Filling the Well

My life is full of adventure and good things. Tonight is “Iron Man.” Last night was Pink Martini, with the Colorado Symphony, bringing that whole retro ’50s cabaret dance band sound to the modern era. So awesome.

The set started with Ravel’s “Bolero,” but with a dancy latin kick. You know, bongos and congas and marimbas and stuff. Like the soundtrack of a 1950’s adventure flick. So I instantly get this story in my head: It’s right after World War II, we’re in a seedy bar in Brazil. The kind of place with bamboo furniture and a ceiling fan cutting through columns of cigarette smoke. A couple of dirty men are in the corner, playing poker with damp, wrinkled cash. A large, suspicious man, wearing a panama hat and smoking a cigar, sits in a shadow, holding a tumbler of bourbon that he isn’t drinking. At the bar is an exotic-looking woman, with an orchid in her dark hair. She’s wearing a tight floral dress and watching the door. She doesn’t look happy. In the distance there’s the sound of a diesel engine — a boat motoring up the river. The engine stops, and a moment later two men enter. They might be German. Just something about the look in their eyes, the way their stiff bodies ought to be wearing uniforms. One of them is carrying a black leather satchel. They go meet the man in the panama hat. But the woman at the bar has been waiting. She gives a signal. Five more men leap out of hiding, determined to steal away the smuggled diamonds in the satchel. There’s a fight, then gunfire — and so on.

Yeah. I had a really good time. I had stories playing in my head all night because the music sent me to another world. Music does that to me a lot. As a special treat, Lauderdale played Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” after the intermission. And then there was all that great singing. Hmmmm….