ida presti

i spent a whole summer learning this song. i never got it completely right, though i came close.

i first heard this song during one of my stays at the winberry timber sale in oregon, where i was part of a direct action campaign to stop the logging of the old growth trees there. one hot summer weekend i brought my room mate out to the sale. we climbed up into the tree sits, chatted with my friends that were living in the trees at the time, and ate dinner 150' off the ground on a platform that hung in a tree named life. after dinner he grabbed my guitar and played this song. i had no idea at the time he could even play guitar. he did pretty well, considering he was playing a childrens model guitar my dad bought in the 60's for 25$ at a hardware store in enterprise, oregon.

heitor villa-lobos was a composer from brazil. he wrote some of my favorite songs. and this one is at the top of the charts for me.

here is some old footage of ida presti playing Prelude No. 1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Beautiful.