One Long Tune: The Life and Music of Lenny Breau

Chapter 4. Out of Nowhere: November 1961—May 1963

4. Out of Nowhere November 1961–May 1963 “Don Francks has a voice that is just unbelievable, so soulful. He has a brilliant mind. He’s a genius and I don’t mean it lightly. Together, him and Lenny were like rocket ships.” —Joey Hollingsworth Joey Hollingsworth, a young African-Canadian dancer from southern Ontario, was already familiar with Lenny’s reputation when he came to Winnipeg in October of 1961 to play a two-week engagement at the Town and Country Inn. The summer before, he’d met Ray St. Germain in Toronto where Lenny’s brother-in-law was trying to break into the city’s entertainment scene. St. Germain had regaled Hollingsworth with stories of his brother-in-law’s prowess as a guitarist, insisting that he was the greatest player in the world. Hollingsworth was skeptical until he arrived in Winnipeg and dropped into the Stage Door to check Lenny out. 68 Lenny was playing with Reg and Bob. I was just blown away, just blown away. I knew right away there was greatness there. I introduced myself and in time, we became friends. He was just one of those types of people that I really, really dug: very unpretentious, and as funny as anything. As soon as he’d open his mouth, I’d start laughing. He had an amazing sense of humor. I remember we went to this restaurant in downtown Winnipeg. He jumped into the restaurant and kept jumping up and down as we were waiting to be seated! Then he jumped over to the table and says to the waitress, “H-h-h-have you got any sleeveless sandwiches?” She says, “No, that’s not on the menu.” He says, “Well, give me an elephant’s ear.” Stupid things. That was very much Lenny. He was crazy, and he truly made me laugh because he didn’t try to be funny. And if he did, it was so childlike. His mind was so different then anyone else’s, at first you might think “well, maybe he’s a little bit slow” because he didn’t say much, but his mind went like a trip hammer, very fast in making associations between things. Lenny’s enormous capacity for disciplined study and work and the pure musical ambition that drove him also amazed Hollingsworth. “He told me he practiced hours and hours every day,” Hollingsworth says. “I remember he’d play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and ‘Three Blind Mice’ at the same time, but he’d play one in 4 ⁄4 time and one in 3 ⁄4 time so he had all these things going at once. I said, ‘Lenny, how long did it take you to learn that?’ He said, ‘W-w-well, about nine months, five hours a day. Maybe a little bit more.’ I said, ‘Well, why? Most people will hear two tunes but they won’t hear two time signatures.’ He said, ‘I know.’ I said, ‘Well, why would you take nine months to learn it?’ He said, ‘Because nobody else can do it!’” Hollingsworth’s manager was a German-born, prairie-raised lawyer/entrepreneur named George Sukornyk, who had co-founded Harvey’s, a successful Canadian restaurant chain. Sukornyk had sung professionally while in college, and his strong interest in music and the arts in general had led him to make many friends and business contacts in Toronto’s entertainment community. In the late 1950s, he’d decided to try his hand at managing select artists and began representing —pro bono—singer/entertainer Juliette, then Canada’s most Out of Nowhere 69 popular female singer and show business personality. “I’ve always had an affinity for music and entertainment but never with the view of trying to make money with it,” Sukornyk says. “Never collected a dime from Joey or Lenny or anybody. I just really enjoyed being with them and doing what I could to help.” Under Sukornyk’s management , Hollingsworth’s career had taken off. At the time he met Lenny, he was well on his way to becoming recognized as one of the greatest tap dancers in the world, and within the year would be performing on The Ed Sullivan Show. After hearing Lenny play, Hollingsworth called Sukornyk in Toronto. “Joey was very excited,” says Sukornyk. “He said, ‘Hey, I think you should see this fellow. He’s really, really good, a natural...