Jazz, Jail, & Julliard

 

What's Goin' On?

Professor Emil Grimaldi's body was found in the wooded area by Grant's tomb in Manhattan's Riverside Park. The police were in the park responding to another urban coyote sighting, and while searching through the underbrush a flashlight illuminated Professor Grimaldi's bloody torso. He'd been stabbed to death elsewhere and dumped in the bushes. It was three days into the investigation when the police discovered that the professor's Stradivarius violin was missing.

I'm Johnny A-Train. My name when I attended and graduated from Julliard was Giovanni Alberto Triano; however, Johnny A-Train has become the real me. Professor Grimaldi had been my mentor as I pursued a Master of Music Degree in Julliard's Jazz program. Several weeks before his murder, the professor had called me with an intriguing offer. "Giovanni," he said, "how would you and the Loco-Motions like to do a musical tour of Mainland China?"

 

 

China Nights

From China Town in Manhattan to Bejing and beyond, the twists and turns of the professor's death and the theft of his Stradivarius put us in grave danger. And, might I add, put a few guilty and innocent souls into their graves. I became involved with the Chinese bureaucracy, Bejing's underworld, and a legendary Master of the Chinese martial art "Pa Kua Chang." All-in-all we were scheduled for ten stops in ten cities, one or two days in between. We were billed as:

Johnny A-Train & The Loco-Motions
featuring: Miss Delilah Jones
(One Night Only)

 

Some Scene Settings

On and off the tour's scheduled venue trail, my destinations included a Shaolin Temple, the Venetian Hotel in Macau, the Concert Hall of the National Grand Theatre, and found me in the middle of nowhere, bound and gagged in the back of a panel truck . It took cooperation between the NYPD, the Chinese Ministry of Culture, their Supreme People's Court, and also a bit of luck to sort it out. Bogart would have loved playing this role.

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