One more once.
These three words were spoken by Count Basie when he sought to repeat a chorus from April in Paris, moments after it was just played by his renonwed orchestra.
From all appearances, Basie enjoyed listening and playing the chorus so much that he wanted to do it again, prolonging the song — and his enjoyment — further.*
These same words express my sentiments, days after seeing the Fabulous Baker Boys for the second time in my life early this week.
Which explains why I am writing about the movie once more with feeling, as it were.
Ever since I secured a digital copy of the movie — a romantic drama starring Jeff and Beau Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer — I have played and replayed the film’s opening scene.
It shows Jeff Bridges as Jack Baker, putting his coat on while preparing to leave his naked female companion, still in bed.
“Will I see you again?” she asks.
“No,” he replies and proceeds to leave.
As if on cue, the theme song plays a few bars on the piano, followed by heavy riffs from the trumpet and the saxophone.
Entitled Jack’s Theme**, the tune perfectly captures the film’s mood, emphasizing the contradicting possibilities offered by the city — vice and virtue, hope and despair, success and failure.
Although the opening scene is just two minutes long, it remains potent enough to strike a chord, ring a bell, pop a vein, develop a tic similar to the one gotten by a schoolmate who got it by accidentally drinking gasoline.
But seriously, when I saw the same scene the second time around, I was swept away, the very same sensation I felt when I saw it for the very first time as a pimply-faced teenager, rejected by girls, ostracized by friends, occasionally drunk on cheap gin, and dreaming about living a better life.
And so, here’s the opening scene, one more once:

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*No actual research was undertaken to come up with this observation.
**Go get the soundtrack. Or you can send a request (wink, wink).
From the Grammar Dept. Grammar Police Patrol slept on the job early this morning when it failed to spot an error which has now been corrected. Earlier title of this piece is Up to my ears with Fabulous Baker Boys. The correct preposition should have been in, as what is seen now. Apologies, fans of William Safire, E. B. White, et. al.