From Benbow Lake, live, Bernie Worrell !

A few photos of our most famous classmate who just happened to appear in my neck of the woods, literally, on Saturday, May31,2008, Bernie Worrell.
I managed to sweet-talk security to get backstage before his show and we only had a few minutes to chat before he had to go on. He didn't recognize me after all these years,- no sh*t !,- but when I told him that I had a message from, Sister Rose, to report to the music room above the gym ASAP, his face started to bloom into a big smile of puzzled recognition, of HTHS, that is, not me.








                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     A few things I learned from him:
* He's an inductee in the Psychedelic Railroad Funk Hall of Fame.
* He was appearing this night with the Eric McFadden Trio, also a PRFHF inductee.(He's the one in the 3rd photo down conferring with Bernie.)
* Still does tours and recordings, but has been cutting back.
* Suffers from some of the same problems our age group is renowned for: arthritis, sciatica. But looks as slender as he did in high school. Wish I could say that.
* Has 3 grandchildren.
* Didn't know HTHS no longer exists, except in many memories.
* Still lives in NJ, " just a 30 minute drive from Easton, Pa".
* Among other things, he collects hats.
* Loves what he does with his God given talents.

The show got underway after he personally had to straighten out some really bad feedback sound mix problems through the first two numbers. After all these years of doing that it's a wonder he still has his hearing intact. Everything then settled down with a  nice eclectic mix of musical styles for the next hour and a half. (Around here the locals are heavy into Reggae, which, to me, gets mind numbing after a few hours.) EMT+1 only did one Reggae number.  Yay!

 The '+1' in EMT+1 was Bernie, now introduced as; Bernie WorrELL !!!  Well, of course!  Together they played  a menu of  jazz, blues, and funk rock and it was easy to see that not only did Bernie fit in well with the trio, they were taking many of their musical cues from his leading keyboard gymnastics. No arthritis apparent there despite the cold windy temps that are the norm around here for this time of year after the sun goes down. It was fun to see how many young people were there, up front, close to the stage, dancing to all that was offered. No generation gap here. All in all, a really fantastic time. Wish you all could have seen and heard him.