1/15/2007
Today is a day of rest. Last week was so busy, I think we're all
a bit shell shocked. Yesterday we went to St. Peter's Lutheran
Church for their Jazz Vespers service. Afterwards, we got to meet
with members of the church and staff members. They talked with us
about the history of the church and the tremendous pool of talent that
plays for services. They also routinely have memorial services
for jazz musicians who have passed away.
Tonight we are going to see Les Paul at Iridium in Times Square.
Besides being one of the great living guitarists, he's also known for
his technological inventiveness. He's credited with inventing the
solid body guitar and multi-track recording.
He's 92 years old.
He plays every Monday night at 8:00pm and 10:00pm. Since Caroline
was in the rock history class, she has already studied Les Paul and
Mary Ford so the connection is strong.
Tomorrow we head up into Harlem to see the site of the Great Day In
Harlem photograph, the Apollo Theater, and the Jazz Museum in
Harlem. Then to Birdland for the Sultans of Swing with Jon
Hendricks (of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross).
To be continued...
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1/14/2007
And I don't mean the students.
Jazz has a lot of old guard and it's expected that every once in a while one of them will pass away but when three monsters of the jazz world die within a month or so, the disturbance in the force is profound. First it was Dewey Redmond (father of Joshua) and now Alice Coltrane (wife of John) and Michael Brecker (brother of Randy) have continued their journey. I found out about the latter two yesterday at the final evening concerts here at IAJE. It could have put quite a damper on things (indeed, Charlie Haden was performing and seemed to have a great deal of trouble getting it together for the concert) but for me, in the end, it just added an edge to the evening the was honed razor-thin by Avashi Cohen at the closing performance (who, by the way, is one of the most amazing bassists I've ever seen).
I try not to get too wrapped up in mourning for the dead since I think their spirits end up making to universe a better place but for a little while I'll be selfish and allow myself a tear ot two.
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1/10/2007
So where was I? I'll try to sum up the last three days in a small amount of time and space.
Monday was pretty much a "free" day for the students. They went off on their own and I ran around like a crazy man trying to get tickets to Spring Awakening, a new musical that started Off Broadway and moved to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre about a month ago.
I started off going to the box office in the morning but the special priced day-of tickets someone told me about were only for students with ID and they did that first thing in the morning. They have on-stage seating (which is REALLY cool and I highly reccommend it if you're planning to come up any time soon) for pretty cheap, but they are sold out until late January (so call ahead and make your reservations now!)
I would have gone to the TKTS booth in Times Square but it doesn't open until 3:00pm. I had a lunch date with an old college friend at 1:00pm so I had to put the ticket quest on hold.
We had lunch at a great but inexpensive Thia place, talked about old times, and then I headed downtown to the other TKTS booth near Wall St. that opened earlier. I got there at about 2:00pm and viola! (yes, I meant "viola!") I bought our tickets. Excellent seats on the floor for 1/2 price.
Back to the Loft!
As is my custom (if two years in a row make a custom), I cooked a simple spaghetti dinner for the students and any other hungry natives. Salad and garlic bread too. Very tasty and best of all, one of the other residents offered to clean up in return for the dinner.
Off to the Theatre District!
Spring Awakening was very good and I enjoyed it tremendously but there are some oddities that prevented me from absolutely loving it. The ending is the weirdest part. It's very tragic...kind of Dead Poets Society meets Rent. I'm still digesting it. It's mostly a rock musical and the band is on stage behind the action. The music was great and I'm craving it (listening to it now thanks to another resident of the lofe who has it on her iPod). The group numbers were the best (in my humble opinion). The singing was very good for the most part with a few intonation problems that only a hyper-critical jerk like me would notice.
What's best about it is that it was easy to illustrate the connection between the blues, Tin Pan Alley, rock-n-roll, jazz, and Broadway musicals; all in one show.
See, I told you it wouldn't be too long! (I say with tongue planted firmly in cheek)
To be continued...
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1/8/2007
Day 1: Yesterday morning we loaded up the minivan and drove to NY
with minimal fuss. However, I did happen on the best Burger King in the
world, EVER! They had the Veggie Burger Combo, it cost less that
the Ashland BK, it came on a big Whopper bun (yummy!), and the salad,
for which I substituted the fries, was the best salad I have ever had
at a BK!
ahem...
To continue, we got settled at the App Loft and went out to
dinner. We were kind of doomed from the beginning (in a good
way). I was looking for the restaurant we went the first night
last year but as usual with these kinds of things, I couldn't remember exactly
where it was or exactly what kind of food they served (was it
Indian/Italian? Chinese/Italian? I know there was Italian
in the name and sunken back room which is where we ate. Oh
well...). So, we "zen walked" a little up Lexington and came upon
some Indian restaurants. After a little angst trying to find the
old restaurant, I made an executive decision and picked the first one
we passed.
It was a good (lucky) choice. The food was excellent and Katie,
Caroline, and Will had fun discovering Indian food. I made sure
the wait staff knew "mild" meant American mild and not Indian mild
which can still peel paint off the walls.
At the end, we weren't going to have desert but the manager brought us
four mango and yoghurt (their spelling) smoothies and, even as full as
we were, they were great and we slurpped 'em down. I think we
might go back there just for the smoothies!
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1/8/2007
After we ate, I was expecting the students to be too tired to go
out. The Jazz Standard is right around the corner and down the
block from the App Loft but it's closed for a few days for renovations
or we would have gone there (another deviation from last year and we
just got here).
The students we up for night out, though, so we went down to Greenwich
Village and saw Scott Reeves at the 55 Bar. He played valve
trombone (mildly unusual) and the alto flugelhorn (much more unusual)
and the valve are on the side like a French horn and not on top like
normal. He put on a great set. His playing as well as his
compositions were virtuosic. Hi band didn't stink either.
Most of them were faculty at some college or other and all of them were
steadily working musicians.
After his first set, he came over and talked with us about his
instrument and his playing. Except for the driving wind and rain,
it was a great night.
We got back around 2:00am and I couldn't sleep. so I downloaded the pics I took and started to compose the J-Term Diary entry.
Tonight we go to "Spring Awakening." I'll let everyone know how it comes out.
To be continued...
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1/8/2007
Here are several more photos including some that may be kind of
dark. The 55 Bar has tons of atmosphere but little light and flash
is no fun when you're trying to read sheet music.
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1/4/2007
It never fails. Every time I teach a class, there's something that makes it a unique experience. I used to think that it would be boring to teach the same class more than once but now that I'm doing it, there are a whole new set of circumstances that make it a fresh challenge. This J-Term Jazz History class is no exception.
Last year, J-Term started the first week of January and the next two were travel weeks. Then we came back for the last week of class, presentations, and the final exam. Nestled very conveniently within the travel period was the International Association for Jazz Education Annual Conference (IAJE) where the students had the opportunity to wander around within the greatest assemblage of jazz musicians in the world.
This year, IAJE is at the same time in the month but J-Term 2007 begins a week later. This means I had to drastically alter the way I planned the class. We'll be leaving on Sunday, January 7 which is actually the day the students are returning to campus. It's a small class so I don't think it will be to difficult to round everyone up.
We'll have to cram what would normally be the first week of classes into the first few days up there and we'll even be watching the traditional first day DVD, "A Great Day In Harlem," as we drive up. Well, I'm driving so I won't be watching but you know what I mean.
The time in New York is shaping up to be exceptional. IAJE looks like it will be the ear frying, brain exploding, world's-greatest-jazz-hang that it usually is and there are several artists and business people who have agreed to meet with the students including Jim Cullum of NPR's Riverwalk Jazz and Stephen Schwartz - composer of Pippin, Godspell, and Wicked. We'll be visiting as many of the great jazz clubs as we can (the great Minton's Playhouse has reopened!) and we'll even get to hang out most of one day with a band that has a regular Tuesday gig at Birdland.
Should be a great time. We'll keep you posted...
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