Seven Spanish Angels
Heard this song performed on “The Voice” TV show and looked for the original. It’s by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson. Is there any more soulful singer than Ray Charles? Maybe Levon Helm or an Otis Redding ballad?
piece by Ahmad Jamal and included on Miles Davis’ 1959 release “Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet”.This was a fantastic week of music, perhaps the “Best Music Week Ever”. Bruce Springsteen, Steve Miller and Jimmy Vaughan, and then John Scofield and John Medeski. Finn had some great news this week also – he made the Dean’s Honor Roll for his last quarter. Here’s a Spotify playlist to accompany this posting:
On Tuesday we stopped for lunch at the Meddlesome Moth en route to check into the W hotel in downtown Dallas and attend the Springsteen concert at American Airlines Center. Started with a nice cheese and charcuterie platter and then had a mushroom and farro (a grain similar to Italian rice) platter. Diana was unsettled by the various moth emblems that reminded her of the night of the 600 moth attack on Pecan Valley. Keith was counseled about not returning to the house immediately when requested to help address the moth infestation.
Bruce started at 8pm and didn’t finish until after 11:30pm. We heard the entire River double album from start to finish and then a parade of greatest hits. Favorites included Badlands, Hungry Heart, and Thunder Road. He finished with a 15 minute version of Shout.
The harmonica intro to The River always gives me chills. Here’s the mid-song harmonica break:
On Wednesday, I headed to New York for 3 days. That night I saw a one of a kind concert in the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Steve Miller put on a show called “From Ma’ to Miles”, a collection of jazz and blues tunes spanning from Ma’ Rainey to Miles Davis. Jimmy Vaughan (older brother of Stevie Ray) was his special guest. The band also included the professor of music at the University of Miami who did the arrangements, an amazing jazz bassist and drummer, and a superb 3 piece horn section.
Steve Miller was inducted into the Rock N’ Roll hall of fame on Friday evening in New York and so put on this special show while in town. Apparently he does a lot of work with Jazz at Lincoln Center to create learning programs on jazz and blues music. I downloaded the New York subway app and so was able to easily navigate from Wall St to the Upper West side for the concert.
On Thursday I had a full day of meetings at 175 Water Street. As soon as they finished, I headed over to the Blue Note jazz club in Greenwich Village (using my new subway skills) to see John Scofield, a jazz guitar master. I sat next to an older lady who had taken guitar lessons from the same teacher as Scofield in Wilton, Connecticut. She knew the music really well and was a wealth of interesting information. The food at the Blue Note was suprisingly good.
John Medeski from the Medeski, Martin, Wood band sat in on grand piano and Hammond B3 organ. He is an excellent technical player and at the same time extremely creative in his solos.
Friday was mostly a travel day. I registered my best time yet (10 mins) on the USA today crossword puzzle during breakfast at the Andaz hotel. My flight was delayed due to a maintenance issue with the inbound flight from Chicago so I ended up switching to an alternate flight and wasn’t too late in arriving home.
Saturday morning included a workout and our dance lesson. We practiced forward and reverse turns in the swing and bolero dances. Kathleen also forced Keith to learn the man’s spin. She also commented on how subtle and delicate Keith’s lead signals for spins were 🙂
For lunch we tried a new place in downtown McKinney called “Rye”. What a great find – great cocktails and food. We started with goat cheese stuffed paquito peppers (even better than the ones at Cafe Malaga), then a pork and vegetable soup, and we split the burger. Their Manhattan was even better than the ones I make at home.
On Saturday night we attempted to watch the movie “Bridge of Spies”, starring Tom Hanks. Various interruptions caused me to fall asleep without finishing it – will try again on Sunday.
On Sunday I took Penelope for her annual inspection (passed with flying colours) and a bath. Then went for a swim, soak and steam at the health club – managed 70 laps which is close to a mile. Then I relaxed watching the Masters golf tournament from Augusta, GA.
Friday, March 25
Arrived in New York on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel on the Upper West Side (6 Columbus). It was opposite the Time Warner Center which housed a fancy mall, health club, some nice restaurants, Whole Foods, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Columbus Circle is on the South end of Central Park. The hotel was very convenient for Carnegie Hall and Central Park.
Had a
drink in the Library Bar at the Hudson Hotel – they made good Manhattans.
We found a really excellent and tiny tapas restaurant, Filo. Tried 4 things on the menu and enjoyed them all – Burrata, Mushroom Tacos (Keith’s favorite), Lamb Ribs, and Mussels.
Saturday, March 26
We enjoyed a workout at the Equinox health club across from the hotel. Then headed to see the musical “Beautiful”, which is about Carole King’s life and music. We both loved the musical. It had great dialog, humor, music, settings, and ensemble cast.
After the musical we had a drink 
and snacks at Bar Centrale which is a speakeasy (bar/restaurant that doesn’t have a sign or indication that it’s there – just looked like a normal house) near Broadway.
Diana’s Mom, Clorinda, arrived smoothly on Saturday evening. Her driver got out and gave Diana a hug and told her how much she’d enjoyed driving her Mom.
Sunday, March 27th (Easter Sunday)
Diana and her Mom went to Hackensack, NJ to visit Clorinda’s high school friend Jojo. She hadn’t been back there in 70 years. They had breakfast at the “Chit Chat Café”, drove by Clorinda’s childhood home, and attended Easter mass at the church she attended as a child. Diana found it interesting that the Catholic mass was conducted by an Indian priest with a strong accent. Clorinda sang a hymn as people were entering for the 2nd service.
Diana did a great job of navigating her rental car out of Manhattan and over to Hackensack and back. They drove over the Washington bridge which was opened for traffic on the day Clorinda was born.
Meanwhile, Keith explored Central Park. He walked about 8 miles up the East side across and down the West side. He found the statue of Robert Burns, the Guggenheim museum, and the huge reservoir on the North end of the park. He passed several baseball fields and children’s 
playgrounds throughout the park. The “Imagine” mosaic is a tribute to John Lennon in an area of the park called “Strawberry Fields”.
That evening we had sushi at “Sushi Damo”. We laughed because that’s what we call Diana’s youngest brother Adamo. After dinner we wandered through the Time Warner Center and peeked into Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz club at Lincoln Center. There was a great band playing with a great view of the city behind them.
Monday, March 28th
This was the day of the big Carnegie Hall performance. We sat in the fancy boxes on the first level up from the orchestra section. The band did an amazing job and the sound was fantastic. The call it the Stradivarius of concert halls and I can see why – you could hear every individual instrument perfectly and very clearly. Here’s the poster for the concert.
After the performance, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant, Trattoria Dell Arte, right across from the hall.
On Monday evening we met up with some friends who live in New York at Landmark restaurant. It was a very nice French restaurant and we were lucky enough to get one of the “Dome of Silence” tables which made it easier to talk. Excellent moules frites, lamb chops, and boudin noir. They brought green apple flavored candy floss after dinner. Here’s Diana’s Mom enjoying some and getting a chuckle out of it.
Here’s a picture of the gang. Diana, Keith, Mary, Chuck, Olga, and Clorinda. Teodor was taking the picture. It was a very memorable dinner catching up with old friends and introducing them to Clorinda.