My birthday and the day that Rahsaan died. I've never been sure what to make of this coincidence. Rahsaan's friend, the poet Betty Neals says, "It's a gentle sign."
This isn't the clearest picture but this is at the 75th b-day tribute I threw for Rahsaan at the Elephant Room in Austin this past August. (L-R is Dorthaan, Betty Neals, and my mom, Liz).
This was taken shortly before Dorthaan got up to speak. She told the story of when we first met: "May was chasing everybody in New York, from Elvin Jones's wife, and I would run into people and they'd be like, 'This May lady from Austin is looking for you.' And I'm like, 'Well, I'm NOT hard to find, I work at WBGO!" Anyhow, when I finally met her, I was realized, 'Oh my god, she's just a kid in college!!!' And for those of you who believe in the universe, May and I were meant to meet. May was born on Dec. 5th--not the same year, but that's the anniversary of Rahsaan's death. So the universe told me that May was a special person."
Of course I was blushing in the audience--still star-struck over meeting Dorthaan all those years ago. And even though I've been working on this book for like a hundred years now, I'm still amazed by the crazy luck, or whatever you want to call it, that brought me to Rahsaan. If I hadn't taken that jazz appreciation class in college, if I'd skipped class that day, if I'd never heard him: I can't imagine.
As Joel Dorn once said to me on the phone, "Do you have any idea how rare it is that somebody like him got to somebody like you?" I do. And I thank my lucky stars every day.
This was taken shortly before Dorthaan got up to speak. She told the story of when we first met: "May was chasing everybody in New York, from Elvin Jones's wife, and I would run into people and they'd be like, 'This May lady from Austin is looking for you.' And I'm like, 'Well, I'm NOT hard to find, I work at WBGO!" Anyhow, when I finally met her, I was realized, 'Oh my god, she's just a kid in college!!!' And for those of you who believe in the universe, May and I were meant to meet. May was born on Dec. 5th--not the same year, but that's the anniversary of Rahsaan's death. So the universe told me that May was a special person."
Of course I was blushing in the audience--still star-struck over meeting Dorthaan all those years ago. And even though I've been working on this book for like a hundred years now, I'm still amazed by the crazy luck, or whatever you want to call it, that brought me to Rahsaan. If I hadn't taken that jazz appreciation class in college, if I'd skipped class that day, if I'd never heard him: I can't imagine.
As Joel Dorn once said to me on the phone, "Do you have any idea how rare it is that somebody like him got to somebody like you?" I do. And I thank my lucky stars every day.
