Jazz Vespers: Ada Lee accompanied by the Ron Johnson Quartet, St. Stephen鈥檚 Anglican Church, West Vancouver, Sunday, Jan. 6 at 4 p.m. Admission by donation. For more information visit .
Ada Lee needs a cane today.
Now 91, she hurt her leg recently and said 鈥渁 few Sunday school words,鈥� she confides as she walks to church in three-quarter time.
Moving into St. Stephen鈥檚 Anglican Church she sees the piano and picks up the step-step-tap tempo, heading down the aisle like a bride with a plane to catch.
She moves toward the instrument like it鈥檚 been waiting for her.
鈥淲hat kind of piano is this?鈥� she asks, more to herself than anyone in the room. Having shared ivories with Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Oliver Jones, Lee knows what a piano can do.
鈥淚t鈥檚 locked,鈥� her friend and collaborator Peter Vanderhorst informs her.
鈥淥pen it,鈥� she orders.
Lee is funny but she鈥檚 not joking. Vanderhorst produces a key.
Her small hands make a few runs over the piano; casually, easily. She鈥檚 not really playing yet, she鈥檚 auditioning the keys.
鈥淣ot bad.鈥�
Notes turn into phrases. She must be trying but the effort is nowhere in sight as the phrases become a melody.
鈥淵ou want the truth? It鈥檚 a pretty good piano,鈥� she says.
Lee is about as likable as a person can be. Vanderhorst grins when describing the time she told him 鈥� lovingly 鈥� to 鈥渟hut up鈥� shortly before rocking the house with a singalong version of 鈥淭his Little Light of Mine.鈥�
鈥淲e got a standing ovation and I鈥檓 figuring, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 they say Amen?鈥欌�� Lee muses.
She starts playing 鈥淔ly Me to the Moon.鈥� She plays 鈥渋n other words鈥� and then drifts from the melody, teasing the hastily assembled audience of three before finishing with: 鈥淚, love, you.鈥�
The music unearths memories and Lee finds herself thinking about John Coltrane.
鈥淗is favourite song, you know, was 鈥楪reensleeves.鈥欌��
She sounds like she鈥檚 talking about someone she knew. Because, of course, she is.
She鈥檇 opened for Coltrane at the Blue Angel nightclub in New York when he took the stage and started playing 鈥淕reensleeves,鈥� she recalls.
She changed her clothes and went downstairs to get a bite to eat.
鈥淲e鈥檙e down there at least an hour or more. When we get back, he鈥檚 still playing 鈥楪reensleeves!鈥欌�� she laughs.
鈥淐oltrane could,鈥� she adds.
Lee can tell you what brand of baby powder pianist Oliver Jones used to sprinkle over the keys. 鈥淗e was a fast runner,鈥� she explains, playing a little in his style. 鈥淒uke Ellington couldn鈥檛 touch him.鈥�
She also opened for Ellington at the Apollo Theatre, crooning in a dress of gold, green and Chantilly lace that, as she told a Toronto Star reporter, was 鈥渟o tight you couldn鈥檛 hide a matchstick in it.鈥�
Lee is the connective tissue from that era of Ella, Nina and Lena, Billy Eckstine, Billie Holiday, Bird, 鈥淪kylark,鈥� Coltrane, 鈥淢idnight Train,鈥� hard bop, hot air, the Birth of the Cool.
Like a knight adhering to a chivalric code while castles crumble, Lee is an exemplar of the jazz age.
鈥淭he music today is not . . . there鈥檚 no depth.鈥�
Once described by the Toronto Blues Society as 鈥渟mall-framed yet . . . bigger than life,鈥� Lee seems to contract for a moment as she remembers all the musicians who moved her and shaped her. The music stops and St. Stephen鈥檚 goes quiet.
鈥淵ou have no idea,鈥� she says quietly. 鈥淐oming out here makes me go back mentally, musically.鈥�
She鈥檚 just returned from a funeral, she says. One of many.
鈥淚 lost five great friends one right after another. I lost two brothers one right after another,鈥� she says.
For a moment, the burden of surviving seems like too much. But she鈥檚 still here, she notes.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 that old saying? Somebody up there likes me,鈥澨�
She laughs and the music comes back. The piano conjures up more memories.
Growing up in Springfield, Ohio. Formulating, then abandoning, her ambition to be a nun.
There was her first instrument, a flute. She fainted the first time she played it, she says.
Then there was meeting Pierre Trudeau, tapping her cheek and telling him: 鈥淲ell, if it won鈥檛 shake up Parliament, you can put it right there.鈥�
鈥淧arliament鈥檚 already shook,鈥� the prime minister replied.
Lee laughs. 鈥淚鈥檓 waiting to meet Justin.鈥�
She remembers touring with Count Basie and his band members playing craps in the aisle of the bus.
They had a white driver, she recalls.
鈥淲e had to send the white driver in to get our order because they didn鈥檛 want any black people in their restaurant,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat I couldn鈥檛 understand.鈥�
Besides its obvious horrors, there鈥檚 something incomprehensible about racism, Lee finds.
鈥淚 asked people . . . what is the reason you don鈥檛 like me?鈥�
Later, she plans to head back to her church in Vancouver鈥檚 West End. Their piano is wonderful, she says.
鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 home when I鈥檓 there,鈥� she says.
Having lived in Ontario for half a century, 麻豆传媒映画is taking some getting used to.
鈥淚 have never so many Porsche automobiles on the streets in all my life. But then I鈥檒l go around the corner I鈥檒l see a guy pushing (a shopping cart) and he鈥檚 got everything he owns in his life,鈥� she says.
鈥淚鈥檓 finding my way in here, in 麻豆传媒映画because this is where I鈥檓 going to be leaving.鈥�
She has 11 doctors, she says, recounting a disagreement with her ophthalmologist.
Eye treatments will be better someday, she told him, and that鈥檚 when she鈥檒l let him work on her bad eye.
The doctor told her she might not be here.
鈥淚 said, 鈥業 may not be here but you鈥檒l be thinking about me.鈥欌��
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