What Took You So Long, Baby?
This is the first time I met Sherry. It’s summer 1996…my first summer in the US. Sherry and her friend Tina took my Swiss buddy Walter and me out to Tanglewood, an open-air music hall in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is home to three classical music schools while also hosting the Festival of Contemporary Music with bands and many diverse musicians. The infamous composer and conductor John Williams, as well as the Boston Pops, frequently appear at this very popular arena.
I have always been into Big Bands, and the concert we attended was by no less than Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald. What a unique opportunity, and I felt we had to take maximum advantage of it. We had 5-dollar lawn tickets and even though we had had a lot of fun picnicking, we were much too far from stage to see their faces.
Y a-t-il des sièges libres ? Are there any open seats? The Usher I was talking to outside the main hall turned out to be a French Canadian, and I decided to impress him with my school French and chat with him to tell him how much I loved…. Canada. Not sure what I did right, but he took the four of us inside, all the way to the tenth row. The concert was already underway, and Ella Fitzgerald had just started singing. And there he was…a little man behind the piano, no less than the Count himself! I was in awe of what I saw – two of the world’s most famous musicians on one stage.
Being adventurous these early days [if not also in the honeymoon stage of culture shock], I looked around and noticed that the entire first row was empty for some reason. “Guys, follow me; we are going all the way!” In a split moment, we all ran hunched back to the first row and slipped into the empty seats.
Ella interrupted her song in the middle of one of her classic scat styles, looked me directly in the eyes, and said: “What took you so long, baby….?”
I hope you enjoyed that little story. It is the first installment of many episodes to come with The Memory Keeper. I want to thank you for listening and invite you to join us next week as we will take you to Japan for the story “Lost and Found in Kyoto.” You won’t believe what Sherry and I experienced there.
Ella Fitzgerald
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