Me, The Manhattan Transfer, and My Broken Hip

I may have left their final concert in an ambulance, but that won't stop me from sharing my praise of one of America's finest musical groups.

Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 with Kareem in 2015 TMT Members (Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne, Alan Paul & Trist Curless Take 6 Members (Claude McKnight, Alvin Chea, Dave Thomas, Mark Kibble, Joel Kibble and Khristian Dentley

Thanks to the Los Angeles Fire Department for their quick service and excellent care… it’s not easy transporting a tall guy like me

You may have heard that Humpty Kareem had a great fall. It’s true. I was at The Manhattan Transfer’s final public concert at Disney Hall, ready to read a letter from Kamala Harris and provide some praise of my own for a group I love and admire. But I fell and was carted off to UCLA Hospital with a broken hip.

I’d like to say I fell while trying to save a child from plunging over a balcony, but I just tripped. Hard for me to accept that a once world-class athlete just stumbled. But age is the great equalizer and humbles us all. Now, I’m a world-class patient in a bed convalescing from a hip replacement like 450,000 other Americans every year. I’m writing to you because…well because that’s what I do. However, after this week, I will be taking a week or so off over the holidays to fully recuperate and spend time with my family. When I return, it will be with a shiny new hip and a lot of shiny thoughts to share.

I want to thank the Los Angeles Fire Department who assisted me on site and the amazing medical team and doctors at UCLA Hospital who are taking great care of me now. I also want to thank you, my Substack community, for joining me twice a week and for sharing your wonderful comments.

Before I go, I thought it would be fun to recreate my night at Disney Hall by sharing with you the vice-president’s lovely letter as well as my own thoughts about my friends The Manhattan Transfer that I never got to present.

Here I am in 2015 teaching The Manhattan Project how to sing. They were very grateful and unsure how they managed to garner international success without my help.

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Me & The Manhattan Transfer

The Manhattan Transfer first took the stage in 1969, the same year I first took the NBA court. I’ve been listening to their unique blend of R&B, jazz, blues, and pop ever since. Their artistry has lifted me when I needed lifting, soothed me when I needed soothing, and gave me joy when I needed to be joyful. Who could ask for anything more?

I want to start by showing you the wonderful letter from Vice-President Kamala Harris I was tasked with reading (complete with a cool seal and indecipherable signature):

It’s as if you were at the concert but without the hassles of parking and crowded bathrooms.

For those of you who may not be familiar with The Manhattan Transfer, here’s a little background: The group first formed in 1969 and over the next 54 years went through four major incarnations that included personnel changes and different song styles. Founding member Tim Hauser was the only member to be part of each version. The group’s name comes from the title of a famous 1925 novel by John Dos Passos that details the development of New York City life from the Gilded Age through the Jazz Age. It’s a pleasant coincidence that the group also was witness to America’s evolution through various cultural ages.

Here’s a surprise: After the group wasn’t picked up for a second album by Capitol Records in 1973, they broke up. A new version of the group formed with a new sound, new songs, and a new album with Atlantic Records. It was a hit, which led to their own TV show, a four-week variety show on CBS. More hit singles and albums followed. They quickly became a worldwide sensation, eventually winning eleven Grammy Awards.

Over the years they have had to cope with age, illness, and death. But, like the most famous sentence in William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, “They endured.” Endured and thrived. But now it’s time to stop performing. Fortunately, they have left us a treasure trove of recordings so that their musical legacy will never stop.

For me, The Manhattan Transfer’s a cappella harmonies and scatting moved me the most. In part, their doo-wop style reminded me of my own youth growing up in New York City where you could still hear teens gather on street corners and create new sounds or mimic records they’d heard. To see a bunch of kids so passionate about music that they would stand on a corner and improvise with nothing more than their naked voices was the essence of jazz to me. You had to be fearless as well as talented. That’s how I look at The Manhattan Transfer: talented but fearless musicians willing to risk all in every performance.

Here’s an example of their classic a cappella style. It both gives me chills and makes me shake my head in awe.

But they were more than a cappella. Here’s a video of them singing one of their hits, a rousing cover of The Ad Libs’ classic 1964 “The Boy from New York City.” The Manhattan Transfer’s version hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981.

Goodbye, my friends. I’m sorry I was not able to join you onstage to read the letter and tell the audience how much your music has meant to me. I hope this makes up for it in some small way. On the plus side, my fall hit all the newspapers so I made your final show even more memorable. Come for the music, stay for the klutzy fall.

All my best to you from my hospital bed. Me and my new hip will be dancing to your tunes again. Well, gently swaying.

Here I am just before working with my team to make sure you all got my newsletter. Nothing keeps from delivering !!!

And if I can deliver this from my hospital bed, I hope you can hit the subscribe button. Merry Christmas!