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.
The visit started on Wednesday afternoon with the girls making their regular happy hour visit to Pascal’s Manale for oysters and bubbly. This restaurant has been open for over 100 years and is the originator of barbecue shrimp. I heard the comedian Amy Shumer interviewed recently and when asked about her favorite place to eat she said that if she ever had a couple of days free she flew to New Orleans and had barbecue shrimp and bread pudding at Pascal’s.
It was a pleasant saunter through the French Quarter on Ursuline Street from Effervescence to our dinner destination, Trinity on Decatur Street. This was another new place for us that Denny and Anne had really enjoyed on a recent visit. The food, decor, open kitchen and service were all outstanding. I can’t wait to return.
From Trinity Denny led us to Gasa Gasa music club on Freret Street to listen to the Rayo Brothers band. I really enjoyed this club – great sound and space. The band was a cross between the Avett Brothers and the Band of Heathens and we all enjoyed them very much. They play at Jazzfest next weekend.
Friday was Jazzfest day and we got a nice early start to get set up at the Gentilly stage for the day. The stage has a new logo on top since this is Fats Domino year. After an opening set from The Deslondes, a local Americana band, we enjoyed a strong set from Eric Lindell. The initial 30 minutes were a bit sleepy but picked up with a cover of Cinnamon Girl and several more strong songs.
Denny had to drive the boys to a soccer tournament on Saturday early. The rest of us got to sleep in and then enjoy a great brunch at the Canal Street Bistro. The lobster crepe and particularly the sauce was delicious.
a beautiful courtyard and at the Michalopoulos (checked the spelling on that one too) gallery to see if there were any new paintings that D had to have. We finished up at a new place named Curio which had delicious small bar snacks. Now it was time to head back to Webster Street to relax before heading to the airport for our flight back home. I got this picture of the sun setting over the Mississippi which seemed like an appropriate closing picture for another amazing New Orleans visit.
After the enjoyable stop at EO I was ready for a coffee before heading to a jazz show at the Village Vanguard. Fortunately, New York has a locally owned coffee shop on every corner – something I really miss in the Dallas area – that and being able to walk to so many great spots.
After a full day of meetings with 200 of my IT friends on Wednesday, I took my boss and buddy Mike to Bobo in Greenwich Village to try some more of the menu before the trio arrived for the weekend. We did a good job of sampling the dinner menu and I chose scallops on a bed of pureed celery root as my entree – there’s something very delicious about that combination. I was able to make a Saturday brunch reservation and a plan was coming together.
would like – she didn’t have to think about it – rhubarb or bread pudding in the description and I’m sold.
music was very improvisational and we were amazed when the two would join each other in perfect unison out of what seemed to be a completely free form improvisational journey. Caine is a classically trained pianist and has released 16 relatively well known classical recordings. I would not have guessed this from the free form abandon he brought to his jazz playing.
activity – we assembled bikes for foster children. A representative from the organization “Together We Rise” gave a quick talk on the challenges of foster care before we began building. The statistics he quoted were pretty staggering – only 3% of foster children attend college and it gets more disturbing from there. The usual amazing view from our office is being encroached upon by the continuing explosion in new construction. Speaking of construction – I was impressed by the quality of the graphics as I tracked Diana’s arrival at La Guardia airport which is severely under construction just now and for the next 3 years.
Stigers at Birdland (conveniently directly across the street from our hotel). Stigers is an American jazz vocalist, saxophonist, guitarist, and songwriter. He achieved a number of hits in the early 1990s, most notably international 1991 hit, “I Wonder Why”, which reached No. 5 in the UK and No. 9 in the US. Diana and I both commented that this was probably the best show that we’ve seen this year. The first song he played was Randy Newman’s “I’ll be Home” and he had us hooked in the first few bars.
We enjoyed the show so much that we opted to stay for the late show which featured quite a different selection of music and finished up with the song that captured us at the start, “I’ll be Home”. Diana had a good chat with Curtis after the show.
From Fig and Olive we walked to the Chelsea Market where the ladies did some quick shopping while we enjoyed coffees. Then more walking through the village – down Bleeker Street, through Washington Square park and ultimately back over to Employees Only for dinner (with a brief stop in a sports bar to see how the New Orleans Pelicans were doing in the NBA playoffs). Along the way we snapped a picture of the birthday boy at Cafe Wha? where Bob Dylan played his first concert and tried to recreate the classic Bob Dylan album cover – we needed some vintage cars to finish it off correctly.
On the walk back to the hotel (subway wait was too long) we experienced a classic Denny and Anne occurrence – Denny looks into the window of an establishment and they both agree they have to go in. In this case it was a Cuban restaurant, Guantanamera NYC, with live music. The music was excellent and we had a good late night snack while the ladies danced. Nicely done Denny! I first heard this song on the excellent “Buena Vista Social Club” recording by Ry Cooder – highly recommended listening.
Next was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 performed by the 25 year old English pianist Benjamin Grosvenor who first performed in a fish and chip shop by the seaside and won the BBC Young Musician competition at age 11. I loved the precision of the string section in this piece – absolute unison from lead violin through double bass in the very quiet pizzicato sections. Grosvenor shone brightest in the cadenza at the end of the first movement which I found very creative. Here’s Glen Gould performing the same piece:
The final piece of the evening was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. Back to that crossword clue – did you figure it out? The answer is “Eroica”, the name Beethoven ultimately gave to the symphony. I take umbrage with the clue as the Playbill for the concert says that Beethoven says of Napoleon after he declared himself Emperor, “Is even he nothing but an ordinary man! Now he will also trample upon human rights and become a slave to his own ambition; now he will set himself above all other men and become a tyrant”. He went to the table, grabbed the top of the title page of the score and tore it in half. The first page was rewritten and the symphony was given the name Sinfonia eroica. The symphony was very familiar to me as I heard my Mum play it in our home many times growing up.
Thursday night was jazz night. I took the subway down to the West Village and caught the early set at Small’s jazz club. This is an aptly named tiny cellar club where the first few rows of seats are right on stage with the band. The first show was a sextet with tenor and alto saxes, piano, guitar, drums and bass and fully occupied the small stage. I appreciated the mirrors angled above the piano and drums that let you see exactly what the musicians were up to.
My main book this week was “The Names” by Don DeLillo. This was recommended by Suzy Hansen in her book that I finished last week as a good tour of expat life in Greece. I read DeLillo’s most famous novel,”White Noise”, a few years ago and was disappointed but decided to give him another try with “The Names”. Portions of the book were compelling and enjoyable but the deep discussion on the origins of alphabets and language were too involved for my taste.
neuroscientist) during my walk around New York on Tuesday night and it proved to have some unexpected links to my week. Genova is best known for writing “Still Alice” that became the basis for a popular movie about a lady suffering with Alzheimer’s. “Every Note Played” is about a concert pianist who is stricken with ALS and quickly loses control of his arms. In one early section the pianist talks about how much he enjoys the cadenza in Beethoven’s third piano concerto (the one I heard on Wednesday night) and in another section his ex-wife talks about regretting having given up her career as a jazz pianist and particularly playing at Small’s (the club I visited on Thursday night). Strange coincidences.
On Friday I took the first of the piano lessons that Diana gave me for Christmas (thanks McD). Anthony has a music studio in a room of his bungalow in downtown McKinney and calls it the Piano Dojo. The lesson was very enjoyable as Anthony asked me to play scales and sight read (scales not so good after 40 years of neglect, sight reading not too bad). He also wants me to start learning basic drumming patterns so I’ve obtained drum sticks and a practice pad and might get started today. Apparently learning to drum teaches the brain to better manage right and left hand separation and is good for the type of blues/boogie piano that I’m hoping to learn. Anthony and I shared stories about jazz clubs in New York and musicians that we enjoy. I’m looking forward to getting my scales and drumming down so that I can schedule my next lesson.
We celebrated Patty’s birthday on Friday evening and started with a lovely dinner at Sachet in the very fancy Highland Park neighborhood just north of downtown Dallas. Sachet is a Mediterranean restaurant and was voted the best new restaurant of 2017 by the readers of D magazine. We started with several “meze” or small plates – the y
Patty’s birthday was off to a great start but we had a surprise in store – John Oates at the Kessler theater (Dallas’ most redeeming quality). John Oates is one half of the best-selling duo of all time, Hall & Oates, as well as an accomplished solo artist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Oates embarked on his solo career in 1999. He has recorded six solo albums and his seventh project, “Arkansas”, was released in February. He featured 6 songs from this album to start his Kessler show.
I’ve been enjoying “Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan this week. The novel opens in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to the house of Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family.
We arrived around 3pm and Sean and Sheri weren’t due until later in the evening, so we set out to explore the center of town. The main square is dominated by La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, the current parish church of San Miguel, which is unique in Mexico and the emblem of the town. It has a Neo-gothic façade with two tall towers that can be seen from most parts of town. It is one of the most photographed churches in Mexico. The church was built in the 17th century with a traditional Mexican façade. The current Gothic façade was constructed in 1880 by Zeferino Gutierrez, who was an indigenous bricklayer and self-taught architect. It is said Gutierrez’s inspiration came from postcards and lithographs of Gothic churches in Europe, particularly the one in Cologne; however, the interpretation is his own and is more a work of imagination than a faithful reconstruction.
Sean and Sheri arrived safely on Thursday evening and we headed to another rooftop, SMA restaurant, just up the street from the house. We had a delicious dinner and several of the group sampled Casa Dragones Joven tequila (apparently a favourite of Oprah and Martha Stewart).
Friday began with a walking food tour. This took us to 6 restaurants around town and our tour guide, Pascal, provided a lot of cultural and historical information along the way. The town, so the story goes, owes its founding to a few over-heated dogs. These hounds were loved by a Franciscan friar, Juan de San Miguel, who started a mission in 1542 near an often-dry river 5km from the present town. One day the dogs wandered off from the mission; they were found reclining at the spring called El Chorro. The mission was moved to this superior site.
One of my favourite dishes from the tour, mole enchiladas, was next at La Cocina, Café del Viajero. There are many different recipes for mole sauce, typically including chocolate, chiles, sweet and sour ingredients, thickeners and spices. The sauce at our stop was absolutely delicious.
The tour finished with ice cream from a street cart and delicious churros with caramel sauce. This was a wonderful way to explore downtown, the food variety, and to learn some history – thanks Anne for organizing.
After the food tour, can you guess what we did? Yes – another rooftop at Pueblo Viejo and then dinner downstairs. In between, Diana, Denny and I relaxed at the bar at a fancy boutique hotel called Beelia.
Sunday brunch was at another Denny deep research find, Nicasio Comedor Mexicano. This was a small, simple restaurant with an open kitchen where we watched traditional Mexican breakfast fare prepared with great flair and attention to detail – tweezers used to place garnish and tiny jalapenos. The pet duck wasn’t in its bed in the restaurant but rather in the pond since it was starting to get hot.
Next on the ramble was a stop at a tapas restaurant where Denny heard interesting music. The music stopped right as we entered but was quickly replaced by Los Miguels, Miguel and his friend Miguel, who sang and played guitar beautifully. Miguel #1 tried very hard to explain the meaning of each Spanish song to us in English before he performed – and he did an admirable job. His passion for his music and for communicating really came through.
Sean and Sheri had a very early departure (5am – ouch) back to the airport and the rest of us left a few hours later. You can tell Denny had a good trip from his snooze on the drive.
The interesting painting on the Bywater wall, “Society of St Anne Meeting Spot”, refers to a New Orleans marching krewe that parades each Mardi Gras. Known for the very elaborate costumes of its members, the group gathers in the Bywater each Mardi Gras morning, with the Storyville Stompers brass band providing the music. As they pass through the Faubourg Marigny and French Quarter, additional costumed marchers join the parade at various coffee shops and bars along the route. The marchers continue to Canal Street to watch the Rex Parade and then return into the French Quarter. Of course it made us think of our own favourite Anne from New Orleans.
The music was by the Christian Sands trio who did a tribute to the music of Errol Garner. Sands is a 28 year old pianist who is viewed as one of the best of the younger generation. His technique and dynamics were both amazing. Garner is known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad “Misty”, has become a jazz standard and was featured in the Clint Eastwood movie, “Play Misty for Me”. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Since McD and I were not going to be together on Saint Valentine’s day, we celebrated early with a movie and dinner on Saturday night. The movie was “The Darkest Hour” about Churchill’s challenges in May 1940 during Dunkirk. We both thoroughly enjoyed Gary Oldman’s Churchill and learned a lot about those few weeks in history. Many of the classic Churchill quotes were in the movie, along with my favourite, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.
My book this week was “Notes on a Foreign Country (An American Abroad in a Post American World)” by Suzy Hansen. This is by a New York Times journalist who moves to Istanbul and quickly comes to realize that her views and opinions on American policy are quite different when observed through the local Turkish lens. I’m enjoying the book quite a bit but think it’ll take several weeks to finish with some lighter material for breaks.
We ran into Marc Broussard on the way in to see the opening band and Diana took a picture with him. The opening act was the Devon Gilfillian band – Diana said his name sounded Welsh but he grew up outside Philadelphia in a musical family and now lives in Nashville. His sound is a combination of gospel-blues and southern soul with a lot of musical variety from song to song. Part way into the show the band surprised us with an a cappella version of “Lean on Me” with the audience singing along nicely.
On Saturday we had brunch at Smoke since their outpost in Plano closed recently. We love the pulled pork eggs Benedict and cheese grits. Then we took advantage of being in the Oak Cliff area to visit the excellent Wild Detectives book store for coffee, crossword, and a couple of new books. This funny sign was on display in the store.
dedication. She is really addicted to jigsaws – once she starts she has to finish. This one is of the Place du Tertre in Montmartre in Paris where we spent some pleasant time watching the artists at work. I need to try and make her wait a few weeks before starting on the next one.
I finished up the new John Le Carre book, “A Legacy of Spies”. This was much lighter than the typically dense Le Carre spy fare but I was frustrated with the open ended and inconclusive ending. Right up until the last page I was convinced that things were going to come to a good end – but no – left hanging. George Smiley did not come to the rescue although I think that’s what the reader is supposed to assume.
I arrived in London on Monday morning for a few days of work. The Tower of London was right next to my hotel and so after a nice rejuvenating swim in the hotel pool I went for a wander around the neighborhood. Thai food was my choice for dinner and then off to try and sleep.
quite brisk and refreshing. It took me a few minutes to understand that I was headed to East Croydon and had to type that in to buy a ticket. The new and fully automated station didn’t have anyone to ask for help. The train journey was less than 15 minutes and the office was directly across the street from the East Croydon station – easy peasy. Meeting the EMEA team face to face for the first time was very nice – I even got to play some ping pong in the newly modernized office. The walk back to the hotel numbed 
my toes and my colleague informed me that those in the know wore thermal socks – not something I considered when packing for the trip. Some clients took me out for drinks and dinner when I got back into central London and scotch eggs on the menu was a pleasant surprise.
50th birthday. The flight landed just ahead of a snow storm and I was glad David had his Land Rover to collect me. The drive to Stewarton was uneventful. Here’s a map that shows the location of Stewarton on the West coast of Scotland.
We had a lovely, leisurely meal and the ladies finished up with some fancy sundaes. Many but not all of the abandoned cars had been retrieved by the time we made the drive back home.
The turbine housing at the top is the size of a large caravan and you really don’t appreciate the scale until up next to it. Walking in the snow and wind certainly blew out the cobwebs and I was glad to have Struan’s hiking boots.
I finished Tom Hanks’ new book, Uncommon Type: Short Stories, on the flight and highly recommend it. Each story starts with a picture of a typewriter from Hanks’ collection which features somehow in the story. The quality of the short stories and the everyday characters captured in them was surprising – what a talented man.