foobar 3

All those years in Baltimore getting crossways with police, getting tossed in th
at reform school. Crawling up to New York with nothing, being a whore, being a
singer, watching her mother step and fetchit for Ethel Miss High and Mighty Waters
. All that came through the Billie into the microphone and into every song she
sang. Love songs, especially love songs. There was this little girl, Ella, El
la Fitzgerald...she was working with the Count. Basie was from Kansas City. Al
l his music was up in his head. His bands were like an extension of his mind.
The Prez liked that. It was a very New Orleans way to play with feel. The thin
g with Ella was that she wasn t very pretty and she tried to make everybody happy,
so she sang happy, light, almost carefree. Billie knew that was a lie, but did
n t blame Ella. She was just doing the best she could.
Billie had the opposite problem...she didn t give a damn about making anybody else
happy but herself when she was singing. Every song was her song, every lyric w
as her lyric, every broken heart was her heart. That s what she knew how to do.
You ready Billie? Benny asked her. Billie would listen to a run through of the tu
ne, make sure it was in a good key for her. Benny would watch her close her eye
s and listenfoobar 3

Benny didn t like Lester for some reason. His playing was unique, beautiful, soul
ful...and deep, too deep almost like Lester was a light coming from the darkness
. Lester was immensely self contained even if he drank too much or took too muc
h heroin. He was singular even as a junkie. He intimidated Benny with his tale
nt and courage to be just what he was. Benny had come up the hard way with noth
ing...he was ambitious and wanted, needed to be famous to be world renowned, to
be popular. Glenn Miller was a talented hack. Benny was an artist, but down dee
p even he knew that Billie and Lester...they came from some other place. Even d
eeper than Benny, they seemed to come from the very source of jazz. Benny envie
d them.
Don, one of the trumpet players came in We found them....I sent the Tommy to go get
them. She ll come for Tommy. She likes Tommy . Benny thanked Don and got back to
the arrangements...he had to find a place for Lester to solo...he was just too g
ood to ignore, what a bastard...all that talent.