Back in New York again and getting a bit road weary.
My stay was booked through Friday at the Gild Hall hotel but I was able to escape the madness on Wednesday. My last few days of Executive Platinum status on American Airlines was put to good use in getting me on a flight an hour earlier than planned. This sign that I saw in Heathrow airport was on my mind as I sat cramped in a seat at the back of the earlier flight.
As usual, I was able to escape work for a few hours and enjoy some of the excellent jazz music that seems to be happening somewhere every night in New York. The Tuesday night show at Birdland was titled “The Story of Jazz: 100 Years” and was presented by the Vincent Herring band.
Here’s the blurb from the playbill:
“A musical journey celebrating 100 years of America’s original art form begins with the African drumming and work songs that led to the birth of the blues – the basis of all jazz. The show moves through 1920’s Ragtime, to 1930’s Swing, to 1940’s Bebop, to 1950’s Cool. In the 1960’s jazz explodes with innovation: The Hard Bop of Miles Davis and Art Blakey, the Modal Jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Soul Jazz, the Bossa Nova craze, Latin Jazz, and Free/Avant-Garde sounds of Ornette Coleman. The program concludes with 1970’s Fusion and the many Post-Bop iterations from the 1980’s to the present.”
I really enjoyed the medleys from the Dixieland era (featuring lots of Sydney Bechet style clarinet) and from the 1950s with “So What” by Miles Davis. I dragged my boss out of the office to join me and we were in the front row next to the band which allowed us to enjoy the interaction between the players. Here are a couple of videos. The first has the classic “Birdland” and the second features some very high register trumpet playing – it hurts my embouchure just listening to it.
The rest of the week has been quite relaxing and spent catching up with my long lost wife. All the little daily routines – workout, coffee and crossword, watching “This is Us” and “Madame Secretary” – that I really miss when on the road too long.
On Saturday we saw the movie “The Post” with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. I enjoyed learning about a historical incident that I didn’t know about. The backdrop of the IPO of the media organization and the legal ruling against the New York Times publishing the Pentagon papers really made the decision on whether or not to publish by Katharine Graham very compelling.
Here are a couple of musical langiappes: My favorite version of “Birdland” by the amazing Weather Report featuring the classic Jaco Pastorius bass lines and some great jazz rock from the 70s by the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.