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Club Indigo, once
St. Louis' premier blues and jazz club, has fallen hard times. Its
owner, SAM (Hal Linden), is getting on and his grandson ZACH (Geoffrey
Nauffts) arrives to convince his grandfather to sell the club and move
into a nursing home. Sam resists. He's always told Zach that "The
Countess" told him "do nothing, 'til you hear from me"
and he's sticking to those words. Zach assumes that Sam has embroidered
the past greatness of the club, and that he's made up stories of all the
jazz greats who played there and were friends. Especially that story
about "The Countess"--the mysterious singer who arrived in the
sixties and put the club back on the map.
Whether these stories are true or not,
it's apparent that Sam should really be in a nursing home--he's losing
his memory as well as his physical well-being. But Sam has always had an
open-mic night on Mondays, and despite his grandson's protests, proceeds
to hire Monica to M.C. Monday's open-mic performance. When we see that
Andrew, the Angel-of-Death, is a border in Sam's basement, we sense that
Monday's open-mic night might be his last. Zach tricks Sam into signing
a power of attorney agreement so that he can do what he thinks is best for
his grandfather. But then, to Zach's astonishment, the singer Al
Jarreau shows up--Sam's stories were all true, including the one about
"The Countess".
We see in a flashback that "The
Countess" was actually Tess. The final open-mic night is a triumph:
a packed house gets to hear music and tributes to Sam from B.B. King,
Dr. John, and Al Hirt. And then "The Countess" makes a return
appearance. She brings down the house, as Sam passes away. Zach
reconsiders selling Club Indigo; instead he'll transform it to The Sam
Brown Blues Museum.
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