CAL
Told ya I was a musician.
DESSI
Hmmmmh. If you say so.
CAL (LAUGHING)
I’ll show you if you come with me to the Radium. You been on the track all night. Come have some breakfast.
DESSI
No, I ain’t—
She spotsTilda with a well-dressed man headed in the opposite direction. Tilda looks over her shoulder at Dessi guiltily and then shrugs. Dessi glances down at the sidewalk and blinks away tears.
CAL
It’ll be a good time. Best music in the city. White boys show up, too. Benny Goodman and Harry James came last week. And best grits you ever had.
Dessi looksin the direction Tilda went, seeing her red dress swallowed by the late-night crowd. She forces a smile and looks up at Cal.
DESSI
Did you say grits?
CAL (LAUGHING)
Best in Harlem. Come on.
EXTERIOR MOVING SHOTon Cal and Dessi talking inaudibly with a jazz music bed under the shots as they walk the few blocks to the Radium Club.
INSERT shots of Harlem nightlife,buildings lit up, Tillie’s Chicken House, The Log Cabin, the Theatrical Grill, well-dressed white patrons entering the Cotton Club, and finally ending on the entrance to the Radium Club.
INTERIOR - RADIUM CLUB – NIGHT
When Cal and Dessi enter, the club is filled with smoke and people and music. A dimly lit stage sits in the center of the room, and a small band tunes up.
CAL
I gotta get up there. I was waiting for a certain hostess to finish her shift and now I’m late.
DESSI
Oh, you in the band?
CAL
I am tonight.
DESSI
What y’all playing?
CAL (PULLING HIS TRUMPET FROM ITS CASE)
“Body and Soul” is the only one I know for sure. We kinda just figure it out as we go some nights.