Ger the crooner

Got to page 55 on the splay this morning, then went out to push the vintage Scotts around, finishing lawn duties and making everything spic and span for a few days. I was listening to music when the Chairman of the Board came up, singing "What's New?" -- and I flashed back 25 years or so to the night when I heard my late dear friend Ger Moran sing this very tune and learned for the first time that he was an accomplished jazz singer (besides being a poet, banker, actor, golfer and former Arthur Murray dance instructor).

We were out bar-hopping and, being in the mood for live jazz, ended up at Geneva's, a black nightclub at the time. While I was in the men's room, Ger had approached the band and when I returned I was shocked to see him up there, getting ready to sing. He sang "What's New?" and brought down the largely black house. An encore was demanded. "A Foggy Day." Another but Ger begged off, telling me later it had been so long that these were the only two songs he felt confident about. He'd had enough to drink to take the risk in the first place, and we were set up with drinks from his new fans.

I only heard Ger sing a few more times in the next twenty-five years -- it wasn't something he did often. I really miss the guy. The shame is that he died just when he was settling into something like a perfect retirement for him. After 18 months on a waiting list, he finally was into a subsidized apartment right downtown, consequently he could live fine on his modest retirement income; he'd started a poetry column in the building's weekly newsletter; he was showing old films from his collection weekly in their entertainment room (the collection was left to the building); he had his routine, walking around downtown, stopping for coffee, writing in the park in his notebook. We'd meet near the university a couple times a week for coffee. Ger was in fat city. Then wham! So it goes. I haven't had a coffee buddy since.