My Worst Interview Ever

It was early 1975. I was doing my master’s at Tel Aviv University, studying how Micrococcus lysodeikticus (a bacterium, now known as Micrococcus luteus) takes up phosphate. My research was going nowhere. I wanted to go back to my first love, music.

I had played classical piano as a child, and had been taking courses in jazz at the University’s Music Academy with Prof. Zvi Keren.

One day I saw an ad that I hoped my change my life. The producers of a musical show were looking for an accompanist. I applied. I practiced. I dreamed. The day came for my audition.

The audition was with Matti Caspi. Although only two years older than me, he was already famous throughout Israel as a genius composer and singer. I must have been nervous. Very nervous.

I thought he would give me charts to read. But instead he settled his two giant hands on the piano, and played a latin rhythm.

“Repeat this rhythm” he told me.

I tried repeatedly, but could not. He showed me more slowly. I still could not. It was clear that he considered me a musical moron.

I remember telling him that if he brought me the charts to the music, then I could read it. Instead he looked at me (condescendingly, as I recall) and said “I will call you.”

To this day, he never has.