Hilton Ruiz and a Perfect Evening

One's definition of what constitutes a perfect evening may be a candlelight dinner, winning a grand slam in bridge or front row seats at the symphony. Whatever.

I have been fortunate enough to have had what I would consider several perfect evenings, but one in particular came to mind when I learned this week of the death of jazz pianist Hilton Ruiz.

I was working in San Francisco at the Examiner and living in the North Beach neighborhood made famous by the Beats. I finished my newsroom shift and stepped out onto Market Street. It was a typical midsummer evening: Comfortably cool with banks of fog rolling in from the bay. I walked two blocks to the Market Line and jumped onto one of the city's storied cable cars just as it pulled away. It was a little after midnight and there were plenty of seats, but I stood on one of the outriders as we climbed the steep hill toward Chinatown through the fog banks.

The cable car leveled off as it skirted the northern edge of Chinatown. I jumped off when it stopped at Vallejo, a narrow street that plunges downhill to Columbus Avenue and North Beach. A short half block later, I came to the Keystone Korner, the venerable jazz club, and as was my wont on my late evening rambles on the way home from the Examiner, I paused outside the club' open door to listen to the music.

I was drawn inside by lilting piano playing that seemed to bridge classical and Latin genres. I'd gotten to know the bouncer and he'd let me in without paying the cover. Who was this guy presiding over the concert grand? Hilton Ruiz, he replied. I found an empty table down front and listened to Ruiz until he called it a night an hour or so later. I was enchanted with my accidental discovery and my feet seemed to barely touch the pavement as I continued my walk home. The fog had lifted and North Beach was bathed in the light of a full moon. I've been a big fan of Ruiz ever since.

Born in New York, Ruiz was trained in classical music as well as jazz and played at Carnegie Hall when he was just 8. He learned at the feet of such greats as Mary Lou Williams and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and played with Latin masters like Tito Puente.

Ruiz had been in New Orleans to work on a Hurricane Katrina relief recording when he suffered a severe head injury on May 19. He was found lying unconscious on a sidewalk and had been in a coma until he died Monday night. Friends suspected that he might have been mugged, but his family said police told them there was no sign of a robbery and believe it was an accidental fall.

Hilton Ruiz was 54.

BILLY PRESTON (1946-2006)

I would be remiss to not note, however briefly, the passing of the man nicknamed "The 5th Beatle." That would be the soul- and gospel-rooted keyboardist Billy Prestons.

This New York Times obit does him justice.