So Adolé took a seat on a bar stool behind the piano where Michelle was sitting, a position from which she could see both the keyboard and Michelle clearly. Michelle smiled at her and then turned to the piano with concentration. After a brief moment of focus, she put her fingertips on the keys and began a slow, jazzy piece. The intro immediately transported Adolé back to the smoky and wicked bars of her beloved New York of the 1930s, which had also served as inspiration for her own pieces. She closed her eyes, slowly swayed back and forth in time and got completely involved with this beautiful melody.
After an intense musical introduction, Michelle suddenly began to sing a French text to this song. Surprised, Adolé opened her eyes, but immediately got a grip on herself again. She had expected a pure piece of music without lyrics, certainly not with French singing, but somehow she liked this combination. She noticed the beautiful voice of Michelle, which she had never heard before, closed her eyes again and enjoyed this rare and beautiful performance.
Adolé was totally flabbergasted. What a beautiful sound, what an extraordinary melody. She was captivated by this beautiful performance and the rich, skilful tone of Michelle's voice. This was the first time Adolé was completely sure that Roswitha's unusual idea, which she had thought was a bad joke at first, would be a success.
When Michelle had finished her lecture, Adolé opened her eyes. Only now did she realize the tears of emotion she had shed. Her face was wet with tears, and so she secretly searched for a handkerchief. While Michelle looked at each other expectantly to ask her opinion, Adolé fished a tissue from her pocket and blown his nose away from her.
Having regained her breath and composure, she merely produced an inarticulate "Oh... that was so beautiful. To hide her puffy eyes from Michelle, she jumped up and shouted "I'll be in the kitchen for a moment..." as she ran out.
10.
Adolé still leaned against the refrigerator in the semi-darkness of the kitchen. How could she not have known that? That Michelle had such a beautiful voice and was obviously also a great talent when it came to composing?
She was still very emotional and deeply moved by this unexpected talk. If all her pieces were so soulful and beautiful, there was no doubt about the joint success of the CD.
Adolé was pleasantly surprised. Even outside of work, she felt that something had changed. She noticed that she felt crazy sympathy for this scratchy French woman and shook her head uncomprehendingly at the thought. She knew it would be difficult if she decided to follow this feeling of sympathy and affection, especially since she could not judge how Michelle felt about it. Furthermore, her eternal motto was reasonably - as it was for many others - and also voluntarily: "No love at work! She was willing to stick to it despite all temptations, because she was convinced that this motto made life much easier - not before a liaison, of course, but certainly after. It didn't take much imagination to imagine what would happen if you went to bed with colleagues and that didn't lead to the desired happy ending. When did you ever get anything tangible out of these sentimentalities? She was only too happy to spare herself this scenario, not to mention what would happen to her if the press got even the slightest whiff of something like this.
No, one thing was for sure, she would not take that risk, especially not when her career was going so well. Moreover, it had now turned out that the initial mad idea Roswitha had come up with at the kitchen table was indeed innovative, different and above all extremely promising. She would not put all that at risk.
And so she resolutely grabbed the two coffee cups she had freshly filled and made her way back to the recording studio. She didn't let on and listened to the other pieces Michelle had composed with her studio musician. They were all exceptionally beautiful and above all special, not typical or predictable, some with English lyrics, some without. Nevertheless, they all fitted perfectly to the songs Adolé had worked out with her studio colleagues.
One thing was certain: they were a good team, although they had previously worked exclusively separately. And about something else there was now certainty: with today's comparison session, with which they had compared their individually composed songs for the first time and put them in the balance, their joint album had finally come a decisive step closer.
*
After the evening had progressed considerably, they decided to end their working day and arranged to meet the next morning. After all, they still had a whole studio for themselves for days on end - there had to be something useful to do with it.
They formally said goodbye, shook hands and wished each other a good night. Adolé smiled and offered Michelle to give her a ride in the taxi, but she declined, saying that she wanted to enjoy the summer evening a little longer and so took the opportunity to walk a little more. Adolé therefore wished her a good time and said goodbye formally, while at the same time she noticed that she did not even know in which hotel Michelle was staying here in Hamburg.
Disturbingly, she even noticed how she regretted not being able to spend a little more time with this impulsive pianist. Sighing, she turned around, entered the main road, which was not very busy at that time, and took the first car at the taxi stand. While she looked at Hamburg at night from the back seat, her thoughts kept wandering back to Michelle. How much she had surprised her with her beautiful voice and this fancy song. Why had she never sung herself in her career before? She knew Michelle Mimieux, like the rest of the world, exclusively as a highly talented, diligent and successful showpiece pianist. However, she had never sung any songs herself, although her numerous concert tours would certainly have provided her with the opportunity to do so.
Adolé smiled inwardly. Maybe now what she had wished for Michelle all along had come true - she had recognized the potential of this extraordinary opportunity and finally did what she had always wanted to do: the best of it for herself and her career. And she finally sang! What an unexpectedly beautiful turn of events.
She secretly congratulated Michelle on this courageous and long overdue decision. Without a doubt, she had a very soft, powerful and unique voice. The public would be surprised and fascinated - should they ever hear this voice - that Michelle Mimieux actually had what it takes to be a singer. But probably they would be even more surprised that it had taken so long for this exceptional pianist to take her heart in both hands and to win the world of singing for herself.
"Wonderful!". It was with this thought that Adolé fell asleep that night.
11.
The next day had no comparable surprises in store, but still started promisingly. She had already spent many days in the studio, many of them for nothing. Other days, however, revealed amazing talents, rhythms and remarkable surprises that have accompanied her until today.
They met in the studio at noon, as agreed, and began, as the day before, to select, perform, evaluate and discuss pieces for the CD. It turned out that they were actually pretty good in time. At least eight of the presented songs were so good that they could easily make it onto the record. Considering the fact that they only needed twelve usable songs, the situation relaxed a lot.
But what was still missing in Adolé's opinion was a real hit, one that made it into the charts and was suitable to be played in discos all over the country. This was a bit challenging, given their generally more jazz-oriented orientation, which Michelle, although they had never talked about it, apparently found very accommodating, but it was a thoroughly manageable task. Adolé loved such challenges and wanted to prove that especially these unexpected productions could be successful and had their charm. She enjoyed surprising her audience and offering them something fresh.
So they spent the second real day of their collaboration first defining the framework - text or not and if text, in what language and who would sing it? - in order to then move on to action in terms of content. They were able to quickly agree on a song with lyrics, but not on the language of the lyrics, let alone which of the two
of them would sing it, because of the pleasure of listening and because the piece should fit all sorts of occasions.
Because of the desired playability in clubs, however, they put this question on hold and initially took care of the basic issue, namely the external rhythmic appearance. Cool grooves and rich beats made dancing at parties a lot easier and so they started to experiment with all kinds of instruments, which nowadays are mostly only generated by computers.
It was astonishing what could be created without really having to go into the depths of these computer programs, let alone actually mastering instruments. They soon found the right sequence of crisp drum and bass sounds and then concentrated on combining this shell with Michelle's unique piano playing.
In between, Adolé noticed how Michelle secretly, quietly and silently took a piece of paper and wrote something down on it every now and then. Without comment she folded the piece of paper again and again and put it into one of the back pockets. Then she went back to business as usual and compared it with Adolé, who pretended not to notice the scene, the tone sequences and tried out different hard time signatures.
This day also passed far too quickly for Adolé, despite all initial reservations. They were so astonishingly productive and not only produced a fast danceable flagship piece, but directly a second one. These two songs would define their joint work. Roswitha and Ella would be satisfied with them if they only knew that they were working harmoniously in the studio and finally concentrated on the essential.
Adolé insisted on secretly watching Michelle from time to time. She was indeed a natural piano player. Her elegant movements on the keyboard of the grand piano, her sense of rhythm, her accuracy and precision in playing were a pleasure, her sometimes delicate, sometimes rich touch the pure joy. And she looked good, too. Whenever Adolé came closer to her than usual, she noticed her extraordinarily pleasant flowery light perfume that suited her so well. She finally enjoyed working together as Roswitha had surely imagined and was still amazed at the unexpected abilities of her comrade-in-arms.