tbdana wrote: ↑Sat Jun 08, 2024 12:24 am
I just have to tell you this story about Gerald from my gig tonight. Let me set the stage first...
This was a gig at a winery with a funk/rock/soul band that's a bunch of middle age guys. Sounds lame, right? It's not. This band is very good, super aggressive, and incredibly tight. The musicans come from bands named Tower of Power, Cold Blood, Chicago, Aretha Franklin, etc. Great band. And the energy is so powerful it just picks you up and carries you. And did I mention they're incredibly tight and aggressive? Yeah. High level playing. Definitely not a bar band.
And then there's Gerald.
Gerald owns a saxophone. He's a little old man, and I mean old like Noah. Dude is frail, bent over, and looks 920 years old. He needed help up onto the bandstand, which was a single step of 7". Someone had to bring his saxes to him. Everyone else stood, but Gerald sat in a chair to play. I'm thinking, "What the hell is this guy doing here?"
The gig starts and we play a couple tunes, and I don't even hear Gerald. All of us standing, except for frail old Gerald sitting in his chair. I forget all about him as I'm sight reading the charts. Then, on about the third tune, there's a sax solo.
OH. MY. EFFING. GAWD!!!!
Gerald belts out this incredible solo! HUGE sound! Great licks! Tons of soul!!! Just amazing, and super aggressive. My jaw was on the floor. I'm like, "No way. This can't be real. This is impossible. That sound cannot come from that man. I must be hallucinating." It was awesome!
He plays a couple more great solos on other tunes, and then all of a sudden in the middle of the last tune of the first set he leans over to me and says, "Dana, take my solo." Members of band look at each other and someone says, "Gerald NEVER gives away solos."
So I play his solo, the set ends, and Gerald says, "Help me. Help." I turn to look and he's ghost white, his lips are blue, his eyes are kind of rolled back, and he's incoherent. Can't answer questions.
Two band members help him off the bandstand and sit Gerald down, putting his feet up. I take his pulse. It's fast and thready. It's also 95 degrees out. So, we get him a bottle of emergency oxygen and I put a bag of ice on his neck and start rubbing his arms and legs to get the blood flowing. By the end of the break he has color back in his face and he's talking normally. "I feel better," Gerald says. "Let's go play the second set."
To which the bandleader wisely says, "No. You're done for tonight."
So the rest of us leave Gerald sitting behind the bandstand, his feet up, his bottle of oxygen and an ice cold water, and we start the second set. "Dana, you take Gerald's solos," I'm told.
Several tunes into the second set we play the old Blood, Sweat & Tears arrangement of "God Bless The Child." This starts as a slow soul groove, goes into a Latin double-time groove and then breaks out into a blazing fast double-time swing groove that has an alto sax solo.
In the middle of the tune, Gerald staggers onto the stage, taking hits off the oxygen bottle along the way like it's a bong, and gingerly makes his way to his chair, where he lowers himself and slowly picks up his sax. Gerald takes another couple hits off the oxy-bong, and then sits there, waiting. As the tune goes, Gerald slowly leans back in his chair, his head goes back, and his eyes close. He looks like he's either asleep or in distress.
And then the alto sax solo comes. And Gerald rises from the dead and plays the most AMAZING, MASTERFUL, ENERGETIC, HUGE solo I've ever heard. I mean, it was truly masterful bebop. Blew me away.
And then he needed help off the stage again, and sat out the rest of the gig.
Afterward, I'm like, "Who the hell is this old dude?"
Well, it turns out Gerald not only has chops, he has history. Dude played with Tower of Power, Santana, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Blood, Sweat and Tears, the Who and the list goes on. Dude's got a tremendous resumé. And he has just enough left in him to remind us all of who he is. He still has a HUGE sound, which sounds like it couldn't possibly come from his frail little body.
In talking with Gerald after the gig, he said to me, "You guys were having so much fun I couldn't stand not being up there. And I really like that solo," which now I'm guessing he must have played when he was with Blood, Sweat & Tears. So up on stage he came, to give the last bit of himself. And it was incredible. I have so much respect for him. I had been whining about the heat and telling myself I didn't want to take these kinds of gigs anymore, and here's Gerald, seeming like he's on death's door, dragging his oxygen bottle on stage to wow me with an unbelievable solo. That man loves what he does and gives his all, and I'm going to take a lesson from it.
More of a gig from hell for Gerald than me. LOL!
For me, it was a moment that I will remember the rest of my life. I'm just glad I got to meet Gerald.
For me, it was a moment that I will remember the rest of my life. I'm just glad I got to meet Gerald.