Saturday, December 21, 2013
was raising himself from a crouch and going down again with his horn,
looping it up in a clear cry above the furor. A six foot skinny Negro
woman was rolling her bones at the man’s hornbell, and he just jabbed it
at her, “Ee! Ee! Ee!” He had a foghorn tone; his horn was taped; he was
a shipyard worker and he didn’t care. Everybody was rocking and
roaring. Helen and Julie with beer in their hands were standing on their
chairs shaking and jumping. Groups of colored guys stumbled in from the
street falling over each other to get there. “Stay with it man!” roared
a man with a foghorn voice, and let out a big groan that must have been
heard clear out in Sacramento, ah-haa! “Whoo!” said Neal. He was
rubbing his chest, his belly, the sweat splashed down from his face.
Boom, kick, that drummer was kicking his drums down the cellar and
rolling the beat upstairs with his murderous sticks, rattlety boom! A
big fat man was jumping on the platform making it sag and creak. “Yoo!”
The pianist was only pounding the keys with spreadeagled fingers,
chords, at intervals when the great tenorman was drawing breath for
another blast, Chinese chords, shuddering the piano in every timber,
chink and wire, boing! The tenorman jumped down from the platform and
just stood in the crowd blowing around; his hat was over his eyes;
somebody pushed it back for him. He just hauled back and stamped his
foot and blew down a hoarse, baughing blast, and drew breath, and raised
the horn and blew high wide and screaming in the air. Neal was directly
in front of him with his face lowered to the bell of the horn, clapping
his hands, pouring sweat on the man’s keys, and the man noticed and
laughed in his horn a long quivering crazy laugh and everybody else
laughed and they rocked and rocked; and finally the tenorman decided to
blow his top and crouched down and held a note in high C for a long time
as everything else crashed along and the cries increased and I thought
the cops would come swarming from the nearest precinct. It was just a
usual Saturday night good time, nothing else. The clock on the wall
quivered and shook; nobody cared about that thing. Neal was in a trance.
The tenorman’s eyes were fixed straight on him; he had found a madman
who not only understood but cared and wanted
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