Back to New York this week to participate in the heatwave. This picture of a sunbather on the front page of the New York Times reminded me of the headlines in Scotland when we were there during 80 degree temperatures a few years ago warning the public to stay well hydrated and avoid the midday sun. It was hot but a pleasant change from the snow and wind a few visits ago.
On Wednesday night I tried out a new jazz club that I heard about from a gentleman at the table next to me at Dizzy’s a few weeks ago for the Christian McBride Big Band show. The Jazz Standard is located at 28th and Park Avenue and an easy subway ride from the Wall Street area. It’s in the basement beneath the Blue Smoke barbeque restaurant and is structured as a supper club similar to Birdland. They had a number of my favourite whiskey drinks on the menu and I paired that with a yummy shrimp etoufee.
Here are some pictures of the club both facing the stage and from the stage looking back towards the bar. I’d guess the capacity is around 150 guests and the seating is comfortable and not too packed.
I enjoyed browsing the pictures on the stairs down to the club. Here are Louis Armstrong and Ben Webster (my current favourite tenor saxophone sound). I just watched a documentary about Ben Webster titled “Brute and Beautiful” – apparently a tough man who made a beautiful emotional sound.
I enjoyed the drink coasters and agree with the message. There’s also a nice mural by the entrance.
The entertainment was by the Kenny Barron quintet. Barron has appeared on hundreds of recordings and is considered one of the most influential 
pianists since the bebop era. He taught piano and keyboard harmony at Rutgers University for over 25 years and now teaches at Juilliard. Some of his best albums were recorded with Stan Getz in the late 1980s and I highly recommend “Bossas and Ballads – The Lost Sessions”. I was very fortunate to have decided to investigate the Jazz Standard on the week when Barron was playing. Here’s a Brazilian themed song he played – I really wasn’t in that bad a seat but recording is highly discouraged and I needed to be stealthy with my phone resting on the table.
I loved the drumming by Jonathan Blake – some of the most innovative, creative, and musical since I heard Joey Baron for the first time. It was interesting that his cymbals were much lower than you normally see – almost at the same height as the snare and tom toms.
I chuckled at this billboard outside an Italian restaurant right next to the jazz club – Italian bubbles and $1 oysters – right up McD alley.
I had a pleasant post concert walk down Park Avenue to the 14th street subway station. The good weather had a lot of folks out eating later and I made a particular note of a restaurant named Barbounia for my next visit with Diana. A very fun looking Mediterranean place on Park and 20th in the Gramercy area.
After a long and successful work day on Thursday, I headed up to the Chelsea Market to search out something that Anne wanted but didn’t buy on 
her trip there with us. This was a funny experience – after two complete tours around the store and asking artists manning booths about the stand Anne had been at and getting no help at all I caught sight of one of the items in a display case with a name on it. Consulting the website told me that the stall had been a one week only “pop-up” store. I was able to order online – what a lot of detective work for what I thought would be a simple purchase.
I had dinner at a French Bistro in the market, a nice pate de campagne, and then headed back to the 14th street subway station. On the way I passed the Village Vanguard jazz club and couldn’t help but stop in right as the 8:30pm show was starting. I got one of the last seats at the bar in the back of the club – actually one of the more comfortable seats in there and one that always reminds me of Diana sharing her champagne with Joshua Redman on another impromptu visit we made.
The band was the Eric Reed quintet and I enjoyed them very much. The music was quite similar to Kenny Barron the night before but with more slower, lyrical and emotional content. I really enjoyed one of Reed’s compositions named “Wish” that he wrote after the death of his father about all the things he wished he could still discuss with him.
Here’s a more up tempo composition:
I narrowly avoided a trip to Brooklyn on the subway – apparently the number 2 train runs on the number 1 line later at night and I noticed the Rector Street stop just in time to hop off before the train headed under the East river to Brooklyn. On the different than usual walk back to the hotel I took this picture of the New York Stock Exchange with colorful illumination.
On Friday morning I headed out for a leisurely breakfast (trying to follow the Jazz Standard coaster advice) and was amazed at the backwardness of the trash bags stacked up on the sidewalks – apparently Friday is trash day in the Wall Street area. It’s also interesting that it’s acceptable to dispose of small appliances with regular trash.
The first weekend of my birthday month got off to a great start as D and I headed down to Deep Ellum for brunch at IdleRye. This was a new place I found online after finding that the Lebanese place I was hoping to visit for brunch wasn’t open for Saturday lunch. We sat at the bar and enjoyed amazing tater tots and eggs benedict with pork belly along with some nicely mixed brunch cocktails. We both look forward to visiting again soon.
Our post brunch crossword stop was a short walk down Elm Street to our favorite Deep Ellum spot – the Twilite Lounge. As usual the patio was a perfect oasis and the jukebox was playing great New Orleans music – “Exactly Like You” by the Rebirth Brass Band.
Now we were ready for a coffee and found a new place, Drugstore Cowboy, just around the corner that had good coffee, a full bar, and a stage that hosts performances and movies in the evenings. There was a mariachi band playing just outside the stage for Cinco de Mayo.
After coffee we made the quick drive to Oak Cliff for a visit to the Wild 
Detectives bookstore. All of the books that we picked up seemed either a bit too out there or too depressing. The only one I found that sounded appealing was one that Diana reminded me we had bought on our last visit and I haven’t read yet. We moseyed across the street to Boulevardier and watched the Kentucky Derby (neither of our picks won) and enjoyed their amazing tartare (complete with quail egg).
Sunday was a lazy day of workout, 
crossword, and pool time. I put a new tablet stand that Amazon had just delivered to good use in watching the New Orleans Pelicans versus Golden State Warriors basketball playoff game by the pool.
The busy week didn’t afford me too much time for reading but I did make some progress through John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany”. One section describing the two main characters participation in a church Nativity play had me laughing. It reminded me a lot of my experience at St Columbas church in Stewarton and the classic tale of my wise man outfit completed by socks with holes in the toes to horrify my Mum.
When I was doing some research on Eric Reed, I found a few albums that he recorded with the trombone player Wycliffe Gordon that sound great. Gordon has recorded a number of albums of New Orleans style brass music that sound excellent. Gordon plays trombone, trumpet, tuba an didgeridoo (a good spelling bee word).
I also heard a new release from the Scottish electronic band Mogwai. I first heard of this band in the acknowledgments section of an Ian Rankin novel and decided to give them a listen. It’s great background music when I’m trying to focus on something.