I liked accompanying Sam Larkin thirty years later in another incarnation of Fat Albert’s coffee house. The original place was very different, basement of a church and more youth. Now the average age was sixty-something, which is ok but a different feel. A defibrillator in the corner. I liked the game of not know what key he was in or what direction the melody and structure would travel. His voice changed during the last fifteen years and he started maneuvering a capo a little bit that way or this way. I knew he would expect me to solo and he had many new songs, the game was could I follow enough of the changes to play through the solo correctly when he gave me the eye. In my books there’s two types of solos, one is improvising with the key the other is improvising with the melody. Both can be powerful but reflecting the melody has a deeper reflective quality that even those who don’t play an instrument notice, like a dog turning it’s head when called from a long distance away. After he died, Tony who did sound each week wrote me one day and asked if I wanted to hear those recordings, he taped them each week. I had no idea. A heavenly gift.