That changed the other night when she told me that she had talked to a friend of hers, who has a band. “I was telling him about you and he said that he is looking to add a trumpet player to his band.”
“Thank you, Tyhedra. I really appreciate that.”
“Hey, what are friends for? So you keep practicing and I’ll let you know when and where.”
Well, the when is tonight and ready or not, I’m gonna go for it.
When I got to the club, Tyhedra was waiting for me at the door. It had been a while since I last saw her. When she saw me coming toward her, she smiled. As I got closer, her beautiful smile seemed to fade away.
“Where is your horn?” Tyhedra asked as soon as I got close enough to hear her.
“It’s in the car.”
“Well go get it. They’re waiting to hear you, and they want to do it before it gets crowded.”
As I walked back to the car to get my horn, I kept trying to convince myself that I was ready for this. “You can do this,” I said out loud, and took my trumpet out of the passenger seat. I walked back slowly, and the closer I got the more I knew that I wasn’t ready for this. I was tired from staying up all night fucking Kathy and, on top of that, I knew I could use more practice. One thing was certain, I wasn’t about to back out now. I saw Tyhedra in the sexy black dress she was wearing and knew that I couldn’t. She had put herself out there for me and arranged this audition without even hearing me play. I couldn’t let her or myself down by not even trying.
Tyhedra and I went inside together, and I was glad that there wasn’t much of a crowd, in case I really sucked. “You nervous?” Tyhedra asked, and she immediately walked me to the stage.
“Very,” I told her, and wished that we had stopped at the bar for a shot of liquid courage.
“Well, don’t be, these guys are pretty cool.”
When we got to the stage, the drummer was seated behind his set, as was the pianist, and another man was plugging in his bass.
“Hi, guys,” Tyhedra said to everybody before she turned to the pianist. “Curtis, this is the trumpet player I was telling you about. This is Tavarus.”
“How you doing tonight,” Curtis said shook my hand.
“Thanks for letting me sit in,” I said, and threw up my hand to the other guys.
“No, it’s me who should be thanking you. If you’re as good as Tyhedra says you are, we’re glad to have you.”
I looked at Tyhedra. She just smiled that sexy ass smile. Curtis introduced me to the rest of the guys and then to the saxophone player when he got to the stage. He seemed less than excited about me being there.
I took out my horn and got ready to tune up. Tyhedra kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t worry about him,” she said. “He’s just mad because he was trying to get a friend of his in this spot. But when I told Curtis how good you were, he decided to give you a shot.”
“How do you know how good I am? You’ve never heard me play?”
“I have confidence in you. Good luck,” Tyhedra said and kissed me again, on the lips this time.
“So, Tavarus, let’s see what you got,” Curtis said. “Do you know any Miles Davis?”
“Sure.”
“What about ‘All Blues’?”
“I know it,” I said in a voice that showed my apprehension about playing it. “All Blues” was one of my favorites and I had played it countless times, but I wasn’t expecting him to go there. I thought I would sit in on a few cuts, but not solo.
“What?” Curtis asked.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting to solo.”
Curtis looked disappointed by my statement. “Tyhedra said it had been a minute since you played with anybody. But like I said, I need to hear what you got.”
The sax player stepped up behind me. “Time to show and prove,” he said and took his position.
Ready or not, here I come, I thought. “You love this song, you’ll be fine,” I told myself. Curtis and the drummer jumped right on. I got through the chorus, but then came the first of my many solos, and I got through that. I was feeling good about it, until I hit my first bad note. I recovered and played through. When my solo was over there was a smattering of applause from what little crowd there was, but I got the feeling that most of it was Tyhedra.