My Night with Gala Dali
I have had occasion to meet famous people before, but Gala (wife of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali) was by far the most singular such occasion in my (then) short life.
We crossed the vast lobby, “we” being three black men and three white, three bearded men and three clean-shaven, but still totaling six musicians altogether, plus two great roadies there to schlep things, check us in and pay. This group of 8 males ranged in age from early twenties to late forties. A fairly wide sample of humanity with, as a bonus, one of us wearing a turban. He of the turban, Soko Richardson, who played with Ike & Tina Turner and Albert King, was also carrying a bag with 12 bottles of Louisiana Hot Sauce. The great saxophonist and flutist, Red Holloway was 47 and could play any kind of music. Larry “The Mole” Taylor was a living history of rock and blues, an original member of Canned Heat after touring with Jerry Lee Lewis and playing in house bands on the Strip.
[Note from 2021: Sadly, four of these great musicians have passed away. RIP Soko Richardson, Red Holloway, Larry Taylor and High Tide Harris.]
The moment we had entered what must have been a wondrous place 40 years earlier, a svelte Russian-looking woman in what would be called stretch-slacks had been following…
