JiMC—The Author
Chapter 36—The Concert and First Day of School
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.”