Brooklyn
Roberts
He
called himself Brooklyn Roberts.
I got curious about him because he wanted to remain hidden. Then I heard he was
shot and killed for almost 1) ______________. When I was 23 I got involved in a non-profit
cooperative coffee house that served home-baked goods, coffee and tea. It was
also the land of the eternal open mike. The only 2) ______________ about playing there was
that the music had to be acoustic. Eventually we would be run out of the house
where we had set up shop because the 3) ______________ association didn't like the
hippie types hanging around. That was
But
when the coffee house was still thriving, Brooklyn Roberts
used to sign up for the open mike now and then. He was thin, fine-boned, losing
his dirty blond hair too soon. I guessed that he was a little 4) ______________ than I was.
He always came looking like a laborer from the early 1900s, dressed in 5) ______________ working class, Saturday evening clothes. His performances on the
guitar and piano were polished. He played rootsy blues,
Robert Johnson tunes,
that sort of thing. He'd 6) ______________ his set, collect whatever tips he'd made, pack
up his things and leave. No, he'd disappear, always.
I
once asked him to play at a benefit for the coffee house that was going to be
held in a local park. He arrived, spiffily dressed as usual, carrying a little
7) ______________ in addition to his guitar. The path to our tiny stage crossed an area
where the children's railroad track ran. As he approached our gathering, he
deliberately 8) ______________ walking between the rails of the miniature track. He looked
up at me and smiled. He was in his persona, walking on a 9) ______________ track like a
Depression-era wanderer. He played a great set of old-time blues that day,
interjecting an occasional sleight of hand trick. At one point he flipped a
silver dollar in the air and bounced it off the heel of his shoe, back up in the
air into his hand. When he 10) ______________ it, he appeared as amazed as the audience. He
finished his set and disappeared. Lots of people wanted to talk to him, but he
just vanished.
Later
that year, I attended an early incarnation of the New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival. I was waiting for Muddy Waters to play his set when I spied Brooklyn
Roberts near the edge of the 11) ______________ talking to a stage hand or
manager. I turned away to talk to some friends. Minutes later when I looked
back, Brooklyn Roberts
was at the piano playing some12) ______________ ragtime and jelly-roll blues. He played
for about five minutes. I guessed that he had talked the stage manager into
letting him play until Muddy was 13) ______________ for his set. He'd had no introduction,
nothing. Brooklyn Roberts just got up there and played, and then he 14) ______________.
The
next year I helped organize a benefit for
Years
later, after I'd left
Questions:
1. What kind of music did Brooklyn Roberts play? ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. What did he always do after he finished playing his music?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. What kind of man was he? What happened to him finally?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Vocabulary:
non-profit cooperative coffee house: a coffee shop that is managed by a group of people, not for money but for the community; non-profit = 非営利の; cooperative = 協同組合店
the eternal open mike: mike = microphone; the microphone is free for anyone to use, to play music or recite poetry; eternal = always
be run out of: made to leave; be evicted; 立ち退かせさせる
hippie: young people in the 1960s and 70s who had long hair, wore colorful clothes and used marijuana and other drugs. ヒッピー（族）
hanging around: sit or stand, doing nothing; ぶらぶらする, 時間を浪費する
Things got there a little late: "things" means new things; fashions; the sentence means that New Orleans was behind times; old-fashioned
thriving: doing well; busy; have many customers; 栄えている
laborer: working person; worker, like in a factory; 労働者
polished: professional-like; not rough; 完ぺきな
rootsy: in the style of the original blues men; （特にアフリカ系米国人の）文化的伝統意識に根ざした
Robert Johnson tunes: songs from Robert Johnson; Robert Johnson was an African American blues player from the Mississippi Delta region of the south; very famous for his original style of blues
disappear: vanish; 見なくなる； here, the speaker means he would leave quickly without talking to anyone
benefit: a performance for no pay and all ticket sales' income goes to a charity