Vinnegar

I’m in college. I am miserable. I love jazz and I spend most of my
time in the library where I listen to MY FAIR LADY played by
Andre Previn, Shelly Manne, and Leroy Vinnegar. Besides playing
basketball, that is my most pleasurable moment of that time.

Time goes by and I’m sitting on a ledge, next to Leroy Vinnegar,
checking on the staging of a Michelob commercial. He’s part of a
band I put together for several scenes in the shoot. I haven’t spoken
to him but he’s strumming his bass and I turn to him. He breaks the silence.

‘You don’t hear much live music, do you?’

‘Not so much anymore. Why?’

‘You have a huge grin.’

His lone bass filled the entire room. There was no way it could ever
be recorded, the instrument had so much power.

I had to move on with the shoot, but the moment has never left.