The Best is Yet to Come — A Musical Moment in B, D, F and M-Land

The Best is Yet to Come — A Musical Moment in B, D, F and M-Land

With all the photography I’ve done, there is — naturally — the inclination to present only one’s best efforts behind the lens, whether in technical or compositional terms … and to let the “also-rans” languish amidst thousands of other orphaned pixels or frames of film.

But, then, there are those sightings that speak so eloquently to a photog’s sensibilities that I just want to share the story of a fleeting moment, along with any hopes and feelings such a moment may have painted in those nooks and crannies of gray matter in which my life experiences take up lifelong residence.

As I’ve often noted in presenting New York photos, there is so much musical talent to be found and enjoyed in NYC, and quite often one finds it beneath the city’s streets, whether in Subway station concourses (*) or even on a moving train.(**)

The scene here is a concourse in the sprawling complex that is the [IND] Sixth Avenue Line 47th-to-50th St Rockefeller Center Station, on a December night.

I do wish I could have composed my shot with the little girl closer to the man who was singing in a rich polished baritone, to a fine recorded big band arrangement, the Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh standard “The Best is Yet to Come.” His sound reminded me of Joe Williams or Billy Eckstine, maybe even a bit of Johnny Hartman mixed in. All very classy, and a cut above what is often heard in such settings, in terms of musical refinement … as well as a very nice aural compliment to the rumble of B, D, F and F trains on the platforms just below (a music which I must confess to also enjoying).

But “street photography” moments (even when captured below the street grid) being what they are, and so fleeting in their shooting opportunities, sometimes one just has to “go with what we got.” What I can tell you is that the little girl was showing a rapt attention — and fascination — for the singer (and maybe even his song) that I didn’t want to do anything intrusive that might possibly wreck this special moment.

Nonetheless, this random “Scene in the Subway” allowed me to hope that a seed had somehow been planted and that — maybe — in a dozen years or so, she’ll be attending her first Broadway show … possibly even a revival of “Little Me,” the Coleman-Leigh show that spawned the song … or stopping on the way home from school to browse in a used record or CD shop, perhaps being drawn by some subliminal instinct to an album containing “The Best is Yet to Come” and experiencing a most delicious caress of déjà vu.

Heck, stranger things have been known to happen. And as Mark Hellinger intoned in the epilogue to a favorite film noir, “There are eight million stories in the Naked City...” I have to believe some are … musical.

©2024 Steve Ember
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