Another Bernie Worrell sighting

                                                 77 days until the 50th Reunion
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Saturday, June 23, 2012, Lou Bace Hogan, and her husband, Ed, and, Ed Guididas, and his wife, Mary Lou, traversed the wide wilds of New Jersey to attend the Fourth Annual Local and Legend Music Festival at the Unionville Vineyards in Ringoes to see Bernie Worrell and his orchestra. [Read Bernie's Wiki entry and you might be surprised to discover, as I was, that long before he was our classmate he had already made a couple of remarkable musical achievements.]

Bernie Worrell live at Ringoes

The theme for this particular 4th edition of the music festival was a tribute to and celebration of Bernie's 65 years in music. Kinda makes a 50th celebration of anything less significant in comparison.

If you click the picture to larger size and look very, very closely you might be able to see both Lou Hogan's and Ed Guididas' signatures on the poster.                        Or not.

While Lou and Ed, and, Ed and Mary Lou, - - stay with me here - - were setting up their chairs around 5:15 PM they heard the band on stage mention Bernie Worrell by name. After that band set was finished Lou and Ed G went up to Bernie and asked him if he recognized them. Well, it's only been a paltry fifty years. Of course he did!                                    Or not.

Bernie was extremely preoccupied then, as you can imagine, but they agreed to get together after his performance. However......

Lou relates: " As luck would have it, Bernie's set-up guy had not shown up so Bernie had to do everything himself which took quite a while." That caused the band to go on much later than scheduled. The rules were that the whole place had to shut down at sundown and everyone had to be gone by then. A casualty of the delay the hoped-for meeting with an exhausted Bernie was all too brief. Just barely enough time for this photo to prove to us that Lou and Ed had really been there and really did meet with Bernie face to face. They also had a great time listening to Bernie and his orchestra perform.

Lou, Bernie and Ed with WOO T-shirt

It's a shame they did not get to talk longer with Bernie. Though I must confess I'm inwardly pleased, that, in all the class, I alone, still hold the record for the most time spent with Bernie at one of his performances. He didn't know it but, that chat and performance was the inspiration for the class blog. For that, I'm indebted to Bernie. If you enjoy visiting here, you are too.

For those who have never heard Bernie perform live, except for his long-ago gig up in Sister Rose's Piano Lounge or at our Alma Mater concerts, you are missing something special. You can visit his website and check out his tour schedule. Unfortunately, he will be in Stowe, Vt. the day of the 50th Reunion. You can even purchase something there to show your support for our talented and distinguished classmate. You can also go to You Tube and dial-in his name. There are quite a number of offerings featuring him there. The following You Tube of Bernie Worrell is just a tiny taste of what that man has done throughout his long and brilliant career.



I know we all wish, Bernie Worrell, and his legion of fans, many awarding years of musical entertainment and enjoyment ahead. We can also hope he got himself a new set-up guy.


Photo credits: Lou and Ed Hogan