Chapter 36 -- The Concert and the First Day of School

Don't know much about history,
Don't know much biology.
Don't know much about a science book,
Don't know much about the French I took.
But I do know that I love you,
And I know that if you love me, too,
What a wonderful world this would be!

--What A Wonderful World (Sam Cooke)

There were no suites available at the Marriott. Despite the fact that Kristen already had a suite at the University Inn, she figured that she wanted to stay at the Marriott if that was where we were going to perform. It just made things easier for us. We settled for two adjoining rooms and told the reception clerk that we were expecting some equipment to be arriving by five, and to let us know when it arrived.

The clerk looked oddly at us and said, "Can you wait a minute?"

"Sure," Kristen said, a bit confused.

The clerk went back into the office, and returned with the manager. "Archy Jonas called and told me that you might be coming over later. You're replacing John Fuller in the lounge tonight, correct?"

"Yes," Kristen said. "Jim here will be replacing him specifically."

"Archy said that tonight you might be playing some different styles since you are from out of town."

I nodded. "I hope you don't mind..."

The manager held up his hand and smiled. "It won't be a problem, but please realize that it's just a cocktail lounge. I used to be a musician when I was younger, and I understand if you want to play rock and roll or things like that. Please remember that our patrons aren't all from your generation."

"I understand," I assured the manager. "I do know some people that seem to dig the stuff I play. If they don't seem to appreciate the newer stuff, I have a pretty good knowledge of the older stuff. OK?"

The manager smiled even broader. "Thank you."

"No problem. By the way, Kristen here will be performing tonight as well."

"You play?"

Kristen smiled. "Guitar tonight."

"Electric?"

"I have three guitars arriving later. An acoustic, a bass, and a lead."

"It sounds like you do this quite often!"

"It's a first for us," Kristen said, looking proudly at me. "We're doing this as a way of returning a favor to Archy."

The manager smiled. "It sounds like it will be an interesting evening."

Lynette and Kristen left me in one of the rooms we had while they went to the University Inn to pick up their luggage and to purchase some new clothes for the performance. In the time that I've lived with Kristen, I learned that there really didn't need to be a reason for a woman to need new clothes, and with Kristen's virtually unlimited budget, this was normal behavior for her.

I was watching television when the phone in the room rang. Looking at the clock next to the phone, I could see it was about 3 pm.

It was the manager. "Your music equipment has arrived. I had them deliver it into the lounge."

"Is the lounge open right now?" I asked.

"It opens at five."

"Would I be able to do some setup right now? Maybe get in a rehearsal or something?"

"That would be no problem."

"Thanks!" I said, putting the phone down. I left a note telling the girls where I was going to be, and headed downstairs.

I saw the manager at the reception desk, and he led me into the lounge. There was a bartender inside, who looked surprised when he saw me. "Are you the new piano player?"

"Yeah," I said, grinning.

"The people that delivered the equipment set it up for you already."

I was surprised. "They did?"

The bartender nodded. "My name's Greg. If you need anything, just let me know."

"How about a large Coke?" I asked.

He laughed. "I was hoping you wouldn't order a beer. I take the eighteen age limit seriously. You're what? Seventeen?"

I shook my head. "Sixteen, actually, but don't worry. My father's drinking turned me off social drinking. I think I'd prefer to avoid the temptation than find out later that I might be as bad as he was."

The bartender seemed impressed. "Humph. You seem a lot more mature than you look."

As I examined the equipment, I found that the music store included a stand for the piano, and also an adjustable padded bench. In addition, the guitars were all standing on little devices that looked a bit like plate stands. There were cords attached to all of them as well as a mixer that fed into an amplifier. The piano had its own mixer/amplifier as well, surprising me.

There were even a couple of microphones set up. On the guitar amplifier was a handwritten note:

Dear Kristen,

I forgot to give you your professional's discount, so I decided instead to add in the mixers and the second amp on the house. Give me a call if this is not acceptable.

I wish the two of you the best of luck and keep us in mind if you decide to perform in Lafayette again!

Sincerely,

Kurt Helmut

I smiled as I read the letter. The setup looked quite professional, actually. I adjusted the size of the bench, and decided that I liked it very much. I would have to convince Kristen to allow me to keep at least the bench for the music studio at the apartment.

This electric piano had four voices, which had different timbres. I asked the bartender for some masking tape and a pen, and after testing out each voice, I wrote styles over each of the voices: Jazz, Blues, Eerie, and I left the last one as is: Acoustic.

There was no mistaking the Acoustic style with a real acoustic piano, but it was passable. For grins, I tried the intro to Lady Madonna and realized that it would never do for that song--it sounded too phony to be a real piano. However, it seemed fine for Colour My World, which surprised me.

The bartender seemed impressed. "You're not doing the regular stuff, are you?"

I immediately switched to the "blues" style and started playing Wave. "I can do the usual stuff, but at my age, rock and roll is what I identify with the best."

"I heard you play that song from Chicago before. Do you know any more of their tunes?"

Asking any musician from Illinois if they could play Chicago is probably an unnecessary question, but the bartender probably didn't know where I was from.

I considered their work and my repertoire. The best song of theirs that I knew how to play on the piano was Saturday in the Park. I grinned and started playing the familiar introduction to that song.

The bartender smiled, and as I went to the repeat of the intro, I was surprised to hear a trumpet play the rundown that accompanied the song on the record on cue.

Without missing a beat, I turned to see Archy with his silver trumpet and his eyes were sparkling at me.

I didn't miss the cue and started singing the words to the song, with Archy expertly playing the trumpet part. We had played this song together during practice sessions the previous school year.

After the first verse, I signaled Archy to stop.

"Hey, guy! I didn't know you were here."

"The manager gave me a call and told me you were practicing. I figured that I could give you a hand, since I know you're a perfectionist and really like to practice before performing. Troy will be here in a bit for the drums."

I smirked and nodded.

The bartender interrupted. "That was really cool! For a kid, you sure know your stuff. You too, Tiny!"

I didn't take any offense to that, since I knew what the bartender was saying. I've heard many variations of people telling me how great I was. Despite the fact that I had some personal doubts about my talent, I found it easier to simply accept compliments without major complaint.

"Oogie is going to be the greatest musician the world has ever known," Archy said, quite seriously, surprising me. "I only wish my uncle could have lived to see him play."

I heard a female voice quietly say, "He's in heaven, looking down at the two of you and as proud as he can be." I didn't see where she was, but I recognized the voice as being June's.

Archy turned around and that was when I saw that June was behind him. "That just might be, but if he's in heaven, I have a feeling that he's not very happy. All his friends will be somewhere else!"

"Archibald Jonas!" June said sternly. "You will not talk that way in front of me. We respect the deceased and we hope that they all find peace in the afterlife."

"I'm sorry, June," Archy said, chastened. "I was just joking. Uncle Jake used to say things like that."

June didn't answer, but nodded and changed the subject. "The two of you sound great together."

The bartender agreed. "This kid seems much better than John is."

"Oogie here is still in school in Illinois," Archy pointed out. "He's going to change the world with music when he's older."

"What key do you play Ipanema?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"G major seventh, I think," Archy said. He had come a long way from his lack of knowledge of music in the past six months.

"First melody note is an A?" I asked.

"Yup."

"Great," I said. That put the real key a whole step down, due to the fact that the trumpet plays in a different key. I thought through the chord progressions in the key that I knew the song and did a mental transposition and didn't think there would be any difficulties. "Want to give it a try?" I asked.

Just then, Kristen and Lynette entered the lounge. "Give what a try?" Kristen asked.

"Girl from Ipanema," I answered, happy that my muse had shown up.

Kristen squinted her eyes. "I can play that on piano. I don't think I've tried it on guitar. What key?"

"Try the acoustic," I suggested. "F-major-seventh is the key." Kristen and I both knew that the trumpet plays a whole step up from the piano and guitar chords. "You can watch me for the changes."

Kristen picked up and quickly re-tuned her bass guitar, not having to adjust it much since she had done it earlier. "I'm ready. Want me to take the vocals?"

"Kristen's playing?" June asked. "I was wondering what the guitars were for."

"I'm auditioning for Oogie's band back in Illinois," Kristen said with a grin.

"I'll take the vocals on this one, Kris," I said, not wanting to turn the song into "Boy from Ipanema." I turned to Archy and asked, "Do you do any solos on Ipanema?"

"First repeat of main verse. We usually don't piano solo that song."

"Cool. I'll be the backup." I looked at how comfortable Kristen was holding the bass. "We'll try it twice. First time, Kris will be on bass, and second, I'll let her take the melody on lead guitar after your solo, and then she can duet with me for repeat bridge and final verse. OK?"

"Is he speaking English?" Lynette asked, grinning.

"All musicians talk that way," June said, smiling.

"Shut up in the peanut gallery!" I said, grinning as well. I played the introduction, and started singing.

I noticed that when Archy played his solo, he gave it more of a cha-cha beat than a bosa-nova beat, so I adjusted the style of my playing for the remainder of the song, and found it worked nicely.

Kristen put the bass down and picked up her lead guitar. She quickly tuned it and then turned on the pickup. "I'm ready." It was obvious that Kristen picked up the chord progression from watching me on the piano.

We did the second run through and Kristen did a rather plain rhythm guitar backup for the first part, but right after Archy's solo, she cooked when she took the lead, turning it into a minor solo as well. In fact, I almost missed my cue to sing the duet. When I heard Kristen's lovely voice, I started singing harmony a third step down.

As I was finishing the song, I realized that Kristen had gone back to rhythm back beats, playing better than the first time.

"That was great, Kris!" I said when the song was finished. "You're hired!"

"Well, I do declare!" Kristen said in her Scarlet O'Hara voice. "I do think that man wants me in his band!"

Everybody laughed at Kristen, and we then rehearsed Wave, and a few Sinatra songs that Archy said was part of their regular set. There were few snags, other than the fact that Kristen insisted on singing lead on Summer Wind--it was one of the songs for which she knew all the words.

The drummer arrived and was introduced to me as Troy. He set up and accompanied us on the songs. He was quite competent and didn't insist on taking solos. I think there's a law somewhere that says that all drummers insist on taking solos, but if that was true, Troy didn't seem to know it.

Now that Kristen and the drummer were around, I decided to do some of the newer stuff. We started with Saturday in the Park and moved on to some Elton John songs. I added the Van Morrison and Sugarloaf numbers as well, thinking of Patty Nadal back home, and found that Kristen was quite competent about picking up the right guitar for each song I suggested.

Kristen suggested a song and a key, and announced that she would sing lead on it. I watched in awe as her melodic voice seemed to get the entire emotion of the song, and I noticed that as she was singing while playing the bass, she was staring right at me:

Stars shining bright above you,
Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you!"
Birds singin' in the sycamore trees,
Dream a little dream of me.
Say nighty-night and kiss me,
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me.
While I'm alone and blue as can be,
Dream a little dream of me.

I watched, open mouthed as Kristen sang the bridge. She sounded wonderful, and I knew that she was singing right to me. Unlike most of the other songs she sang, this one was breathy and romantic. I played my best accompaniment to her.

The second bridge was taken by Archy, who played a very beautiful solo that neatly matched Kristen's singing style perfectly.

Kristen grinned at Archy and she sang the last verse.

"Wow!" was the general expression of everybody who had just heard this beautiful song, including the bartender.

"That was great, Kris!" I finally said.

Kristen smiled sweetly at me and thanked me for the compliment.

It was getting close to the lounge's opening time, and Archy pulled the curtain around the performance area.

We kept most of the instruments on the stage, with the exception of Archy's trumpet and Kristen's guitars. We went up to our rooms, and stored the instruments there.

It was almost dinner time, and I suggested we eat at the hotel. Everybody agreed, and we had a great meal.

When we returned to the lounge later, we silently set up.

I noticed that the lounge wasn't that crowded, and the average age of the patrons was about thirty or forty. This confirmed what the manager had told me.

I decided to let Kristen start with Summer Wind. During dinner, she told me that this was a song her parents really enjoyed listening to. I made a mental note to put this song, with Kristen singing lead, into the list of songs that I intended to record as a present for the Swifts.

From there, we did the standard bosa-nova numbers with the cha-cha beat that Archy and the normal band played. I noticed that Archy and the drummer were playing almost as if by rote, except that they weren't always used to my styling. Kristen was amazing in that she seemed to anticipate when I would go off on a tangent and take an unannounced solo and fade into the background, and when I thought a guitar solo was needed, she was there and ready to perform.

After about fifteen minutes, Archy seemed much more comfortable, and, like Kristen, he was able to anticipate when I thought he'd be perfect for a solo.

After playing a bunch of classics, I decided to go for some rock, albeit older numbers. First up was a number that Kristen sang lead on, Johnny Angel. It was an old number from one of the stars of a 1950s sitcom that I barely knew. I had heard the song, but never tried to play it before. However, Kristen gave me the key, and it wasn't a difficult song. Unfortunately, it wasn't a song where Archy or I could do a good solo.

Next, I sang a duet of Lollipops with Kristen. It was a number that Archy, Kristen, and I knew from her birthday. That number came out surprisingly well. Kristen definitely had a singer's voice. I was actually surprised by her range.