You can drop the George,'' George Makinto says. Makinto had already dropped a ''McIntosh'' somewhere along the line. They all look alike to them. And the numbers that define ''youth'' get fuzzy. A good letter writer is not necessarily a novelist.
Instinct goes only so far.
Anyone can sing in the shower. Even jazz musicians take the month of August off in Paris, and the deadline for filing her application for the Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Vocal Competition was only 10 days away. It's hard to get excited about a 40th anniversary celebration when nothing special appears to have happened 40 years ago. One day, a blues musician pulled up in Remy Elliott's driveway in a Cadillac. Young Remy was dribbling a basketball in front. ''Let's see the ball, kid,'' the man said.