No doubt: sister Leslie loves music.
I’ve known Leslie longer than almost anyone. Perhaps I met a cousin of my father in the couple of years I was alive before Leslie was born, but I have no specific recollection of that.
I grew up with Leslie. We went to the same elementary school with an ancient music book from which we sang. When I found a facsimile several years ago, I had to send her a copy.
I remember which LPs were hers and which were mine. She had, among others, Lady Soul – Aretha, Look at Us – Sonny and Cher, and Supremes A Go-Go. We, along with our little sister and a neighbor girl, would lipsynch to the songs of my Beatles VI album. Leslie was Paul because he was left-handed, like her, and cute.
Of course, we attended the same church and sang in two different iterations of the junior choir. One was the MAZET singers, which our father directed. MAZET is an anagram of the initials of Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Zion. Eventually, we both sang in the senior choir, though she was there longer than I did because I went away to college.
Trio
I’ve mentioned the Green Family Singers, which are comprised of Dad, Leslie, and me, in the past. She learned to play guitar functionally in about a month! Not incidentally, she now owns Dad’s steel-stringed Gibson guitar, but playing it is tough on her fingers.
Leslie and I sang in the Binghamton Central High School choir together for a year and a half. If we could find a soprano and tenor who knew the other parts, we could probably still sing some of that music from memory.
She was in a series of pop bands around Binghamton, the only one I remember being called Crystal Ship. Also, she attended what is now Binghamton University, where she participated in choirs. She was also in a few musicals in the community theater, including A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Hair; she kept her clothes on.
Her primary source of income was when she moved to Puerto Rico in the early 80s. I wish I had come down and seen her.
SoCal
When she moved to southern California, she sang in church and community choirs. I have a couple of her church choir’s Christmas concerts, and she almost always has a solo. Occasionally, she’s even directed a couple of church choirs.
When she was on a tour ship with her daughter, the singer Rebecca Jade, in 2018, she got to duet with Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone. She participated in singing the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall in 2022, which my daughter and I enjoyed seeing.
Leslie recently visited a music store going out of business and learned about a slim guitar from Canada with nylon strings called Godin. On her next visit, it was marked down, though still pricey. With the help of her favorite daughter, she bought it! Moreover, she’s enjoying relearning the tunes she used to play.
Leslie and I can have very arcane conversations about music on a Zoom call with our baby sister. “Do you remember how that chord structure worked?” Marcia’s eyes glaze over. When I wrote recently that I love to sing the bass harmony, even when I’m in the congregation, Leslie sent me a message saying, “Oh yeah, I totally sing alto in the congregation.” We have the same sort of sensibility.
This picture from the San Diego Master Chorale epitomizes her joy of music. So, happy birthday, Leslie. May music always be in your heart; I know that it will.