Torch Songs

Listening to Dianne Reeves sing "Pick yourself up" this afternoon. Feeling the intense glow of a vivid childhood memory when I was completely in the flow of the moment. A thermometer had fallen and broken on the bathroom floor... The light blue linoleum tile bathroom floor.... The walls were still painted the glossy Chinese red so favored by our home's original owner, so I was very young, five at the most. My little brother and I are kneeling on the floor watching the mercury beads slide and ebb, divide and dance along the floor.

That might be the highest praise I can imagine for a jazz singer. "Your voice is like mercury on the bathroom linoleum."