The phone rang in our apartment on a warm Saturday afternoon in July. “It’s Darrell With The Band,” said Al the doorman. “What band, ” I replied?  “There’s no band. Send him up.”

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A few minutes earlier, Dezron appeared on our doorstep, upright bass in tow, straight from the airport, fresh from a gig in Aspen on Friday evening and on his way to Tokyo for a show on Tuesday.

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While engineer Jay and I were busy converting my daughter’s bedroom into a control room, Mr. Hal Weary sauntered in, lead sheets held mid-chest with two hands, nodding to Dezron and Darrell, ready to run down tonight’s tunes from the piano in the kitchen.

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With food mounting on the dining table like a time-lapsed photo, our guests—our audience—began to filter in. No one, me included, was really sure what was going to happen. But the phones were unplugged, the sangrita was mixed, the tequila was poured and, as the evening’s amber bathed the living room, Hal smiled and counted down “Hangin’ with Horace”.

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The levels were spot on. Our friends were smiling. The sound through the bedroom headphones was a revelation. Hal was cooking in the kitchen. The police weren’t called. And the adventure began.

-MSS

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Dr. Hal Weary works and thinks across musical genres and artistic disciplines as an internationally experienced pianist, composer, educator and scholar. His music lives in the  intersection of Western art music, Jazz and Popular music, and non-Western musics. Dr. Weary earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from San José State University, a Master of Music from William Paterson University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Five Towns College. He is an assistant professor in the department of music at CSUDH with previous faculty appointments at Wayne State University and Albright College. He resides in DTLA.