“Really? That sounds weird,” I said, impressed.
“We have enough for the chants today, though,” Roy pointed out.
Bill looked at the fake book. “’Lollipops and Roses’ looks like a piano, bass, and drum song with a soloist.”
I sighed, having hoped that song would have been forgotten.
“Jim’s going to do the solo,” Roy decided. “Maybe Stacy can do the second. I’ve heard the song, I think. The bridge follows, and should be a duet. Final verse should be Jim, the bridge is repeated as an instrumental solo, and the repeat of the final verse could be a duet.”
“It sounds as though you want to arrange it,” I said dryly, shaking my head.
“I can arrange that,” Bill said. “I could arrange that for the three parts and allow a couple of four-bar solos for the second bridge. Do you have a copy of the record?”
I thought my mom might have one, but Camille answered. “My mom has that one. Come over my house and I’ll loan it to you tomorrow.”
“Sounds great,” Bill said, grinning.
I sighed. I was just drafted to sing a solo. I hoped that my voice did justice to the song. I called the group back together, and we started to work out the songs that I picked out, intentionally avoiding ”Lollipops and Roses.”
At least there was somebody else helping with an arrangement.
I saw Kristen’s car in the driveway when Camille dropped me off at my house a few minutes past five. I asked Camille to hold my arrangements for me until I could come over and get them, and she agreed.
“So, you went out on a date while Merry and I were buying dresses?” Kristen said, smiling, as I entered my house.
“Double date,” I answered. “Patty and Camille.”
“My Romeo!” Kristen laughed, kissing me fully on the lips, not minding that my family was in sight.
I was a bit taken aback by Kristen’s calling me Romeo, due to the fact that one of the last songs we rehearsed was the love theme from the movie. I wondered if Kristen suspected what I was doing.
There were no other questions asked about where I went, though. The meal was quite nice, and Kristen spent the night in my room.
Sunday, Kristen and I visited the flea market, and afterward, there was little difficulty inviting my parents and Merry to Vaughn’s for lunch and Merry’s Belly Buster dessert.
I spent the rest of my spare time that week writing arrangements for the various songs for the jazz band.
On Thursday, after school, Amy and Kristen found me and told me that they needed to go somewhere and that Amy wouldn’t be able to attend rehearsal. I didn’t ask Amy to hijack Kristen, but I knew that was her intent. I told her that I didn’t mind and that I’d do her solos for her. As they left, I was glad that Amy did this for me.
My music teacher, Mr. Proilet, was in the music room as the band started out playing the ”Peter Gunn“ theme. Almost immediately, Mr. Proilet signaled me to stop.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“This isn’t the first time these people have played this. I know that Bill and a couple of the saxes played this last year, but that was in competition. When did they find time to rehearse?”
I smiled. “Kristen’s dad rented the Legion Hall last Saturday and next Saturday to allow us to rehearse on site.”
My music teacher looked impressed. “Would you mind if I attend next Saturday’s rehearsal?”
I shrugged. “It may help, especially if I can’t get away from Kristen.”
Almost immediately, Mr. Proilet looked at the empty piano. “Where is Amy?”
“She’s running interference with Kristen today.”
“Think you can handle this without your muse?”
I ignored my music teacher’s remarks as well as the snickers that accompanied it. “’Peter Gunn,’ from the top,” I said, playing conductor again.
The song didn’t sound as good without the piano, so I signaled Mr. Proilet to take over as I took Amy’s place behind the piano.
I almost missed my cue for the third solo, thinking it was Amy’s part. I recovered quickly, though, and the song went to the end.
“Pretty good,” commented Mr. Proilet. “Piano solo was a bit weak.”
This caused everybody to laugh. Apparently, any sign of weakness on my behalf was appreciated by most everybody.
I alternated conducting and piano with Mr. Proilet with the other Mancini numbers until Roy pointed out that we didn’t do the Lollipops song yet.
“Lollipops?” Mr. Proilet asked.
“The Jack Jones song,” I admitted. “We haven’t practiced that one.”
“Why not?” the music teacher demanded.
“Jim’s afraid of doing the solo,” Roy explained.
I sighed. “’Lollipops,’ everybody,” I said, biting the bullet.
Bill handed the conductor’s score for the song to my teacher. I knew the melody, but was surprised when Bill handed me a completely different arrangement for piano. Only the voices would be carrying the melody except for the introduction.
I was behind the piano. There wasn’t any microphone, so I simply played the solo introduction and started to sing.
After the first line, Mr. Proilet tapped his baton, signaling me to stop. He instructed Roy to bring a mike over to me, and to double-track me live. There was also another girl set up to back Stacy in the same way.
Once again, he signaled me to start.
When I heard Roy accompany me, I felt much better. The band came in, and I was surprised at how good the song was going.
I almost forgot that the second verse was the female solo, but Roy saw that and quickly signaled me before I made a fool of myself. It was much easier playing the piano harmony when it was backing Stacy than when I was singing melody.
The second verse was followed by our duet bridge, and Roy and I took the final verse.
Toby took the first four-bar solo, and did rather well. The rest of the solos followed, followed by Stacy and I doing the final duet.
“Great arrangement,” Mr. Proilet said, looking at me.
“Roy actually came up with the concept, and Bill did the actual arranging,” I pointed out.
“Great work, all of you,” the teacher said. “Can we try it again from the first bridge?”
I was able to attend Saturday’s rehearsal, because Kristen’s parents ran interference for me. We brought the sound systems this weekend, and we decided to play a complete set one time through in order to get a feel of what the program would be. Patty and Camille were assigned as our official timers, and they were given stopwatches and told to indicate the start and end times for each song.
“We’re not going to stop for mistakes,” I told the band.
“Who’s going to announce the band?” Roy asked.
I didn’t think of that. “Mr. Proilet?” I asked, looking at my music teacher.
“No problem.”
I turned to Patty and Camille. “Time the intro as well.”
“What do we call the band?” Mr. Proilet asked.
That was another thing we never discussed.
Without missing a band, Camille answered, “The Oogie Woogie Impromptu Jazz Band.”
This was greeted by laughter by everybody.
“How appropriate!” my music teacher said, laughing.
There was a curtain behind the stage set up, and we all were back there with our chairs, stands, and instruments. The chorus members helped out with some of the equipment as well.