Review: Scales from Stories That Need To Be Told by Mario Rene Padilla

Scales by Mario Rene Padilla

Writer and poet Padilla relates the story of musician and father Marcelino Quijones, and former band singer mother, from the view point of Catholic school teenager son, Alex. From Marcelino's years playing in Army bands during World War II to post war traveling from city to city playing sax, flute, clarinet in bands in supper clubs and dance halls, Scales is the story of the son of a father devoted to music and Italian mother raising Alex to deal with racial prejudice and bullying in Catholic schools in late 1950s Columbus, Ohio and the journey to realization what was most important as a teen growing up. 

Marcelino, a virtuoso musician and saxophone player is dealing with changing trends in music as big bands lose work to younger rock and roll musicians, forcing him to go on the road to provide for his family. He survived the war because he was one of the best, chosen to entertain the troops, while other musician friends were not so lucky, some ending up as casualties of the war.

Son Alex, while dreaming of learning to play electric guitar and becoming a famous musician like his hero Richie Valens, hears Marcelino's war story and told himself "My father survived the Second World War because he made himself better than everybody else. Simple as that." 

While Alex believes his father's survival had nothing to do with luck, Alex determined early on that he himself was hopelessly unlucky and set to change that outlook. 

"Luck became linked with lazy, undisciplined, no-talent hillbillies like Mitchell, who couldn't find the rhythm to a water drip, but who won the school dance competition because he made the the biggest fool out of himself. Somehow I sensed, even at ten years old I was star material. It was in my genes, my father's talent on several instruments, my dark-haired mother, the singer...No, my fate would not be determined by luck."

Scales is a poignant story of a child learning dedication, and adapting to change to survive, following his father's example of practicing musical scales as a metaphor to becoming the best one can be.

A short story, Scales, won publisher Tulip Tree's 2020 'Passion' category and is published in the Anthology, Stories That Need To Be Told. Writer Padilla, is the real life son of the late musician Marcel "Marsh" Padilla. (Reviewer Don Browne was a member of Padilla's trio in the late 1960s.)

Dr. Mario René Padilla is a writer of prose, poetry and songs. His poetry and fiction have appeared in North American Review, The Antioch Review, New Letters, Alligator Juniper, The Ledge, INKWELL Magazine, Americas Review, Atlanta Review, Visions International. His first collection of poetry, Reaching Back for the Neverendings, appeared in 1994. He wrote the music and lyrics for Hercules on Normandie in 2006 at the Greenway Court Theater. His unpublished manuscript of poetry, Postcards on the Invented Road, has been a finalist for award in: Red Hen Press, Crab Orchard Review and Silverfish Review’s Gerald Cable Book Award. Padilla earned an M.A. in English from Loyola Marymount and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from U.S.C. He has taught Creative Writing and English literature at Santa Monica College in California.

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-reviewed by Don Browne