Astronaut Cady Coleman, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Perform First Space-Earth Flute Duet

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2011) — Harmony reached new heights recently as NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, circling Earth aboard the International Space Station, and musician Ian Anderson, founder of the rock band Jethro Tull, collaborated for the first space-Earth duet.

Coleman, an amateur flutist, and Anderson played a portion of the song "Bourree," an arrangement of which Anderson and Jethro Tull performed during their 1969 U.S. tour as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon.

Coleman played her part from 220 miles above Earth late last week. Anderson played his part while on tour in Perm, Russia, during the weekend. The two parts were then joined.

Video from the performance is on NASA's website at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=79119001



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110411115742.htm

Would have been cooler had they performed simultaneously. Anderson would have had to adjust to the time delay in the signal arriving to earth, which could have led to some interesting interplay.

[unblock]

1. the first earth-space duet was meant to be jean michel jarre and ron mcnair, 1986

but the challenger disaster prevented that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendez-Vous_(Jean_Michel_Jarre_album)

[tridim]

2. Ron Burgundy should join in with his sexy jazz flute.

Very cool!