Name: will lohnes
City: chicago
State_or_Country: il
BACK IN THE VERY EARLY FIFTIES A DEAR (DEPARTED) FRIEND, MARK STERN, TOLD ME THAT I MUST GO WITH HIM ON A MONDAY NIGHT TO A WAY OUT OF THE WAY PLACE CALLED THE LEI ALOHA BAR TO HEAR AN EXTRAORDINARY SINGER NAMED (AT THAT TIME) LUCILLE REED. I DID GO, AND PROFESSED TO BE IMPRESSED, BUT NOT OVERWHELMED. THEN SOME MAGIC TOOK OVER MY SOUL, AND I WAS AT THAT CLUB EVERY MONDAY AND TUESDAY UNTIL THE REED/MARX/FRIGO TRIO CEASED TO BE. I REMEMBER BRINGING SHEET MUSIC TO LUCY OF SONGS I THOUGHT SHE SHOULD DO, ONLY TO LEARN THAT SHE ALREADY KNEW THEM. I REMEMBER A BLIZZARD WHEN I STRUGGLED ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN ORDER NOT TO MISS A NIGHT--AND I RECALL THAT THERE WERE ONLY EIGHT IN THE AUDIENCE, BUT LUCY DID A FULL AND HEARTFELT SHOW FOR US LUCKY FEW. DURING THAT TIME IT WAS THE ONLY PLACE TO BE ON THOSE NIGHTS. THE CAST OF ANY SHOW THAT CAME TO TOWN WOUND UP THERE. YOU COULD SEE CHARLTON HESTON AND HIS WIFE, THE CAST OF NEW FACES OF 52, GENA ROWLANDS, RONNY GRAHAM, EARTHA KITT--IN SHORT, EVERYONE WHO SEEMED TO MATTER IN THAT WORLD. I CAME TO KNOW LUCY--MY GREAT FORTUNE--QUITE WELL, AND REMEMBER EVENINGS WHEN WE SAT IN THE MINUSCULE DRESSING AREA OF THE CLUB PICKING OUT HER NEXT SET. I REMEMBER, TOO, A NIGHT WHEN FRIEND MARK REQUESTED(JOKINGLY) "RAMONA", AND VERY QUIETLY, BUT FIRMLY SHE PRIVATELY SANG HIM THE WHOLE SONG! MANY YEARS LATER THERE WAS A CLIQUE OF AFFICIANADOS CENTERED ON THE LATE DR. BOB MILLER, IN WHOSE LOVELY APARTMENT WE ALL GATHERED FOR "MUSICALES". MOST WERE MUSICIANS--AUDREY MORRIS, BUDDY CHARLES, AND THE LIKE, AND I--A NON PERFORMER--WAS THRILLED TO BE INCLUDED. PERHAPS NO ONE WHO WAS NOT PRESENT IN THE LEI ALOHA DAYS CAN QUITE GRASP THE INCREDIBLE SPELL LUCY COULD CAST, BUT ANYONE WHO HAD THE LUCK TO KNOW HER CAN TELL YOU WHAT A WONDERFUL, WARM PERSON SHE WAS. I KNOW I'VE GONE ON TOO LONG, BUT NO AMOUNT OF VERBIAGE IS TRIBUTE ENOUGH FOR THIS REMARKABLE PERFORMER, LADY AND SPECIAL HUMAN BEING. WE ALL MISS HER SO MUCH. WE LOVED HER, AND SHE LEFT US MUCH, MUCH TOO SOON. WITH MUCH AFFECTION FROM HER OLD FRIEND WILL
Name: Scott MacKenzie
City: Chicago
State_or_Country: IL
In my early twenties, I started taking piano lessons from Dick Marx. With great acumen, he suggested that I drop in at the Lei Aloha to hear him and Johnny - and a singer that I'd never heard of. When Lucy came out to sing, it was like being hit with a sterling-silver crowbar. Her voice - her singing - grabbed you by your lapels and left indelible memories. Over time, I was fortunate to know Lucy on a personal level, and that friendship was every bit as wonderful as hearing her sing. She was a woman for the ages, and we miss her terribly.
Name: Marty Clausen
City: Santa Barbara, Ca.
State_or_Country: Marty1450@aol.com
Lucy's wonderful reputation preceded her everywhere she went. I first met her at the Lei Aloha about fifty years ago. A few of us locals, having heard so much about her singing, crowded into that booth on the south wall of the club. We each had only enough money for one beer apiece, so we stretched them to last a full set. She more than lived up to that reputation in that set. She was superb. And Marx and Frigo weren't bad either! At intermission time Lucy happened to walk by our booth, (from which we were moments away from being 86'd) and said hello to our motley bunch. We really wanted to stay to hear another set, but the almighty dollar reared it's ugly head, so we started to get up to leave. Lucy said, "Where are you guys going, stick around...let me buy you another drink.) She did, and we stuck around. I was stunned that someone that talented, and well known would see that we were musicians, and didn't have enough to buy another drink, yet she took the time to befriend us that way. In the ensuing years I was lucky enough to get to know her and her family. I was even lucky enough to work a lot of gigs with "The Singing Reed." The last time we worked together was with Dan Belloc's band in the sixties. The last time Marge and I saw her was at Stu Genovese and Audrey Morris' house, and as usual there were laughs and songs a'plenty. There wasn't one like her before, or since, and she occupies a very special place in my heart. She was loved!
Name: Hal Temkin
City: Highland Park
State_or_Country: IL
Back in the mid-1950’s, a nondescript corner bar with a Hawaiian name on Chicago’s mid-north side at Sheridan Road and Windsor Street became the jazz capital of the city.
On Sunday afternoons and Monday and Tuesday evenings, an ever-increasing flow of jazz aficionados swarmed the Lei Aloha to hear a unique new trio: Dick Marx on piano, Johnny Frigo on bass and occasional jazz violin, and…Lucy Reed warmly adding the vocals. Once my friends and I heard their incredible sounds, we returned almost every week.
The description on the jacket of Lucy’s “The Singing Reed” album describes the scene perfectly:
“And if you overcame the disappointment of your first impression of the club—the horseshoe bar, the tiny tables, loud noises, blaring juke and shirt-sleeved citizens…(it would be worth your while). For, when the great lights dimmed ever further and the bartender lowered his silver shaker, a fantastic hush would fall over the entire barroom, noisy characters would be shamed still, even the air conditioner changed from its steady wheeze to a more moderate mumble. Dick and Johnny would come onto the minute stand at the mouth of the horseshoe bar—come on, too, with a wonderful brand of humor and swing with excitement—all by their twosome. Then, if it was your first time there, you would be surprised as the lights went out completely and a voice asked, and asked melodiously, “Love for Sale,” asked it and sang that song while skirting around the bar, ending in front of the bandstand for the last words and for a triumphant, eye-smarting focus of a baby spot, dead until then. The regulars were used to it, of course; it didn’t happen in every show, in any case; but when it did, it had the kind of show-business validity that’s nothing but taste.”
One night, a patron brought a new girlfriend to the club and, sitting at the bar, the two were engaged in a lively, slightly inebriated conversation as the musicians took their places. Several bars into the first number, the young lady was still speaking somewhat loudly when her date interrupted her with “Honey, we’d better stop talking or they’ll shush us right out of here.” How right he was!
Being there so often, my friends and I became familiar with the trio and were not so secretly “in love” with Lucy. We learned that she had a birthday coming. So, on the appointed night in 1954, we brought a birthday cake, plates, forks and the trimmings…and invited Lucy to join us in a booth on the south wall of the club during the break. She did—and we unveiled her cake with 33 blazing candles.
Lucy was duly touched and started her next set with the aforementioned “Love for Sale”. As she strolled past our table, she slipped a folded piece of wrapping paper into my hand. 45 years later, I still treasure it. It says, “I just want to say thanks for including me in your group—I shall try to be worthy of this honor. Also, I appreciate your friendship—and I mean this sincerely—I think you are very fine young men(?). Love, Lucy. Thanks again—you made me very happy.”
Lucy was a delightful lady with a warm smile, a hearty laugh and a kind word. I think that, much like Frank Sinatra, she made the words of a song come alive with meaning.
Name: Audrey Morris
City: Chicago, IL
State_or_Country:
Jeri Sothern was known to tell her voice students, "If you want to learn how to sing, listen to Lucy Reed". Very good advice - Lucy's singing defines the art of communicating thru words and music. She had it all. Whenever a group would gather to play and sing we'd clamor for Lucy to sing One Morning In May, even tho' tears would glisten each time she sang it. She understood the beauty of both joy and sadness. She owns that song and for me she always will. But her degree of excellence didn't stop with singing. I've been one of many blessed to have been a close friend. She was most loving, caring and supportive of all who were lucky enough to know her. Her generousity of spirit remains unsurpassed. Typically, she left too soon, leaving us longing for much more - like a morning in May.
Name: Alan Eichler
City: Los Angeles
State_or_Country: CA
I had long been a fan of Lucy's from the two great Fantasy albums (when I had on the cherished red vinyl LPs, long before they were available on CD). In the mid-90's, I was in San Francisco, where I was presenting a double-bill of two of my clients, Anita O'Day and Hadda Brooks, at a trendy lounge club called the Heart and Soul on Polk St. when a figure stepped out of the dark shadows of the room to say hello to her old Chicago friend Anita....it was Lucy and I couldn't believe that I was actually meeting Lucy Reed in person in San Francisco! She passed away shortly after, but at least I met her and got to watch her reunion with Anita...
Name: Miles Taub
City: Chicago
State_or_Country: IL
One of my favorite stories about Lucy is a favorite because of the irony to it - given that she had a lovely voice.
Several 10-11 years old, including me, were sleeping over at Lucy's for Ted's birthday and we wouldn't go to sleep. Late into the night, maybe 2am, Lucy said "if you don't all go to sleep, I'm going to sing." That was all we needed - we all went to sleep.
Note that I loved Lucy, her voice and the way she snapped her fingers.