Solo Companion

Years ago, in a restaurant in Minneapolis, I worked with a guy called Terry Johnson. Like so many waiters working in restaurants, his main job was something else. He was a concert pianist, and he was working as a waiter to save up enough money to make his own CD. Restaurants are full of dreams.

This was in 1992 or 3, way before Garage Band and Apple made it easy for anyone with deft enough fingers to cut a CD. He had to book studio time, a sound engineer, and pay for all the post-production. And he supplemented the income he got from corporate gigs and playing in shopping malls by working as a waiter.

He did finally do it, and we were all so proud of him. We held our own launch party at the restaurant and bought the CD.

Much to my surprise, I really liked the music, and would listen to it in college when studying, and in NY when I thought I would never make it. I listened to it when I first moved to London 'cause it reminded me of home, and I listened to it this morning, for the first time in a long time, while Eva was packing.

I don't know what happened to Terry. You meet so many people working in the business that it's impossible to keep in touch with all of them. The relationships might be short-lived, but thankfully their influence can be life-long.

02 Metamorphosis.m4a