Ah, the return of the college students. One of the metro stops I frequent, Tenleytown, is the main stop used by American University students. This means that the trains are a lot more crowded now than they were all summer, but that's okay, because it also means the return of the escalator-top musicians. Most days, it seems, there is a duo playing various types of music at the top of the long escalator that feels like a ladder bringing you slowly, oh so slowly, out of the bowels of hell. I'm assuming that the musicians are AU music students since they were there in the spring, gone all summer and are back now in the fall.

Last week, the musical duo consisted of a violinist and a bass player. Mostly they played classical standards. I can't name anything specific, sorry. As far as metro musicians go, they were pretty good, though the violinist played most of his long notes about an eighth of a tone flat, which grates on my ears. Still, who am I to criticize? I can't play a note on the violin.

Yesterday, however, things were different. The bass player was back, but this time he had a guitarist along with him. As I was walking up the escalator, I heard them playing Take Five, which was originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Holy cow! My History of Jazz class did turn out to be useful!). That, in and of itself, is not weird. What is weird, at least to me, is that it was the bass player that was playing the main melody. I guess I don't usually think of the bass as anything but a rhythm instrument, and I guess I've been selling it a little short.