THE CASE OF THE OLYMPIC SKI TEAM PIANIST – Wednesday Sept. 20, 2017

RECOLLECTIONS... OF A CONTINENTAL DIRECTOR

“THE CASE OF THE OLYMPIC SKI TEAM PIANIST”

By Jeff Moore (assistant director on a Bob Griffith tour)

In 1978 my tour traveled to Central and Eastern Europe.  Our pianist was a young man who had spent the previous year training for the U.S. Olympic Ski Team tryouts. Although he had not made the team yet, he still had hopes of qualifying to compete in the 1980 winter Olympic games.  He kept in great shape developing his stamina all through the summer tour by propping his back against any wall he could find and sliding down until he was in a seated position, suspending his hips in the air as if he was sitting down.

Many of our tour members tried this as well hoping to match his stamina.  No one even came close.

As we traveled throughout Eastern Europe we discovered that many of the churches where we were scheduled to perform did not even have a piano.  The keyboard was an integral part of our instrumental section and the choir certainly depended on it.  So in many places, we had to use an organ as a substitute.  Not the perfect instrument for a contemporary musical sound and they were not Hammond B 3’s!  In fact, in one church the only keyboard instrument available was an ancient pump organ which required the player to constantly pump two pedals with his or her feet while playing.  No one who ever traveled with me on my 5 tours could have made it through our 2 hour concert except for one Olympic ski trainee with powerful legs and unbelievable stamina.  Afterwards he wasn’t even tired.  God had placed the Olympic hopeful on our tour knowing we would need him for an important and special concert in communist Eastern Europe where we would have a beautiful time with some folks who needed an evening of true inspiration and a time listening to the freeing gospel message wrapped up in some really great music.

Jeff Moore, toured five times and three as a director.  In addition, because he is one of the finest bass singers in Los Angeles, he sang on Continental albums for over 30 years and was in the recording choir performance at the Continental’s 40^th anniversary concert.