This memory of Bob Naylor is over fifty years old so please forgive me if you were there and remember it differently. During our junior year at Central we all had to take a class in public speaking. I was assigned to Miss De Angelo’s class. The basic assignment was to prepare a five-minute speech to be delivered to the class.
Five minutes was a long time to talk and hold the audience’s attention and I struggled to put together something that had to do with atomic structure and how molecules were formed. I delivered my speech and received a grade of “passed but very boring.” Even I agreed with the verdict.
When it came time for Bob Naylor, aka Lordo, to give his speech he showed up in class with a portable turntable and a stack of records. His speech was “The History of Jazz” and he started off talking about the origins of Jazz in New Orleans. Whenever he felt like he needed to demonstrate something he would put the appropriate record on the record player and play a few minutes of music for us. Needless to say Bob was not having any difficulty filling five minutes. In fact he was only about half done when class adjourned. He came to the next class prepared to continue. I remember him playing some Bebop with Charlie Parker and saying, “That was so good lets play another cut. This time with Miles Davis.”
When he was finally finished Miss De Angelo asked him if there was anything special he did to make the music more enjoyable. He responded that he and his friends just went over to the basement of his house, smoked a few cigarettes and went up where the music was. This seemed like a strange response but I got a bit more insight into what he was saying when I walked past the playground where Bob and a group of friends were doing basketball lay-ups. They were chanting, “She grows pot around her tw**, marijuana” and putting the ball through the hoop on the last word.
Bob’s speech opened my eyes and ears to a kind of music I had always loved but never knew what it was called. When I was about five I remember sitting on the floor in front of our huge radio listening to “Rhapsody in Blue” and being stunned by how beautiful it was. Within a year or so of Bob’s speech I had my own portable record player and a stack of records by jazz greats like George Shearing, Erroll Garner, Dave Brubeck, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, Paul Desmond and Ornette Coleman . When I was a senior I would start my math homework at 11PM so that I could listen to a jazz station in Denver that played Ahmad Jamal’s “Poinciana” at the beginning of every show.
Lordo went to the University of Colorado (see Jerry Miller’s story of the maraschino cherry wine) and the last I heard of him he had been busted when he got caught smoking pot in a hotel janitors’ closet. I recently heard that he died in 1991. If he were alive today I’d thank him for turning me on to a kind of music I never get tired of. Thanks Lordo. It was a great speech and a fine gift.
Robert Pardun
April 20, 2009 at 12:58 am |
Robert,
I would have liked to be in Miss De Angelo’s class those two days. My mother had a record of “Sugar Blues” that I liked, but like you, I didn’t know the term Jazz. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Miss De Angelo described Naylor’s presentation to other teachers.
I went to Skateland occasionally when we were in Junior High, They played a lot of Gershwin, especially from An American in Paris. I didn’t see that movie all the way through until just recently. I know I would have been captivated by the music and dancing, and Lesie Caron.
Jeff Arnold
September 27, 2009 at 1:51 am |
I have missed Robert Naylor my whole adult life. I am graced with a vivid memory of him – treating me as though I was someone special – during our senior year. Sometimes I put my left hand to my cheek and smile – remembering Robert.