Wonderful Willard

Some weeks a girl could just pinch herself, having just seen Willard White do his tribute to Paul Robeson at WAC, I thought the bar had closed, but spotted one open on another level. Sitting there with my glass of red, the musicians entered and I loitered till I decided I really did want to know how the musical director put something like that together. Had a lovely chat with him & the drummer, who is doing a PhD, shook hands with Willard & said something fairly sensible, said something silly to Rose his partner, then had a lovely chat with her anyway. Rose & I share a love of Paul Smith which really got us off to a good start.

What a treat, & just a great thing to do on your own, so you don't have to worry about taking care of your competitive girlfriend or her deliberately trying to outsmart you. Well that's just a beef about one friend, but because I could never afford to see him at Covent Garden, it was also amazing to hear his voice. Think of dark wood, treacle, whisky & definitely no cigars! Just phenomenal. Apparently people stop & look when he is in a bar talking, or says something to Rose in a restaurant, his voice is so striking & it was a bit of a worry when his voice broke & he suddenly had this powerful instrument. I bet Julliard didn't know what had hit them.