Sometimes, things fall out of books. Raise Up Off Me is pianist Hampton Hawes’ 1974 autobiography. He writes about music, fast women, drug addiction, prison, and getting pardoned by John F. Kennedy. In my father’s copy, stuck between the last page and back cover, is a paper coaster from Hotel Stadt Bremen, Beverungen.
Beverungen is a little village in the middle of Germany. The land’s very flat. There’s a river. There’s lots of farmland. Winter, it’s freezing and covered with snow. Summer, it’s lush, green, and achingly beautiful.
It’s the home of Glitterhouse Records. I was signed to Glitterhouse for several years. They occupy a former farmhouse with a big yard. They released my band’s “comeback album”, The Soul Of Spain, in 2012. The label hosts an annual music festival, Orange Blossom Special, which we headlined that year. The band and I stayed for three days. Every morning there’d be breakfast of homemade hummus and hard-boiled eggs. It’s a good combo.
Beverungen is also the home of a doctor. I can’t remember his name. I don’t really want to remember his name. He wasn’t allowed to practice in the U.S. He shuttled between Mexico City and Beverungen, and probably a few other international places. Ruth and Charlie followed him around. He had devised a special cure for cancer, and for other ailments. The treatment ran counter to conventional standards. Ruth once explained it. I think it had something to do with pure oxygen and ionated something or other. Anyways, it didn’t end up working.
The last weekend in May, the same weekend of our Orange Blossom performance, happened to be a weekend Ruth and Charlie flew from L.A. to get treatment from the doctor. We arranged a meeting at Hotel Stadt Bremen.
It was good to see my dad outside of Los Angeles, even though he wasn’t doing well. He was very thin. He literally couldn’t eat anything. At least he could travel, I thought. I wanted to take him out of there. Ruth wouldn’t leave the room so I could speak to Charlie alone.
I don’t remember what we talked about. My father definitely asked if I’d seen how his new CD was selling on Amazon. Probably wanted a cappucino. Probably told me he wasn’t feeling great. Ruth probably insisted the treatments were succeding. After twenty minutes I had to leave. Maybe Charlie’s appointment was starting. Or I had to get in a car to the airport.
He had told me he wasn’t able to focus enough to read anything. I can’t imagine he brought his old, dear friend Hamp’s book along to Beverungen. Maybe he did. Maybe the coaster got stuck randomly in the book afterwards. There’s an international phone number written in pencil, on the other side. Solid, Jackson.
All books pictured below are from Charlie’s collection.
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I have played the OBS in 2009 with Chris Eckman. I have fond memories. Some years after that Peter Weber, then owner of the Glitterhouse, offered me to take home a bunch of their LPs. I remember picking two by Spain.