Bericht von Claudio Papapietro vom 14.5.2009:
(Gerd, deine Quelle?)
Cyril Ison does not get many visitors to his room at Schervier Nursing Care Center on Independence Avenue. He says even if they wanted to, they could not find him there. That’s because to most of the friends he has made in his 80 years he is not Cyril Ison. To them, he is Hurricane Harry, a jazz and blues singer and trumpet player who got his start as a teenager in his hometown of New Orleans in the 1940s.
He made his way through the clubs of Mobile and Orlando, the Midwest and Chicago, and eventually settled in upper Manhattan, where he resided until health problems landed him in Schervier in 2008.
But that has not kept him from performing. He’s booked solid every Wednesday and Sunday, when he sits in for a few songs with musicians who provide entertainment at the center.
It is, perhaps, the last venue for a performer who, as a 13-year-old, hid behind the stage of a New Orleans club for a chance to tell the great Louis Armstrong that he too wanted to be a trumpeter. One who, at 17, in Orlando, shared a room and band with a blind teenager, whom he knew only by his initials, R.C. (also known as Ray Charles).
Mr. Ison was leery of signing record contracts because Louis Armstrong, had advised him to be wary of them, after getting a bad deal himself. So, Mr. Ison spent much of his career performing in Connecticut, in clubs or at weddings.
And though the venue he plays these days may be small, though most of the crowd, like himself, sit in wheelchairs, his dedication to his craft remains. If you walk past his third-floor room at certain hours of the day, you’re likely to hear a distinct New Orleans accent singing songs soft and low.
"The Last Meal" in Neuveröffentlichung..
Anhänge an diesem Beitrag
|
| Dateiname: |
Harry1a.jpg |
| Dateigröße: |
33.22 KB |
| Titel: |
|
| Heruntergeladen: |
201 |
