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Originally Posted by
GuitarGeek
Yeah, I vaguely remember reading a story, it might have been in Bass Player, when he passed away, but I've forgotten exactly where I read it, that there was a point where Karn, Torn and Bruford were rehearsing (I think this was just before they toured in the late 80's) and Karn was having trouble with some of the written stuff, because he didn't read music, and I gather that maybe Bruford was being a bit grumpy about the fact that it was taking longer than it "should" to get the material nailed down as a result. I guess he hadn't worked with musicians who couldn't sightread, probably not since the Yes days. But it was Torn's band, and I gather he wanted to work with Mick, so that's how it went down.
But it's kinda startling to consider all the different instruments Karn played, not just bass, or even keyboards, but also various woodwind instruments. I gather he actually played bassoon as a teenager (which, now that I think about it, makes the "he couldn't sightread" thing not make sense, because if he played in school orchestra or whatever, he shouldn't have had such troubles), and on various records, he plays saxes, bass clarinet, recorder, oboe, and I'm not sure what else.
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