboro Chamber Music artists toured on trains. A Great Northern Festival, and has recorded “Someday I want to do a steam engine domi- film scores, jingles, and car- train tour myself,” he says. nates the cover of toon music. He also has Philip Aaberg’s solo “Nothing but train rides.” piano CD Blue West. three sons from his first Some might call “Mon- Right: Aaberg at the marriage and a five-year-old tana blues” an oxymoron: keyboard. boy with his second wife, it’s a long way from Ches- Patty, who runs Sweetgrass ter—which is 40 miles from Canada on the high Music.Two of his older sons plains east of the Rocky Mountains—to New are musicians. Even though Orleans or Chicago’s South Side. Yet Aaberg is Aaberg feels that musical steeped in blues music, having played for years ability is inherited—his own with guitarist Elvin Bishop, formerly of the Paul family has long been a musi- Butterfield Blues Band. Years ago, he and cal one—when it comes to Bishop’s band toured as many as 300 days a year, advising his sons on making and Aaberg has played keyboard with countless it a professional career, he others in nearly every kind of music, from classi- has only one bit of counsel: cal to R&B to New Age; he’s been a session man “Get paid first.” �c.l.

Photograph courtesy of Philip Aaberg Harvard Magazine 29