“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:
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.