My Amazing Day
by John Lawrence, September 19, 2019
It started off with an email I received from Mike Wofford, who is a great jazz pianist, having to do with the plight of Betty Bennett, a jazz singer who was married to Mundell Lowe, a great jazz guitarist for 42 years. Mundell died a couple of years ago at the age of 95. Betty is 98 and she's run out of money, a plight that will become increasingly common as people are living into their 90s and 100s. Their money runs out before their life does. Betty's daughter had set up a Go Fund Me website for her to raise money so they could hire another caregiver to spell her daughter and so that she could stay in her own home the equity of which had been drained out. Another problem for older people especially when they get no break on property taxes which are considerable in California.
Betty was a WW II veteran, but so far she hasn't been able to obtain VA benefits. This is from her Wikipedia page:
Her first major signing was with the Claude Thornhill band in 1946, the band in which her husband, bassist Iggy Shevak, was playing. Shortly after her husband left to join Alvino Rey, Bennett followed him there. In 1949, she joined Charlie Ventura's band before going on to join Benny Goodman in 1959.
Her second album featured arrangements by Shorty Rogers and her second husband, André Previn. Bennett later married guitarist Mundell Lowe.
Betty had two daughters with Andre Previn who died last February 2019. Previn was involved in the music industry having worked on the music for over 50 films in his career. He won four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings (and one more for his Lifetime Achievement). He was also the music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also a jazz pianist.
A little about Mundell's career: In 1965 he moved to Los Angeles and worked for NBC as a staff guitarist, composer, and arranger. He wrote music for the TV shows Hawaii Five-O, Starsky & Hutch, and The Wild Wild West, and the movies Billy Jack and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask. He recorded with Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan. During the 1980s, he worked with André Previn, Tete Montoliu, and the Great Guitars. He was a teacher at the Guitar Institute of Technology and the Grove School of Music. For several years, he was music director of the Monterey Jazz Festival.
So this extended family was as close as you can get to American musical royalty.
I donated to Betty's Go Fund Me campaign, and then I went on the road as an Uber and Lyft driver. Later that day, during my 4 hour break and after my nap, I spoke on the phone with my friend, Grace Rich, who is in a retirement home facility in Flagstaff after having had a several month serious bout with anxiety and depression. She used to give water and Vienna sausage to the homeless in Tucson. Thank God, she is doing much better and we plan to talk more after several months of being incommunicado. Then I Facetimed with my oldest granddaughter, Jasmine. It was so good to see her beautiful face and hear that she's going to community college and working. She looks great!
Then I went back on the road driving for Uber and Lyft. I had a long ride from El Cajon near where I live to Miramar Road up near Mira Mesa, then another from there back to San Diego. When I saw the woman's destination, it rang a bell. Wasn't that the street that Mundell and Betty lived on? See I knew their house very well because I had cleaned the windows there a whole bunch of times in my former career as a window washer. Sure enough we went right by their house before I dropped the woman off a few houses down the street. What a coincidence I thought! My daughter Justine said, "That was no coincidence, Dad." That was Mundell's way of thanking you. By the way I had presented Mundell in concert with the San Diego State Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Bill Yeager when I was President of the San Diego Jazz Society back in the 80s. The last time I had seen Mundell and Betty at their house, they were both in their 90s but in good health. Betty gave me one of her CDs, and then she went out walking.
After I dropped the woman off I dropped in on my good Swedish friends, Britt and Olof, who lived only a few doors away. I just turned off the Uber and Lyft which I can do any time at my discretion and convenience at least for now. That may be changing, however, since Governor Newsom just signed a bill making Uber and Lyft drivers employees rather than independent contractors. This means I could lose flexibility with my driving habits and lifestyle. Right now it's perfect the way it is insofar as it works for me. Britt invited me to stay for dinner, and we talked politics. She likes Kamala. I like Elizabeth Warren. Of course we all think Trump is an ignoramuis who wants to reduce California's stricter tailpipe emission standards so cars can pollute more. What a backwards shitass! We talked about how this Friday school children were going to walk out of class protesting climate change and about how the Swedish teen ager, Greta Thunberg, is leading the movement in which children, who will inherit the earth, are realizing that, if we don't step it up regarding climate change, they will be inheriting a hellhole.
Then I came home after an amazing day. I'm sure the close knit San Diego jazz community and perhaps the jazz community all over America will come to Betty Bennett's aid. Already after 3 days the Go Fund Me site had collected over $5000.
