The Joys of Jazz

My oldest brother stopped in around 10 am, intending to stay for about half an hour, but wound up reluctantly leaving at 2:34 pm. I know the exact time because he asked for the time just before he forced himself to leave. He wanted to catch his bus before the school kids got out. I have a bunch of LaserDiscsÔ, the precursor to DVDs. I probably hadn't watched any of them for about four years, so I had decided to hook up my old Pioneer Laserdisc player to see if it still worked.

I was watching Peggy Lee when Sylvester came in, and he was captivated by her pianist, Michael Renzi - the man is good, y'all - as well as by Miss Lee's performance. Ves hung around to watch a couple of other performers, and when he finally left, a much happier man, his parting words were, "Man, don't let anything happen to those discs!" I assured him that I was going to transfer them all to DVDs.

As he was leaving, UPS delivered two DVDs, Erroll Garner performing for the BBC, and Ella Fitzgerald in concert with the Count Basie orchestra at Montreaux. Fortunately, Ves couldn't see what was in the package, or he probably would have stayed three more hours.

Music truly does have the power to uplift the spirit, particularly when it's quality compositions performed by top-notch artists. Ella, Lou Rawls, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nat Cole, Johnny Mercer, Keith Jarrett, Duke Ellington - not a rapster on the roster. Ves laughed aloud with pure delight when Nat Cole and Johnny Mercer did a duet of Mercer's 'Save the Bones for Henry Jones'.

Since he’s 84 years old, a lot of the songs performed, the old standards by guys like Ellington, Mercer, and Cole Porter, came right out of his youth. You could see the music taking him back. He talked about shining shoes on the street corners of DC when he was a kid, and how there always seemed to be great music playing all over town.

He'll be back next Tuesday, and I've already got a new lineup set for him. We'll see how long he stays the next time.

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