Many moons ago, in the land of Charlottesville, Virginia, I played vibraphone and Vietnamese xylophone (“T’Rung”) in a band called "Julia and the Rat Snax." We specialized in Klezmer and popular dance band music from the 1920s-1940s. The lead accordion player, Lisa (also known as “Rat”), and I met after I had spent afternoons passing her by on Charlottesville’s downtown mall as she played the accordion in front of the theater. She also performed in the band "Accordion Death Squad," which enjoyed much popularity in Charlottesville for the last couple years. I’m not entirely sure about her early history, but I’ve heard tales of how she once traveled train lines all over the US and Mexico as a modern day gypsy of sorts. Her grandmother, in her early teens, ran away from home to work at a vaudeville lounge and had a date with Abbot (or was it Costello?). Her parents restore antique telephones.
We would often meet in the non-drywalled living room of her place (with the toilet of the exposed bathroom just beyond the upright piano) and record songs on her cassette recorder. We became fast friends when she said, “Oh, I have a vibraphone too. I have to pick it up at a friend’s house.” An old roommate had left it behind with Rat several years ago. It turned out she had a rare vibraharp (early vibraphone) from the 20s-40s, and when I stopped by the house-under-construction in which she lived to take a look at the vibes I noticed a bottle of champagne on the mantle—upon closer look I recognized it as a premier cru vintage bottle from the 1980s that would probably sell for well over a thousand dollars. I asked where she had found the bottle and she said, “Oh, we drank that last night.” It turned out an acquaintance in AA relinquished his wine cellar to one of Lisa’s friends!
One afternoon in Charlottesville Lisa & I went to the downtown mall together and busked. I remember that a guitar player held the nice spot for us, but when it became clear he was leaving a bucket drummer went & began to set up even though we were in the process of setting up (bucket drummers don’t care; more about this in “Bucket Blues”). A policeman approached and told the bucket drummer that he would be too loud and was not permitted to play on the mall—the officer didn’t say anything to us! LisaRat has a magnetic, queenly quality about her and seems to, with little effort, magically attract incredible things such as rare antique vibraphones, vintage telephones, great busking spots and amazing bottles of champagne. She doesn’t have a cell phone or email, though, and only recently got her first answering machine, so sometimes it’s difficult to connect. When I left Charlottesville, I wondered if we would ever meet again.
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Seven Months Later…..
This time I experimented with a new route to Union Square. Instead of taking the subway I packed my vibes in the car & drove there, alone. Lady Luck presented a nice, free parking spot in close proximity, but with cross-town traffic it had taken me over an hour to arrive (it would have been quicker taking the subway). I gingerly bounced the vibes down the stairs, one step at a time, being careful not to bang the resonators against each other or loose any nuts or bolts, only to discover no service door—just the revolving-teeth doors, impermeable with a vibraphone. I bounced the vibes back up the stairs and went to another entrance (for readers who have never been to Union Square subway station: Whereas most subway stops have just two entrances, Union Square is a huge space where several different lines meet each other and hence there are many entrances and exits on various streets around Union Square). I left the vibes at the top of the stairs and sprinted down to check for a service door—Yes! I ran back up the stairs and proceeded to bounce the vibes down the stairs.
About two stairs down I ran into a guy who said, “Whoaaaa! Hey! A marimba! Let me help you with that, I can’t just let another marimba player go down the stairs by herself!” He helped me get the instrument down the stairs and we stopped to chat for a while. His name was K---- Krupers (I think!) and he told me about his 4-octave marimba that he carries around in soft cases. “You really should get some soft cases—your resonators are so exposed this way,” as he gestured to my traveling vibraphone dolly cart. We clarified that it was a vibraphone and not a marimba (He couldn’t tell because my metal bars were wrapped for protection) “You know,” he said, “another guy, Sean, plays the vibraphone down here.” So far, someone has mentioned Sean each time I play at Union Square. I wonder if he’s heard wind that there’s another vibraphone in town….
Once I got in through the service door I practically ran into a group of three people standing in the middle of the hallway; and who did I run into but the one and only accordion playeress LisaRat! “Ahhhhhhh! Lisa! Rat! OH MY GOODNESS!” I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm! It was so strange to see a familiar face so far out of context from the normal places—places 300 miles away—that we might normally run into each other! And it was so serendipitous! Even if we had both just happened to be in Union Square Subway Station on the same day at the same time, we just so happened to be in the same hallway of that cavernous underground chamber! And even if we happened to be in the same hallway of the same station at the same time, she just so happened to be facing my direction—because otherwise I never would have seen her face and we would have walked right by each other! It was amazing! I’ve never been happier seeing a rat in a subway.
“Oh, hey Erin. That’s weird, I was just thinking about you.”
I asked if she wanted to busk with me, I was just setting up.
“Well, we’re on our way to Brooklyn for an accordion lesson. This great accordion player from R----?-- is only in New York for a few days so this is our only chance to study with him.”
“Oh my gosh well… It was great running into you!”
And just like that, she was gone.
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