Free At Last, Free At Last

Happy to be greeting this day.

Yesterday went about as smoothly as could be expected. The surgery itself was pretty quick - only about an hour and a half (not that I was aware of it until regaining consciousness).

Obviously the procedure to take out the pin was much less involved than lining up the broken clavicle, screwing it together and waiting for the bone to fuse.

Perhaps as a result I had a smaller dose of the general anesthesia, or maybe a different brew from two years ago - whatever it was I was WAY less affected this time and was surprisingly lucid, surprisingly quickly.

I think my body is excited to be returned to it's "natural state". Hardware is great if you need it - and I did - but losing it is even greater: a completely different psychological state.

Why do we take things for granted until lost?

Enjoy your body, Enjoy your health, Enjoy your life.

They are all precious and they are all transitory.

ps

thanks for all your thoughts and prayers - I'm feeling good today!

Stillness

The snow started about an hour ago.

I cannot remember a night not hearing a peep from anywhere.
No traffic, no planes, no dogwalkers, no neighbors...

Just silence.

And a little gurgle of heat.

And barely perceptible falling snow.

<> <> <>

This feeling of "Crap, am I the last person on Earth?" is easy to feel in certain co-ordinates on the globe - I can tell you the thought occurred to me more than once in October '06 during my side trip to the Flint Hills in east-central Kansas, 60 or so miles southwest of Kansas City.

In NY it is a rare treat.

Pardon me while I dig the absolute quietude!

I'm not saying I wish there were no people in NY.

No, they are afterall the life blood flowing thru the veins and arteries of the grid, not to mention an endless source of fascination in all spectra - but there ARE times when... well, when you could go for a little more space between you and the next motherfu&#er, that's let's say breathing down your neck (literally) in line at the bank or ready to cut you off if you leave more than a car length between you and the guy ahead of you - just to pick a couple.

Whoa, that was totally uncalled for. I'm sorry you had to witness that.

^^ ^^ ^^

Got home a couple of hours ago.

Made it up to New Windsor todoay for Babca Genia's wake and then right back down to the City to play the gig on the Bateaux.
I did play Banshiki.
I played it at Bob's wake as well in '05.
They were both 75.
Both had that twinkle in the eye, ready with a lline that would crack you up.

People all passing through their stages...

All of us.

Babca Genia

Monika's Grandmother passed away Monday. I'm leaving now to go up to Newburgh to attend the funeral. I'm bringing the 1.8 and will play Banshiki.

Early Bird

Yeah, Phil. He was just playing some of the earliest Charlie Parker recordings in existence: some stuff recorded both in Wichita in 1940 and Kansas City in '42 etc.

-and then - some "later early" stuff:

June 6, 1945
Hallelujah
Get Happy
Slam Slam blues

Red Norvo vibes
Teddy Wilson Piano
Slam Stewart Bass

These listings are fragmentary.

60 BPM

So Fri. the 8th I had my last visit with my surgeon before our NEXT meeting - the more fateful one - next Wed. 2/27.

The one where she will take back out what she originally put in: the hardware that taught my L clavicle-in-two-parts to play nicely together again, to bridge any divide that may be separating it from itself, to finally be made whole.

Do that, come back and see me.

I went through the usual battery of pre-op tests, including an EKG.

This was done with the 10 or so points of contact adhered to the bare, upper chest, those contacts then all plugged into a machine which then reads back to you your heartbeat, in real time (the realist!).

I felt relaxed and curious as she hooked me up.

Sure enough, it started winking back at me my current palpative state - a kind of crazy mirror that reflects back at you not brushed teeth, a symmetrical collar or combed hair, but rather the heart's ultimate statement: it's indefatigable Rhythm. The Mother of all Music.

It also gave the rate numerically:

58bpm

I simultaneously thought two things,

(1) Wow, that is pretty low, I guess I AM relaxed

and

(2) God, this is COOL! To SEE your heartbeat!

And of course the next thought was,

My excitement at this sight will cause the heart rate to increase, no?

*and*

Is this still an accurate reading if I'm drooling all over the machine, loving what it does?
____ _______

Well, it came up, but only to 59, and then to 60 where it sat.

And I thought hmmm...

60 Beats Per Minute

That is one second.

(Why are they called seconds? Shouldn't they be: Firsts, Minutes, Hours)

That is where the yogic breathing is at -

Yoga Practice:
Put your metronome on at 60
Put it under a pillow if it is too loud.
During the postures, breathe 6 seconds in, 6 out.
Repeat 5 times. This is one minute.
Never lose the breath.
In the asanas, count.
At rest, count.
While meditating, count.
This will become more natural.

Your heartbeat will adjust to this steady, mellow pulse.

Charlie Parker

Listening to this morning's Birdflight on WKCR.

This being President's Day, Phil is goofing a bit and bringing in "Pres" - the nickname of the tenor saxist Lester Young - into the conversation.

Lester was one of the few - but important - antecedents of Bird on saxophone. Bird acknowledged this with his horn by quoting melodic fragments from Lester solos onto his solo on the Gershwin tune "Lady Be Good".

(Lester Young: Lady Be Good 1st version "Jones-Smith Inc." w/Count Basie Feb '37. Chu Berry subbed for an ill tenor player and is recorded as well.)

Bird quotes on a rare recording of him playing unaccompanied solo tenor sax. Never heard that before.

Eddie Jefferson added Lyrics to the actual solo notes Bird played on another version of "Lady Be Good" and called it "Disappointed".

So Phil was playing these all back to back and it gave me the idea that musical ideas are a form of currency.

They can be collected and re-used as seen fit. But you have to - at some point - mint your own ideas. Simple ongoing quoting of someone else is a form of counterfeit and transgressors should be punished accordingly.

The real point here being that Bird - never being short of ideas or places to go - decides to enshrine his heroes by playing short phrases by them into his own microphone.

It's like saying, "Thanks, guys. Now check out what else I can do:"

Rinse, Repeat

About to leave to start another stretch on the Bateaux. The BeeB was fun last night.

There have been some great Bird Flights with Phil Schaap on WKCR this week:

He just wrapped up the entire catalog of recordings made by Charlie Parker with Max Roach on drums (as a memorial for Max's passing last August) a couple of weeks ago and now is back in time - back to 1946 and '47 in Los Angeles.

I don't have time to lay it all out here, but Bird was 26 years old, a genius, a junkie and having NO idea what kind of shit he was about to get into on a West Coast trip for a weeklong gig.

Everyone else made the flight back to New York, but not Bird. He disappeared.

Honestly, I am sorry I started this because there is SO much to this story and I have no time now to get further into it.

Suffice it to say that Bird was sick - VERY sick - and wound up getting in an altercation and was sentenced to 6 months in Camarillo State Mental Hospital. There is a picture of him from that time and he looks like absolute crap. It is scary.

But after six months, he got out in Feb. of '47 and was healthy, strong, and playing his ass off (of course).

It is these recordings - done just weeks after he got out of Camarillo, and that Phil played today - that restore some kind of hope in mankind after the desolation of the "Lover Man" recording done just before he got committed, 6 months prior.

And then a few months later in '47 he would be at the Royal Roost in NY with maybe his greatest quintet recordings. and you can hear the results on the amazing "Complete Royal Roost Recordings".

BB King's

Played Quinn's show at BB King on 42nd St last night. Tedd Firth MD'd and played piano. 8 piece horn section. It was her show about Rita Hayworth.

Had my lesson with Jim earlier in the day. I have mentioned that we have moved past the 41 Honkyoku (solo zen music) and 41 Sankyoku (trio ensemble) pieces.

By "moved past" I mean we have played them, reviewed them and played them again, upside down and backwards (I wish I was kidding). Each piece takes 3-4 weeks. This process takes years.

Once completed there are yet more pieces to learn on an "Optional" level (the pieces you have learned you play for the rest of your life).

18 more Honkyoku, 12 more Sankyoku.

Having gotten half way through the Honkyoku, yesterday he started me on the Sankyoku, to break it up (what is required of the player technically is quite different).

So all this to tell you we played through the piece Yachiyo Jishi. He was going to give me half of it, but we read that down, and it is not that long, so we played it through.

Stryker/Slagle

07 Feb 08

Dave Stryker g
Steve Slagle as
Joe Lovano ts
Jay Anderson b
Victor Lewis d

Dizzy's NYC

Smokin' Players. Nice hit. Chelsea Bridge was a nice highlight. Also a J. Lovano tune that was a Calypso (title?) had my head bouncing from the rolling, forward propelling groove that Victor was laying down. He was playing a syncopated rhythm on the bell of the ride cymbal that sounded SO cool.

Great to hear my man Stryke Force. He has been playing the boat a fair amount lately and it has been great to play with him. A VERY musical cat. I think my favorite players all have a strong blues bent, even if implied around the edges, and this is a strong element in his playing.

My first time hearing Slagle. Kind of funny - I remember his name from a vinyl record my roommate from way back in the KC days - Steve Million - had of his: "Rio Highlife", recorded in...anybody, anybody? Yes! Down in Rio with all Brazilian musicians.

An amazing record for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the KILLER fretless electric bass playing of the late (great) bass player Nico Assumpcao. Some great writing and arranging on that record as well.

Am Not

I WAS there.

There I was

Where are you


Day Off.

Triples the last two days. Kurahashi classes in the morning and evening (9:30-11a, and 6:30-8:00p) and lessons with Kurahashi Tues. and Jim Wed. in between. I taught my student Rudy on Monday night. It was his 9th lesson, so he is just starting his third month. Coming along nicely.

This has been a lot of playing. Feels good.

Today, Kurahashi is off, there is no gig on the boat and I can take a breath.

I've been invited to go hear my bud Dave Stryker at Dizzy's in the Time Warner Ctr. at Columbus Circle. He's playing with alto saxist (that's SAXist) Steve Slagle. I think I read Joe Lovano will also be sitting in. Haven't been to that room yet and have heard it is pretty striking.

It will be tonight!

Crazy Day

Today turned into one of the more bizarre in recent memory.

Kurahashi Sensei

Having a great time these past couple of weeks getting a chance to play with - and hear - Yoshio Kurahashi.

He comes to the states from his home in Kyoto, Japan to teach and perform twice a year. You pay a lump fee and get to attend as many classes as you choose (and he is teaching an incredible 24 1.5 hour classes over 2 weeks), as well as one private lesson.

I'm just about to turn around and leave to go back down to Brooklyn Heights for the evening session (the Bateaux is in wet dock this week). This will be my eighth class and I'll get in a few more this weekend. Great opportunity.

The morning session today was the Sankyoku piece Iso Chidori. A nice piece.

My study with Jim has now brought me to the "Optional" Level Honkyoku and I am a little more than halfway through that. So I chose a piece from that book, an interesting piece called "Ifu Sashi". I'll have more to say on that later.

Brooklyn Sights

The view from the promenade Thursday night after the class with Kurohashi.

Wow.