The performer
When we first adopted Tin a few people said he might play for the Saints one day. It’s the sort of thing people say when you have a son and the Saints are winning. But I was like NO WAY. I hoped he might be a musician or pursue any career other than being an athlete. So when his musical interests continued to wax I was smiling inside. Then I noticed everywhere we’d go that had live music would get his toe tapping, his fingers halfway snapping, and the camera’s clicking away. He’s cute and he has some moves on him.
And lately it seems that he is always drawing his own crowd as he moves and plays his toy or imaginary instruments and I’ve started having a different feeling where I want to reel him in a little, keep him a little closer. It’s sort of some reaction to him being a spectacle to be observed that has me a little flinching. Last night, I was at the Fair Grinds with the Bridge Stories for the opening of Bayou St. John: Portrait of a Neighborhood and Tatjana had come late with Tin because he decided to eat not one but three bowls of pasta pesto before leaving the house. I told her to check out Paul Sanchez next door at Swirl before he quit playing, so she walked over there with Tin and his toy trumpet.
Paul remembered Tin from the Sound Cafe the other night and was very sweet and talked about him and autographed our copy of Nine Lives, A Musical Adaptation and mentioned him several times during his performance. I walked in towards the end of it, wondering where T squared was and saw Tin standing in the middle of the room dancing, his trumpet standing up near him. I had that pang, that I don’t like him out there so small and alone like a performing monkey for the crowd. It bothers me. I thought about what we had been talking about the other night, that Miles never smiled for the audience because he didn’t want to be one of those black performers entertaining the white folks, and we were talking about this because I had told Tin that Louis Armstrong always had a smile on his face.
Later I told T how I felt, that I don’t want him thinking that the way he gets attention is being an entertainer for the crowd. She said that Paul had told her that Tin is a natural born performer. But she admitted, she felt the same about him being on all the time too. It’s just that you can’t hold him back. When he hears the music, he becomes possessed by it. He loves the crowds and believes he is performing for them. It does all seem so natural. I just want him to know he is loved and adored for simply being himself too. He doesn’t need to be a celebrity, he needs to just be Tin.