They have an uncanny way of finishing each other's sentences and arriving at conclusions at the same time, sometimes even uttering sentences in unison. Over the past nine years, during which they co-managed three Phoenix group homes, Willa and Corrie's telepathic bond would occasionally ruffle the feathers of their staff workers.
"Willa would come into one of the facilities and tell them something, and an hour later I would come and tell them the same thing," Corrie says in her gravelly smoker's voice. "They were so focused on the fact that we had talked to each other and were on their case. They'd say, 'Why'd you tell us twice?' But we didn't know what the other had said."
Dealing with a sensitive staff was only one of the headaches that the two friends encountered in their group-home business. Between the three facilities, Willa and Corrie were responsible for the care of 30 Alzheimer patients, and the agonizing nature of the condition eventually became too much for the women to bear.
"With all due respect to the elderly, you're always in that atmosphere, especially if you run your own business," Willa says. "If you're just a nurse working at the hospital for eight hours, at night you can change clothes and go home. For us, it was a 24-hour business, seven days a week."
Willa and Corrie decided to sell off their group homes, even though they had yet to focus on what they wanted to do next. Then they remembered a goal they'd had almost a decade ago to open a club. Three days after deciding to go into the club business, Willa saw a newspaper ad that announced that the Melody Lounge was up for sale. So, with the same impulsive boldness they'd brought to all their business endeavors, they became bar owners.
The Melody had special meaning to them, because in its heyday as a jazz mecca, the bar was a favorite hangout for Willa and Corrie. "We came here on Monday nights with Dave Cook's jam sessions," Willa says. "We were really taken with it."
Three weeks after its reopening, under the new name Club Melody, the bar is showing some signs of its old vigor. For one thing, Willa and Corrie are both unabashed jazz fans, with an appreciation for the legacy created by Melody owner Dave DiLorenzo, before he sold the bar in 1997.
On March 1, Cook returned to the Monday-night slot he'd held at the Melody for nearly 10 years, before falling out with owners Ab Latouf and Michelle Yngelmo, who bought the club from DiLorenzo two years ago. The March 1 show was a stirring reminder of what makes Cook so special. With his small electric combo Intensity in tow, he graciously presided over the night's activities, bringing a revolving cast of virtuosos to the bandstand. Guest organist Joey DeFrancesco positively stole the night, ripping into one audacious solo after another.
Willa and Corrie want to build an unchanging weekly schedule that audiences can come to expect, but that effort is still a work in progress. They have the soulful Hammond B-3 jazz of Royce Murray and A Touch of Blues on Tuesdays, and the group will also host Sunday-night jams. They've also got R&B singer Patti Williams locked in on Fridays, and jazz singer Dennis Rowland is also performing at the club. But the owners are still searching for a strong Saturday-night act, and they're not sure how committed they are to the salsa nights they've experimented with.
While they've tipped their hats to the bar's history--returning DiLorenzo's old wrought-iron Melody sign to the front window and putting up framed newspaper clippings about Cook--they're quick to emphasize that they don't want to be chained by the past.
"A lot of people are saying, 'You need to bring the booths back.' A lot of people are dwelling on the old Melody Lounge," Corrie says. "But we strongly but kindly tell everybody, 'This is Club Melody. It's new management, it's a little different.' It's not a neighborhood bar anymore. But we do like to have the jazz back here again, because we both love jazz."
The two women both hail from the same Dutch city, Soest. Corrie worked her family's flower shops, while Willa was one of her regular customers. In 1973, Willa moved to Phoenix and worked as a registered nurse. Sixteen years later, Corrie followed her American husband to the Valley after he was transferred here by the Air Force.
"I ran into a Dutch lady who's also from Holland," Corrie recalls. "She said she had a friend from Holland she wanted me to meet. I said, 'When are you going to introduce me?', because I was hungry to meet people from there. She introduced me to this friend, and this friend opened the door, and it was Willa. We looked at each other and said, 'Hey!'"
From that moment on, they've been an indestructible team: Willa the expert networker, Corrie the savvy bookkeeper. It's a relationship that they've carried from the group-home business into their club enterprise. Though they've been a bit shocked by the magnitude of their expenses at Club Melody, and admit that they have much to learn, they seem anchored by a palpable faith in each other. If nothing else, they know they have the kind of place where they feel at home: a club with a dress code, for a mature crowd, but one that also is essentially casual and informed by its live music.
"We want this to be a little classy place where people can be comfortable," Corrie says. "We're not a stuck-up bar at all."
Giving It a Spin: The April issue of Spin magazine honors what it considers "the top 13 turntablists in the world," and Phoenix gets its share of praise. Listed at number nine--amongst such heady company as Mix Master Mike and The World Famous Beat Junkies--are the incomparable Bombshelter DJs. Spin dishes out generous praise for Z-Trip ("[he] makes hip-hop from rock") and Radar ("[he] scrawls his signature with wah-wah scratches and rhythmic caterwaul"), and the feature would be beyond reproach if it didn't inexplicably omit any mention of Bombshelter member Emile. Be that as it may, the Bombshelter DJs have taken their mastery to the Green Room, where they're now spinning every Wednesday night.
Thirsty for an Axman: With its second album--and first national release--set to hit the stores this spring, Sipping Soma is now in the market for a new guitar player. David Plagman, the band's guitarist since its inception, recently departed from the group.
--Gilbert Garcia
Contact Gilbert Garcia at his online address: [email protected]
