The Doorman’s Diary: 11.4-5.11

Sepia-tinted night filled with a piano and vocal jazz duet. Both were exceptional and I was thrown into the past… we’re talking almost 40 years ago when The Doorman experienced live jazz as a newbie. The jazz music from my flashback and what I was hearing tonight were one in the same. The sound, tone and confident command of the piano keys led me to conclude that the piano player from the past was here playing in the club tonight. If it wasn’t the same guy…. it was a clone, replica, duplicate. I couldn’t wait ‘till their first break so I could talk with the older piano player to test my hypothesis. Meanwhile the club filled with jazz lovers including the young ballroom dancing couple that executed complex, sensuous moves in the cramped front wing of the club; a sinewy, attractive woman who writhed on her partner’s lap until the urgency of their private agenda took them swiftly out the door (a curtain of self-imposed privacy is after all transparent to the world); and a group of delightful 20-somethings—one of whom, was celebrating her 24^th birthday. The retro, romantic, sepia feel to the night was created by the superb piano player (who is in fact the same musician I had heard probably 37 years ago!) and the powerful vocalist who belted out Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” Sam Cooke’s “Bring Your Sweet Loving Home to Me,” and Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable,” which they  performed sweetly as a birthday present for the new 24-year-old in the audience.