Brendan Cavanagh has made a name for himself through improvised musical performances. He specialises in playing and promoting boogie-woogie, almost exclusively improvised, often combined with classical, jazz, blues, rock and roll and traditional Irish music themes.
This Londoner likes to go to public places where there is a piano and surprise unsuspecting onlookers with his musical talents.
Also known as Dr K, Cavanagh’s unexpected performances have made him an internet sensation. He has more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
One of Dr K’s chips is that he often appears in public in disguise. This makes his performances all the more interesting, as no one expects a policeman or a hot dog vendor to sit down at the keys and give the heat.
In this particular video, Dr K introduces a young Chinese woman to the boogie-woogie style. This style of music is definitely one of his favourites, so it costs him nothing to share his enthusiasm with others.
The woman was playing traditional classical music on the piano when Dr K, wearing a black hooded jacket and dark sunglasses, approached her. He asks the woman if she knows boogie-woogie and opens her eyes to this particular style of music.
Chinese women immediately embraced this energetic and incendiary music. Although the genre first emerged in the African-American community in the 1870s, it did not become widely popular until the 1920s.
When Dr K finishes playing boogie-woogie, he effortlessly switches to classical music.
Music is truly a universal language that blurs boundaries and brings people from different parts of the world closer together.
