Don't bring a beeper to a concert if Laurence Fishburne is around — you will be admonished.
Fishburne, who hosted Jazz at Lincoln Center's second annual spring gala benefit, was speaking eloquently about the blues' influence on jazz — the theme of Monday night's concert at New York's Apollo Theater — when someone's beeper went off.
"Does someone have a beeper?" the "Matrix Reloaded" actor intoned, as the audience laughed. "Would you like to answer it? We'll wait for you."
It was a rare glitch during the concert, in which Wynton Marsalis and his jazz septet backed up Carrie Smith, Lou Donaldson, Willie Nelson, Audra McDonald, Ray Charles, B.B. King and Eric Clapton playing blues classics.
The event was followed by a gala dinner, which Glenn Close, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Walt Frazier, Bobby Short, Al Roker and his wife, Deborah Roberts, and others attended.
During the dinner, Fishburne said his favorite all-time blues performer was singer Joe Williams and his current favorite is Cassandra Wilson.
But he was at a loss for words when he was asked why he was a fan of the blues: "I love it, I simply love it. I can't explain it any more plainly than that."