One thing I'll say about Downtown Rob Brown...He doesn't miss a beat when it comes to a good thing..."88" and I were sitting with Bone Hampton in the control room of his recently acquired recording studio...Meek Rollins and an engineer were at the controls recording tracks for Downtown Rob Brown's upcoming CD..."It's a Downtown thang"..He was calling it...
True to his word...He had let Trombonist, Melvin Dunlap sit in with him and he was incredible...He fit right in with what Rob was doing...Sounded great, just like we remembered...The big surprise was...He called Cornell Hood, the guitarist and let him sit in too... This guy could really play...He played that guitar like it was a part of him....but the big surprise was...Cornel could sing too! We had never known it...Cornell usually played the guitar...a little bit of Piano and occasionally a few licks on the drums..but we had never heard him sing before...He sounded like a cross between Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke....
He came to the studio with three original songs that he had written and gave them to Rob. You have to understand...Downtown Rob Brown is not me...He's a serious jazz man...a jazz purist...I would have been more receptive to the r&b thing. Maybe Rob was changing...He listened to Cornel sing and play the guitar on this song and fell in love with it...Cornell wound up singing, doing the background vocals, overdubbing the keyboards and drums and "allowing" Rob to play a trumpet solo on the break of all three of his songs...
Rob looked up at us in the booth after we cut the last song and gave the thumbs up sign....
''Let's take five" he said.
Meek Rollins turned and looked at me and 88 and smiled....
"This kid is good....I didn't want to believe it...but he turned out to be a surprise..." he said.
''Yeah...Plays the guitar, sings and plays a few other instruments too." added 88.
As they walked into the booth I put my arm on his shoulder and said-
"Cornell, this aint where you need to be... You need to be getting you an agent...You could be a solo artist babe." I said.
"You think so Reed?" he asked.
''Hellll yeah." I said.
"I'm gonna use all three of your tunes on my CD Cornell." added Downtown Rob Brown.
"Thanks man...maybe I'll finally get my hnds on some decent bread and get a bigger apartment..." he said.
"Hey guys ,let's go get some lunch." said Meek Rollins..
"I aint hungry guys...but I'll see you cats tonight at Josies." said Cornell as he headed down the street.
"He's still got that babe over his spot I bet." said Meek.
"He'd better not let Symphony Sam find out or he'll lose his job with his band." said Rob.
"What? Sam is hittin that?" I asked, talking about Serena.
''Aww come on Reed, you've heard that girl sing...Why you think she's hanging around?" asked "88"
MeekRollins, Bone Hampton and Rob Brown burst into laughter....
II-
Maybe I'm just newsy...but after we ate lunch and went our seperate ways...I drove over to the apartment complex where Cornell was staying...Skillet Jackson lived in here...So did Ralph Scallion...This place was notorious...My friend Kevin had just investigated a murder in this very complex where a man had beat another man to death with a pipe just months ago...
When I got to Cornell's door...There were no sounds of murder or violence....There were other sounds...Like a bed squeaking fast and loudly...a headboard slamming against the wall and voices...the sounds of carnality-
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh babyyyyyyyyyyyy..."
"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...darlinggggggggggggg...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh give it to meeeee....ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."
"Moree...Morrrrrrrrrrrre...ohhhhhhh harder, harder, faster...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's sooooooooooo damn gooooooooooooooooodddd..."
"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......"
There was also the sound of a humm...The hum of someone's Blackberry going off and not being answered..I was betting that it was Serena's and that Symphony Sam was looking for her... I smiled and just walked away. A man in a bathrobe passed me as I was walking out...They were making so much noise, you could hear them at the stairwell...
"It's a damn disgrace...I think I'm the only one in this god forsaken building that holds down a job....My next door neighbor always has a woman in his room all times of night and now this guy that just moved in has been goin at it all night with this broad....I can't get any sleep..." He said... I just smiled and nodded my head and kept walking.
III-
That night at Josies, I arrived with Debbie and Delores...Downtown Rob Brown was there with Cornell Hood and Symphony Sam raving about the recording session they had and how versatile Cornell was..
"So he was with you guys all day huh?" asked Symphony Sam.
"Yeah...I recorded about seven things today...My whole band was there plus Reed, Bone and 88...Tomorrow, Meek Rollins and I are going to be mixing tracks.." said Rob.
Symphony Sam looked Cornell up and down suspiciously, then gave him copies of the music they were playing... Just then...Serena walked in...
''Hey, where you been? You're late." he said.
"I was practicing the songs....and taking some singing lessons...I was working on my pitch modulation." she said.
Debbie,Delores and Rob Brown all smiled and snickered...I don't know if she heard them or not...Since she was looking right at me...I kept a poker face.
Symphony Sam and his orchestra warmed the crowd up with three standard numbers and then on the fourth, they let Cornel sit in and even solo...He was great and both the women and the men clapped loudly and gave him a standing ovation...Symphony Sam finally stopped giving him the side eye and warmed to him..He looked at me and winked and said-"Damn! This kid is the truth, ruth."
Then Serena came up to the mike...You could hear the grunts and groans in the audience and see Gus, standing on the side shaking his head...She began to sing...I don't know what kind of "pitch modulation " she had been working on(if any) but there was no improvemant at all...She sounded worse...Attempting to avert a tragedy, Cornell began to sing with her...almost overshadowing her....Once the crowd heard his voice, their mood changed...Especially the ladies...They began cheering and clapping...This emboldened Serena.
She began wailing louder, thinking the crowd was cheering for her too!...They weren't, and the louder she got, the more they groaned...even a few boos were heard.......Cornell began to drown her out...His cool, mellow tenor still sounded like sugar to the ears...The crowd clapped wildly.....
For the final number....Cornell soloed and Symphony Sam, as a favor to Rob Brown, allowed Melvin Dunlap to solo on the Trombone also....both were applauded warmly and wildly...Serena didn't perform another number....In fact...she left the stage...She sat like a hurt puppy at the bar, downing drink after drink after drink..
By the time Symphony Sam played his final set...Serena was good and drunk...It didn't matter...Symphony Sam got a standing ovation....a first for him....I walked up to Cornel...
"Man, when we come off the road, you got a standing offer to sit in with my band when we play here and when we play Mulberry Street." I said.
''What's Mulberry Street?" he asked.
''A new spot, it's a rooftop club...The urban professional crowd goes there...you'll dig it." I said.
"Thanks Reed and thank you too Rob for the recording dates." he said as he smiled brightly..
"No...thank you man...because of you...this CD of mine might actually sell and get some radio play." said Downtown Rob Brown.
"Cornell, you were so goood." said Debbie.
"You was da bomb" added Delores....
"Thank you...all of youse for giving me a second chance." said Cornell.
"Well what about ME?? Nobody told me how good I did tonight." said a drunken Serena...
All of us hung our heads low and slowly, quietly drifted away....Cornell couldn't let Symphony Sam know that he had been sleeping with his babe, so he quietly walked away with us...
Symphony Sam walked up to her..
"Serena, you're drunk." he said.
"And you wear too much cologne...so the hell what...SO WHAT?" she said...People were leaving....a few people were still ordering last minute drinks...
"Sam...I want to sing an entire concert backed by your band." she demanded..
Gus looked at Symphony Sam...He was staring daggers at him, He was shaking his head as if to say absolutely not...
"Now look baby." said Sam...
"If not...you won't get another whiff of this gooooooooooooooooooooooooood lovin...not a whifffffff.." she said.
With that..I tossed some dollars on the bar and was headed to the door when Symphony Sam grabbed me..
"Reed...please...you gotta help me." he pleaded...
Why did everybody's problems become mine?
(Conclusion Next)
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