“Old Man Hands” — a short story by Terry Sanville

February 7th, 2022

.

.

“Old Man Hands,” a story by Terry Sanville, was a short-listed entry in our recently concluded 58th Short Fiction Contest, and is published with the consent of the author.

.

.

___

.

.

CC0 public domain/via PxHere

photo via PxHere

.

.

Old Man Hands

by Terry Sanville

.

…..Gordon sat in the corner of the Red Sky Café and stared at his fingers as they slid across the fretboard of his Fender Stratocaster. They seemed disconnected from the rest of his body but hardwired to his brain. When he thought blue, they moved to his favorite notes. When he thought joy, a new series of chords and major scales opened up. He thought, played, listened, and watched.

…..One moment everything stopped and he rested, the tune’s melody left far behind. Background noise intruded. He looked up. Thirty tables of tourists and locals ate their dinners: the clatter of flatware against plates, the blast of a child’s voice, the rumble of conversation. A few patrons slowly clapped their hands and one or two gazed at nothing. Typical. Gordon reached for his wine glass and emptied it.

…..“Can I buy you another?” A pretty middle-aged woman stood before him and dropped bills into his oversized brandy snifter tip jar. She shifted from foot to foot, seemed to be nervous, unsure of how to act. Maybe she too has thoughts like my thoughts. There are always a few.

…..“The house red is just fine, miss,” he answered, “and thank you.”

…..The woman went to the bar and ordered then returned to her table and her grinning husband. He probably had dared her to get up in front of that crowd and display appreciation. Gordon didn’t care why. He stared at the list of tunes he’d memorized and played for years, trying to pick ones that covered a range of tastes. Not everyone liked blues, jazz standards, and old rock and roll. A few country and folk tunes, a little Spanish flamenco, and maybe a classical piece should do it.

…..As he studied his list, he noticed his hands: the fingernails thick and yellowed, the backs spotted and wrinkled, purple blotches where the thin aged skin failed to cushion life’s blows. The fingers on his left hand looked slightly twisted, probably from pushing and pulling on steel guitar strings for nearly sixty years.

…..The wine arrived. Gordon took a sip and played Maha de Carnaval. But his thoughts had left the building and drifted back to the 1960s and the beginning of it all.

.

***

.

…..“I love your hands,” Joan said and kissed Gordon on the ear.

…..“My hands? Really?”

…..“Yes, when you play guitar it’s like magic. They’re so . . . so . . . I don’t know . . .”

…..Gordon grinned. “Thanks. Now I’ve got one more thing to be self conscious about.”

…..The couple sat on the edge of her parent’s swimming pool, their bare legs swishing the water, and watched the sun disappear over Monterey Bay and the white-capped Pacific beyond. They had come from an afternoon at The Frog, a coffee house where poets spouted free verse and folk singers sang protest songs, shared lyrics, and showed each other new moves on the guitar.

…..Gordon turned slowly and kissed Joan on the mouth.

…..“Just don’t stop playing and you’ll do fine,” she murmured.

…..“Yeah, I’m the life of the party.” He nuzzled her neck and inhaled her perfume. Do girls ever really see me when I’m playing and singing? Or am I just one more false image that changes into someone else that they daydream about?

.

***

.

…..Gordon smiled to himself and took another sip of wine. He’d been so insecure as a twenty-year-old, ashamed of his gnomish features and even of his hands. And fifty-five years before, at least his voice had been presentable. Now, he only sang in the shower and on special occasions—like someone’s favorite song at his or her funeral.

…..The restaurant manager approached. “Hey Gord, you’re soundin’ great, man. But you need to start playing again . . . and go easy on the red.”

…..“Sure, Sal, sure. Memories are just getting in the way.”

…..Sal grinned. “Can’t have that, man. At your age we’d be here all night.” Sal chuckled, pantomimed strumming a guitar, then turned and wandered throughout the dinning room, stopping to chat with customers.

…..Gordon wondered why he continued to play for his supper and tips at two-bit joints that paid squat. After all, he’d performed with symphony orchestras and big jazz bands, read down complicated charts, and stood up to do solos using his unorthodox fingerpicking style.

…..His lower back throbbed and his wrists ached. Gritting his teeth, Gordon reached inside his sport coat and found the pill bottle. He downed a Norco with a sip of red and pressed the button on his electronic tuner. The Stratocaster’s new strings had continued to stretch in the heat and he struggled to nudge the forty-year-old electric guitar back in tune.

…..Yes, why am I still doing this? These hands have played for decades. But not everyone was happy with them.

.

***

.

…..“Ouch. Watch it!”

…..“What?”

…..“Your hands. Can’t you do something about that?”

…..“I could wear gloves.”

…..“Don’t be a smart ass. I’m serious.”

…..Gordon and his new wife, Marcie, lay in bed on a hot afternoon, naked, aroused, and in Marcie’s case, frustrated. Foreplay was not going well. Outside their hotel room, thunder boomed and lightening hissed and crackled in the Kansas City heat.

…..“Your hands are gross,” Marcie complained. “Those callouses on your left are too scratchy . . . and the fingernails on the right can carve wood. I’m not made of wood. Use something else.”

…..“I thought you didn’t like . . .”

…..Marcie giggled. “Oh, just shut up and come here.”

…..Gordon and Marcie had married just after he graduated from Cal with a degree in music.  They toured the country for several years with various bands before Gordon fell into a studio gig in Hollywood that paid the mortgage, gas and food. But at least three nights a week he played at clubs around LA. Marcie came to every performance, helped him haul his equipment, tune his guitars, and let him know when he played too loud or too soft.

…..“You sounded way too loud that last set,” she said one night at the Whisky on Sunset. “You need to get your hearing checked.”

…..“Yeah, yeah. I know. But the music business is loud.”

…..“If you lose your hearing you’ll be finished.”

…..Marcie had scored a nursing job in Long Beach and Gordon trusted her medical advice. The audiologist told him he needed to quit the club scene or permanently damage his hearing.

…..They lived a comfortable yet Spartan life for almost thirty years until Marcie got cancer just before the great recession of 2008. She died soon after. Gordon sold their tiny house in Culver City, applied for Social Security, and moved to the Central California Coast. He bought a trailer in an old mobile home park and began his last chapter gigs, following the West Coast’s version of The Chitlin’ Circuit.

…..The arthritis that started in his forties had finally reached his hands. Before every gig he took a pain pill and afterward soaked them in a hot Epsom salt bath, the pain never going away.

…..Damned old man hands.

,

***

.

…..The restaurant’s meager crowd thinned out when the town’s movie theaters opened for their evening shows. A great weariness hung on Gordon’s shoulders and he asked for a cup of coffee to give himself a boost. He played Gershwin’s Summertime, slow and easy following MJQ’s arrangement while adding his own twists.

…..Patrons at a half dozen tables lingered over dessert. One of the tables included two junior high school boys and a girl about the same age. They stared at his hands as he played then whispered to each other. The girl scribbled in a tiny spiral-bound notebook. Their two sets of parents fingered empty wine glasses and stared into space.

…..Gordon took one more break before finishing up. He studied his list, selecting the last six tunes, always ending with One for My Baby, Frank Sinatra’s version. He’d be home in time to watch PBS’s Friday night movie and let the heating pad calm his back muscles.

…..“Excuse us.”

…..The trio of young teens stood before him, the tall boy with braces doing the talking. They all clutched greenbacks and grinned nervously.

…..“We . . . we really like your playing,” the tall boy continued.

…..“Yeah, it’s sweet,” the girl said and laughed nervously.

…..As if on command, they reached forward and dumped their money into the tip jar.

…..“Thanks guys. Appreciate it.”

…..The short boy with a dark birthmark below an ear asked, “So . . . so how old is that Strat?”

…..“I bought it new in 1980, the year they added the hotter pickups.”

…..The trio nodded and shuffled from foot to foot.  Finally the girl asked, “What was that chord you started Summertime with . . . ya know, the one way up the neck?”

…..Gordon fingered the chord. “That’s a A-minor-ninth . . . and I play the melody by adding notes on the B-string.”

…..She grinned. “See, I told you guys.”

…..“There was another one at the turnaround that I didn’t get,” the tall boy said.

…..Gordon smiled. “Yeah, most players go to an E-dominant seventh for two measures. But I substitute a B-minor-seventh-flat five followed by an E-seventh-sharped ninth.” He showed them on his guitar.

…..“You guys studying music in school?”

…..The short boy, nodded. “Yeah, we’re all in band, but we’ve formed our own group.”

…..“That’s cool.”

…..“Yeah, except they make me play bass,” the girl complained.

…..“You know, Paul McCartney and Sting both play bass.”

…..The girl smiled. “I’m not sure who they are.”

…..“So did you ever play with anybody famous?” the short boy asked.

…..“Probably not anybody you would know.”

…..“So . . . so how come you play finger-style and don’t use a pick?” the girl asked.

…..“I guess I just started that way, playing folk songs.”

…..“But what happens when you break a fingernail?”

…..“I’m . . . I’m pretty much screwed.”

…..The trio giggled nervously.

…..“How long have you been playing?” the short boy asked.

…..“Almost sixty years.”

…..Their eyes widened. They stayed quiet until the girl murmured, “Do . . . do you still love it?”

…..“Yes.”

…..Finally the tall boy said, “Well, thanks for talking with us. Ah . . . really liked your playing.”

…..“Thanks guys . . . and keep practicing.”

…..The trio ambled back to their table. Gordon sucked in a deep breath and smiled. The dregs of the restaurant crowd had that in-no-hurry-to-leave look. The teens stared at him, trying to memorize every note and chord as his fingers flew over the strings with renewed energy. They crowded one end of a table. The girl scribbled frantically in her notebook while the others tried new fingerings on their air guitars. They seemed excited by the newness of Gordon’s old sounds.

…..Later that night he sat in front of the dark TV, the remote poised. But instead of clicking on the PBS movie, he found a channel that showed a jazz quartet that he’d never heard before playing at the Viper Room on Sunset. After retrieving his guitar, Gordon watched, listened, played, and thought, the sounds burning new channels between his mind and his old man hands.

.

.

___

.

.

Terry  Sanville  lives  in  San Luis Obispo, California with his artist-poet wife (his in-house editor) and two plump cats (his in-house critics). He writes full time, producing short stories, essays, and novels. His short stories have been accepted more than 450 times by journals, magazines, and anthologies including The Potomac Review, The Bryant Literary Review, and Shenandoah. He was nominated twice for Pushcart Prizes and once for inclusion in Best of the Net anthology.  Terry  is a retired urban planner and an accomplished jazz and blues guitarist – who once played with a symphony orchestra backing up jazz legend George Shearing.

.

.

Listen to the 1964 recording of Chet Atkins playing “Summertime”

.

.

Click here  to read “Mouth Organ” by Emily Jon Tobias, the winning story in the 58th  Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

.

Click here to read “Lydia,” a short story by Allene Nichols

.

Click here for information about the upcoming Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

.

.

.

Share this:

Comment on this article:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Site Archive

Your Support is Appreciated

Jerry Jazz Musician has been commercial-free since its inception in 1999. Your generous donation helps it remain that way. Thanks very much for your kind consideration.

Publisher’s Notes

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher...A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”

In This Issue

Announcing the book publication of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry...The first Jerry Jazz Musician poetry anthology published in book form includes 90 poems by 47 poets from all over the world, and features the brilliant artwork of Marsha Hammel and a foreword by Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator David Amram. The collection is “interactive” (and quite unique) because it invites readers – through the use of QR codes printed on many of the book’s pages – to link to selected readings by the poets themselves, as well as to historic audio and video recordings (via YouTube) relevant to many of the poems, offering a holistic experience with the culture of jazz.

Interview

photo Louis Armstrong House Museum
Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong...The author discusses the third volume of his trilogy, which includes the formation of the Armstrong-led ensembles known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven that modernized music, the way artists play it, and how audiences interact with it and respond to it.

The Sunday Poem


“The Köln Concert,” by Martin Agee


The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work....

Martin Agee reads his poem at its conclusion


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Feature

“What one song best represents your expectations for 2025?” Readers respond...When asked to name the song that best represents their expectations for 2025, respondents often cited songs of protest and of the civil rights era, but so were songs of optimism and appreciation, including Bob Thiele and George David Weiss’ composition “What a Wonderful World,” made famous by Louis Armstrong, who first performed it live in 1959. The result is a fascinating and extensive outlook on the upcoming year.

Poetry

Sax in a Blue Suit by Samuel Dixon
21 jazz poems on the 21st of March, 2025...An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician by poets sharing their relationship to the music, and with the musicians who perform it.

Interview

photo by Brian McMillen
Interview with Phillip Freeman, author of In the Brewing Luminous: The Life and Music of Cecil Taylor...The author discusses Cecil Taylor – the most eminent free jazz musician of his era, whose music marked the farthest boundary of avant-garde jazz.

Feature

photo of Rudy Van Gelder via Blue Note Records
“Rudy Van Gelder: Jazz Music’s Recording Angel” – by Joel Lewis...For over 60 years, the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder devoted himself to the language of sound. And although he recorded everything from glee clubs to classical music, he was best known for recording jazz – specifically the musicians associated with Blue Note and Prestige records. Joel Lewis writes about his impact on the sound of jazz, and what has become of his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio.

Poetry

photo of Charlie Parker by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress; Design by Rhonda R. Dorsett
Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 2025 Jazz Poetry Calendar...Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 12-month 2025 calendar of jazz poetry winds through the upcoming year with her poetic grace while inviting us to wander through music by the likes of Hoagy Carmichael, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughan, Melody Gardot and Charlie Parker.

Playlist

“Sextets: The Joy of Six” – a playlist by Bob Hecht...The cover of the 1960 debut album by the Jazztet, co-founded by the trumpeter Art Farmer and the tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, and which always featured a trombonist and a piano-bass-drums rhythm section. Golson wrote much of the music, but “Hi-Fly” – a tune featured on Bob Hecht’s two-hour playlist devoted to sextets – was written by pianist Randy Weston, and appears on the 1960 album Big City Sounds.

Interview

Interview with Jonathon Grasse: author of Jazz Revolutionary: The Life and Music of Eric Dolphy....The multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy was a pioneer of avant-garde technique. His life cut short in 1964 at the age of 36, his brilliant career touched fellow musical artists, critics, and fans through his innovative work as a composer, sideman and bandleader. Jonathon Grasse’s Jazz Revolutionary is a significant exploration of Dolphy’s historic recorded works, and reminds readers of the complexity of his biography along the way. Grasse discusses his book in a December, 2024 interview.

Feature

Dmitry Rozhkov, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“Thoughts on Matthew Shipp’s Improvisational Style” – an essay by Jim Feast..Short of all the musicians being mind readers, what accounts for free jazz musicians’ – in this instance those playing with the pianist Matthew Shipp – incredible ability for mutual attunement as they play?

Art

Photo of Joe Lovano by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Joe Lovano...Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition features 1999 photographs of the saxophonist Joe Lovano.

Feature

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 11: “Chick” and “Hen” Lit...A substantial number of novels and stories with jazz music as a component of the story have been published over the years, and the scholar David J. Rife has written short essay/reviews of them. In this 11th edition, Rife writes about the “chicks” (energetic women, attractive, and open to experience) and “hens” (older women who have either buried or lost a loved one, and who seem content with their lives) who are at the center of stories with jazz within its theme.

Interview

photo by Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress
A Black History Month Profile: The legendary author Richard Wright...In a 2002 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Richard Wright biographer Hazel Rowley discusses the life and times of legendary author Richard Wright, whose work included the novels Native Son andBlack Boy

Feature

On the Turntable — The “Best Of the ‘Best Of’” in 2024 jazz recordings...Our annual year-end compilation of jazz albums oft mentioned by a wide range of critics as being the best of 2024

In Memoriam

photo via Pexels.com
“Departures to the Final Arms Hotel in 2024” – poetic tributes, by Terrance Underwood...2024 produced its share of losses of legendary jazz musicians. Terrance Underwood pays poetic homage to a handful who have touched his life, imagining their admittance to the Final Arms Hotel, a destination he introduces in his prelude.

Community

Stewart Butterfield, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Community Bookshelf #4...“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (September, 2024 – March, 2025)

Feature

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 23: “The Wave”...In this edition of an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film, Douglas’ poem is written partly as a reference to the Antonio Carlos Jobin song “Wave,” but mostly to get in the famed Japanese artist Hokusai’s idea of the wave as being a huge, threatening thing. (The poem initially sprang from listening to Cal Tjader’s “Along Came Mary”).

Short Fiction

Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons/blur effect added
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #67 — “Bluesette,” by Salvatore Difalco...The author’s award-winning story is a semi-satirical mood piece about a heartbroken man in Europe listening to a recording by the harmonica player Toots Thielemans while under the influence of a mind-altering substance.

Interview

Interview with James Kaplan, author of 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool...The esteemed writer tells a vibrant story about the jazz world before, during, and after the 1959 recording of Kind of Blue, and how the album’s three genius musicians came together, played together, and grew together (and often apart) throughout the experience.

Feature

photo of Lester Young by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Jazz History Quiz #179...Throughout his career, this saxophonist was known as the “Vice Prez” because he sounded so similar to “Prez,” Lester Young (pictured). Who was he?

Community

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize XLIX...Announcing the six writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize v. XLIX, whose work was published in Jerry Jazz Musician during 2024.

Publisher’s Notes

photo by Rhonda Dorsett
On turning 70, and contemplating the future of Jerry Jazz Musician...

Feature

“Are Jazz-Hop Instrumentals Jazz?” – an observation (and playlist) by Anthony David Vernon...Google “what is jazz-hop?” and the AI overview describes it is “a subgenre of hip-hop that combines jazz and hip-hop music. It developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.” In Mr. Vernon’s observation, he makes the case that it is also a subgenre of jazz.

Community

Notes on Bob Hecht’s book, Stolen Moments: A Photographer’s Personal Journey...Some thoughts on a new book of photography by frequent Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writer Bob Hecht

Art

“The Jazz Dive” – the art of Allen Mezquida...The artist's work is inspired by the counterculture music from the 1950s and 60s, resulting in art “that resonates with both eyes and ears.” It is unique and creative and worth a look…

True Jazz Stories

Columbia Records; via Wikimedia Commons
“An Evening with Michael Bloomfield” – a true blues story by David Eugene Everard...The author recounts his experience meeting and interviewing the great blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield in 1974…

Short Fiction

photo via PxHere
“The Magic” – a story by Mark Bruce...Most bands know how to make music. They learn to play together so that it sounds good and maybe even get some gigs. Most bands know that you have your chord progressions and your 4/4 beat and your verses and bridges. Some bands even have a guy (or a woman, like Chrissy Hynde) who writes songs. So what gives some bands the leg up into the Top 40?

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

Coming Soon

An interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers;, Also, a new Jazz History Quiz, and lots of short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and much more in the works...

Interview Archive

Ella Fitzgerald/IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Click to view the complete 25-year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Judith Tick on Ella Fitzgerald (pictured),; Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz on the Girl Groups of the 60's; Tad Richards on Small Group Swing; Stephanie Stein Crease on Chick Webb; Brent Hayes Edwards on Henry Threadgill; Richard Koloda on Albert Ayler; Glenn Mott on Stanley Crouch; Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake; Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.