An Evening Like a Love Song at Cecil Lytle’s Home

by Ernie McCray

I experienced an evening
in these times of cares and woes
just a short time ago
that was ever so heavenly,
like sweet music to my ears,
beginning with a Lyft ride
in a car
whose radio,
speaking of music,
was playing
a Sonny Rollins’ song
in memory
of him
now that he’s gone
and the bebop phrasing
coming from his tenor saxophone
those deep rich strong tones
for which he’s known
set the tone
for a dinner
I was going to at the home of my friend,
Cecil Lytle,

an outing which was in keeping

with the mood

Sonny’s music

had put me in

because he, too,

is a musician,

an internationally acclaimed

concert pianist,

alongside being a gifted educator

and community leader

of some renown

and I was down

for whatever was going

to be going down

and this was the place,

because I found myself,

almost immediately,

in deep conversation

with some of the most interesting people

anywhere to be found:

a theologian

who writes books

and once was head of the

National Council of Churches,

a colleague of Bishop Desmond Tutu;

his wife,

an art consultant

for television, feature films, and commercials;

a woman

who is a professor of communications

at UCSD

and her husband whose expertise is managing libraries,

the two of them

producers of a movie

featuring the struggles of deaf African Americans

and relationship complexities;

the creator of the

San Diego Tijuana Jazz Festival

a longtime jazz curator

for a popular music and art gallery;

the CFO of a French-American school

and his wife who teaches French privately

and a professor

who writes novels

and screenplays

and wrote the libretto

for an opera

about an immigrant family’s journey,

and my sweetheart,

an artist

with a beautiful touch,

a leader

in the Latino community,

a San Diego Community College trustee

for over thirty years,

and then

there I was

an educator, poet, and actor,

feeling so grateful

to be in a place

in my life

where I was

wining and dining and conversing

with such

distinguished and accomplished folks,

one of several people

Mr. Lytle

had put together,

it seems to me,

in the manner

he selects the music to be played

at one of his concerts

as he has done expertly for so long.

Allowing us to have an evening

free of all that has been going wrong

in our world,

masterfully gifting us with an evening

that felt, in essence, like

a sweet love song.

And I’m sure we all went home

feeling fulfilled

and thrilled,

ready to take on

the next creative idea

that comes along

or something

we were already

working on.

Something to help

the world get-along

a little better.

I can hear Cecil
saying to himself
after we were all gone:
“Mission Accomplished.”