So, every month I pay a few bucks to an outfit called Dreamhost to host Wentyworld.com. Which I am happy to pay–but I do feel a little regret if I don’t actually generate content for the website. I mean, I’m never going to be one of these people who post new stuff every day. My DVR has two solid firewalls to that: “Dragnet” and “Adam-12.” But I’ve always tried to do at least 2 or 3 really good posts a month. A very mediocre goal to be sure, and yet I am chagrined to note that the last post on this website was in early July. JULY! Two and a half stinking months ago! So I’m gonna try to get back on the trolley here…
This is my Mel Torme story. It is a story that I believe I have told to every living friend and relative…and some who are no longer living. But in case there are one or two who missed it, and also because I’m getting old and dotty, here is a written account of that fateful night.
When I was in college, one of my friends and cohorts at the college radio station was Steve Klafehn. He was one of our newscasters when I was News Director, and later became News Director himself. (He did it a heck of a lot better than I did!) Steve had the proverbial nose for news, and for things that would be fun to attend as an officially sanctioned member of The Media®. I spent my summers working at WBSU; Steve contacted me one summer day and informed me that he was able to get media passes to a Mel Torme concert that evening at the Eastman Theatre.
This beautiful palace in Rochester, NY is home to a variety of musical performances. And I got to see Mel Torme here! Way to go Steve!
With age, I have come to realize that I did not fully appreciate so many of the things I experienced during my college years. For one trivial example: I can only remember literally one song that Mel Torme sang: “Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)”. That’s not even a legitimate “standard”! It’s a Christopher Cross song! But back then, I was only beginning to discover the music of old crooners like Sinatra, Crosby, Como, and yes, Mel Torme.
Incidentally, at the time of the concert Mel Torme was, inexplicably, popular with the yout’s.
Besides the Christopher Cross cover, my other memory from the actual show is that the orchestra got up and walked out at some point. This is a union thing, apparently. The orchestra plays for a certain finite time, and then they blow the joint. But Mel and his piano player stuck around and entertained the crowd for another 20 minutes or thereabouts.
After the show, Steve and I went backstage because Steve (the man is a dynamo!) got us permission to have Mel record some liners for our college radio station’s “Jazzy Sunday” show. (“Liners”, in radio terminology, are brief bits of audio used to connect one song to another, or come out of a commercial break or the like.)
So, I prepared a sheet of paper with neatly typed liners:
“HI, THIS IS MEL TORME, AND YOU’RE LISTENING TO JAZZY SUNDAY ON 89 POINT ONE, W-B-S-U!”
And the like. We only did a couple, you don’t want to overburden somebody. Also, note the phonetic spelling. I’m glad I learned this trick before I got to Alliance….Lord knows how many liners would come back saying “K-Cow” instead of our always-preferred K-C-O-W.
Anyway, we get backstage and Mel Torme is as nice and friendly as you could possible imagine. “Hi fellas!” We fired up our portable cassette recorder and presented him with our page of liners. He fumbled with it for a moment and said something along the lines of, “Gee fellas, I’m sorry…I can’t read this. I need my glasses…they’re back at my hotel room.” So, Mel Torme gave us the name of his hotel, and his room number, and told us to call back the following morning. Could it be that his glasses were in his dressing room and he just preferred to push this little task off till morning? Possibly. But he seemed regretful backstage. I know I sure as hell feel regretful when I have to play trombone with the box of a Healthy Choice meal to figure how long to put it in the microwave.
So, the next morning, I walked from the friendly confines of 69 Perry St. (summer home of Wenty; today’s birthday boy, Ryan Nobles; and a variety of third roommates) to the WBSU Studios. I called the hotel. I asked for Mel’s room number. The phone rang, and that unmistakable voice answered. I checked to make sure the scripts made sense, asked if he had any questions, and we recorded the liners, which aired on “Jazzy Sunday” for…oh, let’s say 3 and a half weeks.
I have been very blessed to talk to some really cool people on the telephone. Conan O’Brien, Buddy Ebsen, Nancy Cartwright, Christopher Knight, Davy Jones, Bill Medley, The Amazing Kreskin and Space Ghost. But that short, unique phone call to Mel Torme might be my favorite.