When I got the assignment to cover a musical event at Aegis of San Rafael, the assisted living center, I said yes but I wasn't all that sure what to expect.
Meredith Browning, the marketing director for Aegis of San Rafael, is in charge of the monthly entertainment program for residents and their families but she also hopes that the community will attend. She asks only for a small suggested contribution of $5, which goes to the Potato Soup Foundation, a fund that helps Aegis employees countrywide, otherwise the musical evening (with food and wine!) is free. Browning advertises her events throughout Marin County.
According to Browning, besides providing residents with a lovely evening of entertainment, the secondary purpose of "Aegis Presents" is to introduce local community members to everything that Aegis of San Rafael offers, before they have an urgent need with their own family members.
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There are currently 45 residents at Aegis of San Rafael, and 54 apartments. The facility is nicely decorated, and feels very homey with deep comfortable couches and chairs, a well appointed living room with fireplace, a library, an interior courtyard garden with fountain, private white tablecloth dining room for family occasion dinners, and an outdoor umbrella table on a terrace.
The event started at 5:30 p.m. with wine and cheese, plus Aegis staff passing trays of roast beef sandwiches and other hors d'oeuvres. Browning said that she had been wanting to ramp up the attendance of Aegis Presents, and by my count of at least 125 occupied folding chairs set up in the reception area, and many people standing, I'd say mission accomplished.
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Browning has been at the San Rafael facility for only three months, but has known about it for some time because she has booked Noah Griffin as an entertainer there for the past several years. Her background is high-tech publishing, but, at age 66 (she said I could print that), she decided she needed a more "age appropriate job," which makes her the perfect marketing representative to do community outreach for Aegis. She is the right age to have parents who could be in need of such a facility and that makes her unique understanding and compassionate spirit a match with prospective families who may be interested in what Aegis of San Rafael can offer their aging relatives.
Browing already knew the Marin community, and she became interested in elder care when she had put an aunt into an assisted living facility in New Jersey.
At 6 p.m., Browing introduced the show by noting that the house was full to the point of overflowing, and joked, "I'll have to stop advertising for this event." She went on to introduce Noah Griffin by saying he's a "very cute guy… and he's also my husband."
Noah Griffin Trio musicians were first up playing a jazz rendition of "Watch What Happens." Already the audience was nodding their heads and tapping their toes to the beat. Bass player, Harley White has played with, among others, Earl "Father" Hines. White delighted the audience with some "scat" singing as well. His wife, Frances, retired this year as president and superintendent of the College of Marin.
Cesar Cancino, on piano, has classical training from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and he's been a musical director and conductor besides playing both classical and jazz piano.
Griffin is a well known singer and songwriter, who has appeared locally at Yoshi's, The Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko and other venues. Griffin has performed a tribute to Cole Porter in San Francisco, New York, Boston and internationally in London, Rome and Paris. If Griffin appears at ease and totally comfortable in front of an audience it is probably because his first appearance was at age 7 with the San Francisco Boy's Choir and since then he's shared the stage with Duke Ellington, the Shirelles, the Kings, and he's even jumped over genres to sing opera.
I closed my eyes, and listening to The Noah Griffin Trio at Aegis sounded like I could have been at Yoshi's, but the last time I was there it cost me $150 for two, and that was without drinks so $5 sure is a bargain at Aegis of San Rafael.
Griffin opened the show with "Life is a Cabaret" and then took the audience on a musical jaunt starting in 1931 with "I'll be Loving You Always," which he said was his parent's wedding song. He continued with standards like "I'll Be Seeing You in All The Old Familiar Places" (a World War II song), then he inserted a very creative and humurous poem, which he delivered in rap, about Julius Caesar, which he said he made up for his daughter "because kids today don't learn the way we did".
One of the best lines was "Julius had lots of Gaul now" and the moral of the story is when a good wife (Calpurnia) says stay home, by all means "don't go Roamin'."
After the performance, I mentioned how creative I thought that was and Griffin wanted to be sure I gave credit to his friend, attorney, Howard Irvin who wrote this (but of course lets Griffin run with it as part of his repertoire).
Besides being a multi-talented singer and songwriter, Griffin is also a graduate of Harvard Law School, and has been a syndicated newspaper columnist, and a radio talk show host. He worked at KFOG, one of my personal favorite San Francisco radio stations. Because he has appeared with Paul Robeson, Leontyne Price and Nat King Cole, he has some fun stories to tell.
Armed with quotes from stars he's met or interviewed, Griffin has the background and talent to be a superb raconteur and, at this event, he gracefully interwove the songs he sang with cute tales about Ed Sullivan, Jack Jones, Lauren Bacall, and Eartha Kitt. He also gave us a dramatic presention in verse (he's also studied at ACT in San Francisco), a baseball story about Casey at the bat, which, of course, became the lead in to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" another audience favorite as a sing along.
Griffin's performance continued with songs like "Fly Me to The Moon," which he told the audience was written by Bart Howard, the ambulance driver who he said picked up Cole Porter when he had the bad accident on a horse. Then a song that Griffin said "used to be on a jukebox on Fillmore Street, which I played all the time." It was "Hey There You with the Stars in Your Eyes" from "The Pajama Game" and he sang it in the slow cha-cha-cha rhythm many of us remember.
Griffin continued with two of Henry Mancini's wonderful songs, "Moon River" and "The Days of Wine and Roses," which Griffin reminded us was written for a movie filmed in San Francisco in 1962. Then "Answer Me Oh my Love" and "Route 66."
Griffin and the trio ended the show with two pop standards, "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca and "Call Me Irresponsible" from Papa's Delicate Condition (Jackie Gleason), which he laughingly said he sang for his wife Meredith.
After the performance I asked several of the audience members and Aegis residents what they thought of the evening's entertainment.
Lee Markrack, who is an independent Worldwide Representative for Nu Skin, attended the performance with Lena Kasdan (a vision in head to toe coral) and they both thought the music was great for the audience and enjoyed the fact that everybody seemed to know all the words. Lena, who lives in Novato, is off to Italy for two months, perfect timing since her kitchen is being demolished. She has a friend whose mom lives at Aegis.
Mary Jaffe said the music was exceptional, and raved that this event is a fabulous idea for residents and the community alike. She also has a friend whose mother lives at Aegis.
Esther Cherk from Mill Valley said, "I can't believe that Noah is old enough to have all that history". She came to the show because she saw an ad for the event.
Griffin and his trio had a fan club too. Catherine Guiraut, a former Homestead Valley neighbor of Griffin, said that Griffin sang at her father's funeral where he was also a pall bearer. Guiraut brought Griffin a bouquet of yellow roses. She says they used to commute to San Francisco at the same time in the morning and she always saw him writing poetry while driving through the toll booth.
Olive Thurman Wong, from New York City, is in San Rafael for several weeks to visit her daughter and grandson. She has just retired from working at Lincoln Center, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She thought the event was wonderful. She came to Aegis because she saw the ad and also because she knows Griffin. Her father started the Fellowship Church in San Francisco and Griffin's parents were one of the first members there.
Greta DeGraves is a resident at Aegis of San Rafael, and enjoyed the show with her daughter Vicki, a nurse from San Rafael. Greta, originally from Vancouver, Canada, was smiling ear to ear. Her eyes were twinkling. She loved the event and knew all the words to the songs. Vicki says that the entertainment nights here at Aegis of San Rafael have been wonderful for the residents.
Another diminutive Aegis resident, Colette, said "This evening was the best ever. Exactly what I needed. I came here from Germany and my husband and he played all these songs on his records. I knew all the words and my heart was jumping."
My father who had a career as a writer, played the piano throughout his life, even had a band when he was young so I, too, grew up on all these songs. I have always felt that music feeds the soul and Noah Griffin and his trio provided everyone at Aegis Assisted Living a great musical meal Friday night.
