Little Wing

This song brings back lots of memories. Or rather, it brings back a single, very rich memory of an October night a few years ago.

I was moving that weekend, from my post-college midtown apartment to a new place downtown. I was planning to get up early and complete the move the move with my mom next day. It must have been Friday night.

I got an unexpected email from my ex-girlfriend, inviting me to attend a piano recital that she was giving with the Bach Society at school. She was still in college. We had broken up a month earlier.

It was raining. She played a piece by a Cuban composer. The piece was short, very complicated, and she made many mistakes. But it was beautiful, and it's the only piece that I remember from that concert.

Afterward, we met up with a new friend I'd made at work, and his friend who was visiting from Boston. Or rather his ex-girlfriend whom he had left behind.

So there we were, dressed up, with our well-dressed ex-girlfriends, new to downtown Manhattan, looking for a place to get a get a drink. On a rainy Friday night in October. We walked around in the rain for at least half an hour. Downtown is dead on a Friday night. It was raining. The girls were beautiful in a way that tall women in heels are beautiful when it's raining.

Finally we got directions to a bar, somewhere near City Hall. I don't remember the name of the bar or the street, but I could find it on a map. It was an old bar. There were posters on the wall advertising musical acts from the 70's. Downstairs, a band was playing.

There were three musicians. None under 50. The sparse crowd was made up of similarly aged people, and a few regulars. I thought it was a jazz band. But they played this beautiful song. No words. It must have landed about 15 minutes.

After about 10 minutes, I asked someone what they were playing. I thought it might be a Marley cover. It was Hendrix.

I've long since broken up with the ex-girlfriend for the last time, and she moved half way across the world. I became close with the new friend for a while, but I haven't spoken to him now in over a year. But I still remember those old guys (who I think were Wall Street guys, and not full time musicians) playing their 15 minute rendition of 'Little Wing.' On a rainy October night. On a Friday in downtown Manhattan.