COOL BLUE

William Marzack remembers fragments from that day ten year ago when his famous musian father died in a fiery bus crash that left him an orphan at age five. He remembers the piercing cry of the single electric blue guitar his father loved to play. The sound so high, so sweet it spoke to him in a language that used no words. A sleepy five year old boy, watching his father perform on stage, plucking the Blue’s guitar strings – faster – and faster – blurring with the sound until the man, the music and the Blue become one. The legendary “Blue” created only for a select few of the world’s greatest guitar players. A deep hued indigo with a jeweled dragon inlay stretched and curled around it’s neck, resting its fearsome head in the fifth and sixth frets, it’s red coral tongue flicking a B on the E string. William remembers getting on the bus with his father after the concert -- the pouring rain, the washed-out mountain road, the crash, and the fire. A vision of the Blue –- melting. Its jeweled ivory, coral and gold – sparkling like diamonds in the flames. His father’s best friend, Dack, a Jamaican ace guitarist, saving him from a fiery death on the bus. Dack, who loves him like a son, gives up his life on the road to play in Club Gold, a cheap tourist trap in Kingston to save William from going to an orphanage. Dack teaches him everything he knows about music and tells him. “Music’s in your blood, mon. Except for me, you the best guitar player in Jamaica. Girls love William. He wears dude clothes when he wants. He eats what he wants. He and Dack play blues and rock guitar to pull in cruise ship passengers to Club Gold. And just like Dack, William is happy, until one day, when William’s filthy rich grandfather discovers he has a long-lost grandson and takes him away from Dack to live with him in Washington, D.C. William’s grandfather forces him to attend the snobby Wellsby School for the Performing Arts to train in classical music just like his famous father once did. “CLASSICAL MUSIC!” William tells his grandfather “Dack is my father.” William hates the preppie kids in Wellsby who all think he’s a total dork, especially Jeffrey Rabowitz who asks him, “So, who are you supposed to be, dude?” William knows he is Dack’s son in spirit, but why does the memory of his famous father continue to haunt him? To find the answer he must learn more about his father to discover himself. When William’s class at Wellsby pays a visit to the Smithsonian Institute exhibit, ”Guitar in American Popular Music. William finds the key to his past enclosed in a glass case and illuminated by a brilliant light. It’s deep hued indigo with a jeweled dragon inlay stretched and curled around it’s neck, resting its fearsome head in the fifth and sixth fret, it’s red coral tongue flicking a B on the E string. William runs away to find the famous guitar maker who tells him he has to pay his dues to earn the privilege of owning a Blue. His father won the Hampton World Competition for Classical Music to get it. William’s grandfather buys the priceless guitar and puts it up as first prize to the winner of the Hampton Classical Competition. William practices classical music to win the Blue but knows he can’t compete among the world’s most gifted classical artists. But he keeps hearing Dack’s words to him as a small boy, “Follow you heart, mon, you got to follow your heart to be happy.”