Kind of amazing

Most people, when they hear the name Bobby McFerrin, immediately think of one song, one song that many of those same people are thoroughly sick of (and they have been since about six months after that song came out). For many people, that's about all they know of him. They may have heard about something or other that he did with Yo-Yo Ma, but there was never a video on MTV or a special somewhere or a radio single, so chances are it slid past relatively unnoticed. And that's unfortunate, because the man is brilliant.

I've had the pleasure of seeing him in concert one time, several years ago, and it was spectacular. At this point, I see him less as a musician than as a musical philosopher, as you can see in this clip from the World Science Forum. It is remarkable.

(In case you have trouble hearing it, his comment at the beginning is something like, "Talk about expectations...")

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

How cool is that?