STEPHEN RICHARDS, Special to MuskokaTODAY

Bourbon Street Jazz Club, 180 Queen St. West, Toronto, October 1975:

George’s Italian Café on the main floor is closed today. The Basin Street Club is on the second floor and Salome Bey’s ‘Indigo’ set has been prepped for performances.

Bourbon Street Jazz Club is on the first floor of the building. There is a small stage suitable for a small ensemble.

The backdrop features posters of past acts, hanging battered electric guitars, and a blue French horn. A banner in vibrant pink is emblazoned with the club’s name. Sound-deadening material is strung from the ceiling. Stage lighting is left and right.

In front are 20 cozy round tables and several private booths — but there is no audience.

For the past two weeks a recording session for A&M Records was being taped on the four-track recording equipment in the coat check room. The engineer propped open the window and has clear sight to the stage.

Paul Emil Breitenfeld is seated cross-legged centre stage; his alto sax still hooked on his neck strap and cradled in both hands. He is lovingly gazing at his prized possession.

On his right, Ed Bickert on guitar, on his left is bassist Don Thompson, and Jerry Fuller the drummer is behind him encased in a Plexiglas surround. The quartet just completed their recording session.

Doug Cole, the owner of the club is standing in the doorway and invites the band for refreshments downstairs in the café. Paul places his 1953 Selmer Super Balanced Action Alto sax on its stand. He gently removes and pockets his 1930s MC Gregory 4A-18M mouthpiece, and takes out a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes from his tan sax case and follows Doug and his band mates for a drink of Dewar’s scotch whisky.

After a few drinks and smokes with Eddie Shack (who just dropped off some Pop Shoppe beverages) and Moe Koffman (who has a running gig nearby at George’s Spaghetti House on Dundas another of Cole’s clubs), the band returns to the club to pack up their gear.

Paul’s sax is gone. He never sees it again.

Elkhart Indiana, June 17, 2012:

An invitation arrives for Cole’s celebration of life to be held at the Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar on Queen Street West.

Bart Neely finds this quite ironic — the club should be on King Street. He recalls his uncle once played in Toronto back in the ’70s and when his uncle passed away two years later he acquired Paul’s mouthpiece. It inspired him to purchase a Selmer Mark VI and practice. Sadly, he could not make a living at it and got a job at Musicians Friend. Bart picks up the mouthpiece, fits a Rico 3.5 reed using a Harrison ligature and places it on the sax neck cork.

The lights in the room dim. He feels light headed. A mist forms in front of him. A vision of his uncle appears and urges him to attend the celebration of life as part of a quest. The lights turn to normal and the fog dissipates.

Bart looks over at his Maine Coon Cat “Desmond,” puts on the cat sweater and says: “Time to go Due North.”

Rex Hotel — Celebration of Doug Cole’s Life:

Bart is greeted at the door by Ken Cole, Doug’s son.

Bart says “How are you?” After initial awkwardness, Ken says “Hi, you must be Bart. C’mon in.”

Ken offers Bart a pop. Bart asks for a soda.

“Soda water? A mixer?”

“No. Like a root beer.”

“Sorry,” says Ken. “Best we can do is a Pop Shoppe spruce beer.”

Bart: “How about a Coke?”

“Will a Pepsi do?”

They exchange pleasantries and chat about college football/hockey while walking to a table laden with finger food. Bart asks if there’s any American or spray cheese to top the Ritz crackers. He also has a hankering for marshmallow-topped mash potatoes.

Ken says “sorry,” as he uses tongs to put ketchup chips and a beaver tails on his plate.

Bart frowns, tongs some of the treats onto his plate. When done, he throws his leftover snacks in a sink and asks where the switch is.

“That’s not a garbage disposal,” blurts Ken scooping the mess into a trash can. Bart looks at the trash can, then back at Ken and says “Sorry.”

Ken mentions he lives in Muskoka and introduces Bart to some of his friends. Marley Kim, a recent “new Canadian” is a classically-trained pianist who enjoys big band music, runs the Gravenhurst location of Musicians Friend and moonlights as a conductor in various bands.

Claire Mont-Marque is responsible for the Gravenhurst Opera House, Muskoka Festival of the Arts and plays the cornet. They hit it off well. Ken mentions he has some documents in his home that may relate to Paul’s recording session that he needs to go through and invites Bart to visit in Port Sydney.

Ken Cole’s Home in Port Sydney:

Ken moved into his dad’s summer residence shortly after Doug became quite ill and was transferred to a Huntsville hospice.

When Doug sold his clubs and restaurants back in 1983, the paperwork was stored in the basement where it remained untouched to this day.

Bart scrutinizes the framed medals in the front hallway, including an Order of Canada. As he shuffles over to look at the next one, Ken remarks that the Queen’s Jubilee Medal just arrived and honours his dad’s contribution to the jazz scene and opportunities given to musicians. Ken looks away, quickly wiping his tears and heading toward the basement stairs. Bart follows with Desmond at his heels.

Filing cabinets are everywhere. Desmond wanders around, sniffing. The big cat stops at one and head-butts the second drawer.

Inside is a police report for a stolen sax. The document mentions who was there in the building and who was brought in for questioning.

Bart imagines his uncle grinning and mouthing: “The mission — find the Selmer.”

Ken offers Bart a Timmy’s and pours milk from a bag into a mug. Bart grins, shakes his head and accepts the coffee. Then he describes his plan.

Bart contacts his boss in Indiana to transfer to Gravenhurst to work for Marley and makes arrangements to move into the storeroom in the basement of the store as housing in Muskoka is scarce.

Gravenhurst Opera House, some time later:

Bart reflects on his search and experience so far: Polite people, musicianship not of the same level as back home, but he believes he can make a difference.

He has one last thing to check as he’s run out of ideas. Apparently a stagehand from the Basin Street Club, who was spotted leaving as the band returned to the Bourbon Street Club to pack up their instruments, is now employed as a music teacher and stores excess instruments at the Gravenhurst Opera House.

Claire has keys to all the locked rooms. Bart takes out his mouthpiece and waves it in front of Desmond, his Maine Coon Cat and commands “seek.” Desmond catches the scent and takes off like a shot — or least as fast as a 40-pound cat can go — leaping from one case to the next. Up the shelves and back down. Body checks the bari sax cases and tubas out of the way until access to a filing cabinet is gained and he starts head-butting all the drawers.

The cabinet won’t budge. Claire and Bart examine it. There seems to be a space behind it.

Bart asks Desmond: “Behind the cabinet?” Desmond purrs and “me-u-u-u-wes.”

As Claire and Bart start moving the cabinet, Lambert Riddick, the former stagehand of Bourbon Street and current music teacher at the Gravenhurst Opera barrels down the stairs to see what the noise is all about.

Spotting the exposed tan Selmer sax case, he screams “Cheeses, the gig is up” and tries to bolt up the stairs.

Desmond spots Lambert fleeing, runs, leaps and trips him — pinning him to the floor with all his weight. Police take Lambert in to custody for questioning.

Paul’s image appears and with a big grin tells Bart: “Well done!” Then disappears.

Bart opens the case. Inside is the Selmer Super Balanced Action sax, serial #51510 alto sax, Pall Mall cigarettes, Dewar Scotch whisky, a small jar of Rico 3.5 reeds — and ‘Take 5’ and ‘Take 10’ sheet music.

Bart realizes his quest is done. As Paul’s only living relative to play a sax, he realizes he just scored his Holy Grail and is determined to become a music ambassador to the region.

Stephen Richards is a Muskoka saxophonist and creative soul man, whose alto-ego is Kokopelli. It’s his fictional, based-on-real life, local Due North take on a ‘Due South.’ He say Doug Cole had a summer place in Port Sydney and passed away June 15, 2012 in at a Huntsville hospice. Eddie Shack frequented the jazz clubs. Moe Koffman had a running gig down the street at Doug’s other club. The other characters are fictitious. ‘Indigo’ was performed upstairs, but the timeline was adjusted to suit the story. Paul Desmond’s sax was never stolen.  In fact it was sold recently and was overhauled for the first time this year when the original pads were finally replaced. It still has 90% of the original lacquer and the tan case with purple velour interior is in mint condition.