A Night at Mulberry Street

Hi...My name is Rob...Downtown Rob Brown to be exact...I play the Trumpet...I'm a jazzman!!! Tonight I was playing a set at the rooftop bar in Philly known as Mulberry street...The place was packed and I was cooking...Had everybody clapping their hands and rocking back and forth..

It wasn't a usual night for me...I didn't have a gig here..I was sitting in with a very foxy young Asian organist named Mai Ling...Mai Ling Jackson to be exact....She was a very attractive woman...I couldn't take my eyes off of her...but more than that..She could play the organ...She had a Black Bass player and a white guy on drums and another Asian cat on the guitar....I had never heard of this group before..I was almost certain that they weren't from around here..but I liked them...They knew their stuff. When Mai Ling asked me to sit in with them...I couldn't refuse.

She ran me through her numbers really quick the night before and left a break in each number in which I could just hop in with my trumpet...

I loved it and I loved playing with this group...I almost didn't want this night to end...I just kept looking at Mai Ling Jackson's pretty legs, every chance I got..While she was playing that organ..We played way into the night and when our set was finally over...I invited Mai Ling over to the bar for drinks...

"Wow Mai Ling...that was great...you guys are really good.." I said.

"As are you...Meek Rollins told me that you were a pure jazz man Mister Downtown...."she joked.

"That's Robert Porterhouse Brown if ya nasty." I laughed....

"You named after a steak..hahahahahahahaha." she laughed...She had a beautiful laugh and I had a girlfriend, Delores, lest I forget..She was in Jamaica with her sorors from college..She had been there for two days and wouldn't be back for a week...I would try to be good....I said I would try!

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"From here?" she said.

"Really? Philadelphia...Chinatown right?" I asked.

"Oh you got jokes right? Noooo..I grew up in West Philly." she said.

"REAALly?" I said.

"Why is that so hard to believe ? Because I'm part Asian?" she asked.

"Part Asian?" I asked.

"Yes..My Dad is Lester "Soupspoon" Jackson." She said.

"What???" I said incredulously.

"You ever hear of him?" she asked.

"Did I? He was one of Philly's top avant garde jazz keyboardists....Everybody who knows music in Philly, especially Jazz ,knows who Lester ''Soupspoon"Jackson is...but he's Black." I said.

"Yeah and?? My mother is Vietnamese...He married her, brought her to the states and had me....I know you been checkin me out all night....You see a butt like this on the average Asian girl?" she asked. (I loved her foreardness)

"I gotta say no...I don't..I got  all this from my daddy's side of the fam." she said.

''Lawd Jesus...I guess you did!!!!"I remarked with a wry smile.

"Hey you guys playin anywhere else in the area this month?" I asked.

"We are opening for Reed Nelson and his band at Josies next Friday ." she said.

"OHHHH that's great....I play Josies from time to time...I'll be sure to be there." I said.

"Maybe we all can sit in with each other..." she said.

"Yeah...perhaps...I know Reed Nelson quite well." I said.

We ordered a few more drinks and continued talking, close to closing time... We exchanged numbers.Just as I was getting ready to get up to leave, a guy I knew came running up to me..

"Hey Rob...You own a Jaguar right?" he said.

"Yeah" I said.

"That gray one right?" he said.

"What about it?" I said.

"It just got a boot put on it?" he said.

"What?" I said as I jumped up and ran outside....

I got to the street and there my car was, with the famous yellow boot on it....I had three unpaid tickets...That's
all it took to get one. I couldn't believe it....Mai Ling walked outside and saw my car...She smiled and shook her head.

''The Philadelphia Parking Authority strikes again huh?"she said.

"Yeah..I got three unpaid tickets..." I said.

"You know, I got about six...or so I thought..When I went to pay em last week, they told me that they had been paid...It was the funniest thing." she said looking genuinely confused.

"Yeah...a big butt and a smile will get that for ya...unfortunately...I have neither." I said.

"It's too late to call them.....but tomorrow when they open up...you can call them and pay over the phone if you have a credit or a debit card." she said.

"Yeah...I have seen people do that on that Television show...Parking Wars." I said.

"Come on...My car is right across the street...I 'll drop you off." she laughed.

"Mai Ling...that sounds like a plan." I laughed as we walked across the street to her car and got in....Little did I know....My problems were just beginning.

(To Be Continued....)