listen up

2010-09-11T18:10:00.003-04:00

Sept. 11, 2002

Just about to go down to the gig on the Bateaux for what will be yet another year sailing by Ground Zero on the anniversary of the attacks.

I have my photos from the day of in storage.

I rode my bike all the way down there with my pre-digital, limited number of shots, film camera.

Got to Wall St.

The Statue of George Washington in front of the first Capital of the land had a coat of ash on him.
I was out of film.

Got to Maiden Ln. between Nassau and Broadway - 3 blocks due east of the disaster.
I looked up at the billowing smoke and was aghast.

Ash and random office paper strewn about 6 inches high, everywhere in a post apocalyptic hell the likes of which I'd obviously never seen.

It was 1:30pm Sep. 11, 2001.

I rode home.

2010-08-18T10:06:00.003-04:00

XX WSD XX

Just want to quickly get this down, because things happen, I DON'T write them down and time passes. I have just a few minutes left before Babcia Ela gets back with baby from their morning walk and then time is truly at a premium. More on that later. (I love that little peanut more than I have words to say).

Last night on the way home from the gig I stopped at Fairway - great grocery store @ 130th under the West Side Highway. I usually have about 10 minutes to micro shop before they close at 11.

So I did my thing, and left the store. I happened to notice a random bicyclist going north on the greenway which passes right by Fairway, and which could have been me on so many nights before, right around this exact time - 7 minutes after 11. Not so much these days b/c Monika and I do the baby handoff around 5:15 and I have to hustle down to my gig. Latest I can leave on the bike is 5:05, 5:10.

Anyway, when I came out to the van to drive home I heard an EXTREMELY loud motorcycle blast by on the highway above. Fairway sits down in this little area right next to the Hudson River and also a huge water treatment plant. They elevated the roadway to avoid all of this.

The decibel level of the motorcycle actually kind of startled me - and I'm not unaccustomed to loud noises in that parking lot. The Metro-North Harlem River Line runs right through on yet another, lower trackway and there is a train around 11 that whooshes through.

So I get going and in about 2 minutes I'm on the on ramp to get on the WSH. Should be smooth sailing at this hour, but there are brake lights - alot of them. Can't tell if the problem is in the left or right or center lane as cars jockey for position to be in the lane that moves.

I take the right lane and up about 50 yards I see a ghastly sight. There, in the center lane, is a mod-bike, kind of a three wheeled motorcycle with a yellow shell and roll casing for the driver, all banged up and broken. Clearly this was the bike I heard moments before. And no emergency crews on the scene yet either. I passed just in time to overhear a motorist who had stopped say to another, "Someone HAD to have died, it was just TOO fast."

But when I got up to the wreck itself... no driver. An empty, broken, quiet, still shell. So it begged the question: I looked around for a body, nothing. Traffic was moving southbound fine. Past the wreck, northbound, fine. This part of the roadway is right next to the plant and on about an 80 foot elevated surface.

It hit me that the dude in all likely-hood must have been ejected right over the side and down to the bikeway below. !! Grisly.
You see these guys using the WSH as their personal motorcycle speedway and you know it MUST happen, but that was timing.
That original guy I saw on the bike very likely encountered the poor dude. Could even have fallen on the path itself. The path I take home many nights. Whoa. Just awful.

I passed the scene and went home, NY story #1,XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX,XXX.

2010-07-15T01:12:00.003-04:00

12 Weeks of Life

Maya: July 14

This little girl has been an Overwhelming Joy.
She has stolen all our hearts.
She is a great little baby.

12 weeks has blown by: hanging out with Baby and Baby Mama by day, working almost every night on the boat. Sleep deprived to be sure, but exhilarated by this new little person every day. Every day brings some new development and growth.

Monika's maternity leave ends with this 12 week milestone as well. This means Daddy Day Care (with some help from In-Law family thrown in) now begins. Wow.
But I know that this whole period will come and go so quickly - I am just trying to enjoy the individual moments of it.

I will say that this morning, about 5:30 when I checked on her, she was awake and when she saw me, she gave me the biggest toothless grin you've ever seen. And the feeling of joy was very mutual.

2009-11-26T15:02:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello everybody.
Long time no post!
Hope your day is fine.
Nice day in New York.
Playing the Bateaux gig tonight.
Last night the saxophonist Don Braden was onboard. He had some nice things to say to us after the gig. Nice cat.
Clean that plate now!

2009-01-27T17:56:00.002-05:00

New Vid

Had the honor of playing on Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin's Master's recital on Sunday night at Tenri here in NY. He is my teacher's teacher and a fabulous player in his own right.

I played a piece called "Yugure no Kyoku". A very old Honkyoku piece unique to the Kinko school.

View Here.

2009-01-22T08:42:00.003-05:00

Oaf of Office

Way to go, Roberts.

2009-01-20T10:17:00.003-05:00

Hello, Jan. 20, 2009!

Next!

2009-01-18T16:21:00.005-05:00

Lifting the Icy Bird

Our cruises out of Chelsea Piers are winding down now, post holidays, for a three week period of repairs and work hiatus beginning tomorrow.

We have had about 3 cruises per week this month and previous to last night, Wednesday the 14th was our last cruise. This was about 17 hours before US Airways 1549 went down - miraculously smoothly - in the Hudson.

Not many things affect our cruising. That may have. We will never know, but we did go back out last night and I was able to shoot a couple of pics of the crane that would lift the plane out of the icy water about 3 hours later.

Both of these above are looking east at Battery Park City.

I did not take the following pic, but you can see the crane:
Facing west:

It has turned really cold here in NY since Wednesday and there is now standing ice in the Hudson. Had that ice been there Thursday we are probably talking about a very different event.

The ice hampered the salvage of the plane for a day or so, but it is finally out of the drink.

Crazy.

2008-08-29T02:25:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday, Bird

I know this isn't the first year I have mentioned this...
But, I must.
As the years continue to go by, they only re-affirm what a brilliant, singular, important cat Charlie Parker was.
88 years ago now it was - 1920 he was born in Kansas City.

(This is a great day to tune in to WKCR. 24 hours of Charlie Parker radio.)

This past year I have visited his grave sight, been thru the former Camarillo state psych ward in Cali where he was sequestered for 6 months in 1946, and tried to make more sense of why his playing has the effect on me that it does.

I have also tried to put his life in more of a historical context.

It is a strange co-incidence that he is buried just minutes down Truman Road from - yes, Harry Truman, in Independence, MO.

I visited the Truman Presidential Library in May, right after having been to Bird's final resting place.

It was deep.

These two men were from the same town (essentially), and were operating at their height at the same time. In two totally different worlds.

Life altering business they were both in...

More on this later.

2008-08-17T12:23:00.002-04:00

Oh Yeah

We've had some great August weather and I had an incredible ride down to work last night.

A big, dark, ominous looking cloud system was to the north, a bright beautiful sun to the south. I outran it.

More pics I hope to get up.

Heading out to the Yankees/Royals game at the old stadium - only a few more games left there.

2008-08-14T17:23:00.004-04:00

Yee-Haw!

Got this sweet little Jamis on Tuesday.

Yesterday, outfitted it with lighting/computer and rode her down to the gig on the Bateaux at Chelsea Piers - 10 pure miles straight down the West Side Greenway (paralleling the West Side Highway) from Dyckman St.

It was completely kick-ass. Very exhilarating and entertaining.

Manhattan is endlessly fascinating and inspiring. And will usually surprise you at least once every day.

Saw some things I had never seen before -

Riding underneath the incredible George Washington Bridge is a study in surrealism. It almost seems impossible that it spans the mighty Hudson River in a single span.

And coming home -

2008-05-30T02:42:00.011-04:00

Day Three -

Sedona to Grand Canyon

Woke up in one of the most unique and exquisite places on this earth.

I have heard about Sedona from friends as being a major destination to experience but, as usual - and this is not news - you have to GET there to really have any idea what all the fuss is about.

So I won't waste a lot of ink trying to describe it. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure I
COULD explain the feeling that is there in words.

The scenery is definitely visually pleasing - the way the town is set down in this valley with amazing red rock formations jutting up to essentially surround the town on three sides. Shapes, colors, sizes - an improvisation in stone.

There is a lot of iron ore in the rocks and as a result there is a very strong magnetic field emanating from this particular spot on earth. This is how I understand it anyway.

And so, when you hear the new-agers describing the "energy vortex" there, it is not just all in the mind. There is something to it.

All I can tell you is that the place looked real purty and is at around 4,300 ft elevation, so the air is very fresh and clean and it definitely did have a "vibe". It is a crime to have to enter and leave it in less than 24 hours, but I feel lucky to see what I did.

And we had some Sedona good fortune. On the way to breakfast this morning, a man working a stall for the Hyatt stopped us and asked if we wanted to sit through a time-share sales pitch for an hour and a half.

Uhh...

"We have nice rewards for doing so", he assured us.

So to cut to the chase, that is exactly what we did and for our time we were given two vouchers for a helicopter ride over the town. I have not been on a heli since my time in Hawaii in the 90's, so it was an easy sell.

It was an absolutely great way to spend our day there.

My bud Dave Stryker told me I had to hit a pizza/salad place there called Picazzo's. Killin'. Gourmet pizza. Go figure.

<><><>

The day expiring, it was time to leave Sedona and get up to the Canyon.

Well, if Sedona defies proper explanation, I need not try to waste mortal words on this most sublime of sights.

If you have seen the Canyon, you know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't, please try and see it at least once in your life. If you can hike down into it (I haven't), so much the better.

Words don't do it justice, pictures can't do it justice, even an IMAX movie has a hard time communicating the scale and majesty of this mind-boggling mile deep gash in the ground.

They think the Canyon itself is around 6 million years in the making. But the rock - at the bottom - that it exposes is over one BILLION years old. That is a fifth of the age of the earth! That is ridiculous. And the layers upon layers of rock are just sitting there for the viewing - for the mulling, if you are so inclined.

We rolled in just as the sun was about setting - had a little over an hour of daylight left, so the shadows were getting long but the point still got across. Weak in the knees - literally - I was the first time I saw it years ago. Equally impressive today.

Staying at a lodge right on the South Rim tonight.

Again, precious little time. Must leave tomorrow by around noon to start making some real time to the East Coast.

What a country.

2008-05-29T02:31:00.003-04:00

Day Two -

Tucson to Sedona

Not a lot of time in Tucson, but it seemed to be a cool little-ish town.

I was surprised how much it seemed to sprawl, considering it did have a small city/town feel. These desert towns have their own challenges, and in a way it is surprising that they are able to grow and flourish such as they do.

Tucson is quite far south - only an hour away from the Mexican border at Nogales - and you can tell that it has been there for a long, long time (by New World standards at least)

(Wow - I just looked into it a little bit and found out the history of this area goes back much further than I expected: almost 2,000 years - or more - as far as the indigenous people are concerned. The town itself was officially founded in 1775 with stuff going on a hundred years before that) If interested:

Tucson Brief History

I really like towns and cities that don't just say, "Gleaming Glass Boxes Brought To You Courtesy of Corporate America", but embrace and celebrate their history - that realize what is interesting about them is as much a product of what they WERE as much as what they are becoming.

I fear that as the pace of change in this society continues to accelerate, people will care less and less about the life that preceded cel phones or the internal combustion engine simply because it resembles very little of what we do day to day.

How people could not be fascinated by the process of how things came to be the way they are is beyond me. It is a very clear line - meandering many times with many side trips yes - but with key pieces of information one can trace the progression of there to here.

I don't know how we can have any sense of who we are without trying to uncover some of these rocks.

I guess this comes - if it comes at all - with more time spent on the planet.

When I was a teenager growing up in the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, I really didn't give a crap about "Old Shawnee Town" not far from where I lived that told about the history of the the Shawnee Indians and the early settlers that came to the area in the 1830's. It was just dusty history, bearing no resemblance to my life or my friend's lives. Who cares?

Now, years later, having traveled a good amount both domestically and abroad, I can't stop thinking about all the people, stories, lives that HAD to happen to pave the road to my teenage obliviousness in that Kansas town.

Hanging in Shawnee last week, I wanted to find out all I could about exactly WHERE these various historical events took place in relation to the modern layout of the town - which continues to change and evolve. I couldn't get enough.

And I will say that the town has done a pretty darn good job both with a little museum and historical markers, to NOT let it just get paved over and forgotten.

But if you ask any of the PEOPLE who live there, to say nothing of the people that don't - if they know or care about any of this they would probably stare at you blankly. This is not and indictment of the people per se'. We are too busy running to and from our jobs to earn our paychecks to send to those Gleaming Glass Boxes of Corporate America to really care what happened here 50 or 100 or 150 years ago. I am probably just stating the obvious at this point.

To quote Kurt Vonnegut: "And so it goes".

More on Sedona tomorrow.

I can say this: it is amazing here.

2008-05-28T04:10:00.006-04:00

Cross Country

Day One -

Oxnard to Tucson

We left Oxnard and drove the gorgeous PCH - Pacific Coast Highway - south along the coast and thru Malibu and then Santa Monica.

Sparkling, perfect day.

At Santa Monica we got on I-10 East and started back across this amazing country in earnest.

It took a while (of course) to get out of the eastward sprawl of L.A.

We passed the largest wind farm I have ever witnessed just outside of Palm Springs.

Through the desert and finally across the seemingly inconsequential Colorado River (the Grand Canyon has a thing or two to say about how inconsequential it is!) at Blythe and on into Arizona. Immediately started the grade up and into a slightly different looking landscape.

The desert has it's own thing altogether. It exists at the extreme of climate and conditions, and yet life - in it's particular forms of cactus, scrub brush, critters hiding out during the day, etc etc - finds it's way to expression.

Made it into Tucson in time for a great Mexican dinner with friends.

Drinks after at a funny, kitchy Tiki Bar, right out of an episode of Hawaii 5-0 (it has been here over 45 years).

Laughs, good times.

Lovin' this.

More tomorrow

2008-05-27T01:57:00.006-04:00

Relaxin' (Near) Camarillo

I flew in to LAX today and wound up going to check out the famous "Camarillo State Mental Hospital".

This was the place where Charlie Parker was committed, in 1946, for 6 months to treat his heroin addiction. The fantastic tune "Relaxin' At Camarillo" resulted.

The hospital was closed in 1997 and is now the campus of California State University, Channel Islands.

This follows my trip to Kansas City last week (congratulations Graduate Rachel!) where I got a chance to visit the grave site of my favorite musician - the self-same Charlie Parker - and pay my respects. I had the shakuhachi with me both times and blew a little Sui Zen each time. (Pic's to follow)

Following him around, trying to piece it all back together.

R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

And in totally unrelated news, I just noticed that one of my favorite directors/actors passed away today near Malibu - not far from where I am right now.

Come and go. Come and go.

2008-03-01T19:52:00.003-05:00

Ups, Downs, Ups

The positivity of the "morning after" on Thursday gave way to the realization that I was unable to keep any food down. Maybe lingering effects of anesthesia, coupled with the painkillers I was taking - whatever it was, I was getting weak.

I blacked out at one point and came to a moment later on the floor - in a heap. Tried to get up and damned if it didn't happen again! OK, stop. Slow down. Breathe.

Passing out and falling down is not the kind of thing you want to be doing with a lace-work collar bone (the screw holes take 6 weeks to fill in).

So guess what I did? I stopped the Meds! Moved to Ibuprofen, which was adequate for the pain, and that did the trick. I was able to eat and get stronger.

Called the Dr. and told her what happened - she said, "Come see me N-o-w", which I did yesterday. X-ray was fine. A big sigh of relief was breathed.

She encouraged me to go ahead and start the left arm exercises - a la two years ago - to increase mobility. She changed the dressing and everything looks good.

I'm off the Bateaux for 2-3 weeks.

2008-02-28T10:05:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-02-22T02:22:00.007-05:00

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.

2008-02-21T13:59:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-02-21T08:42:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-02-20T14:45:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-02-18T08:54:00.005-05:00

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:"

2008-02-14T16:55:00.004-05:00

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".

2008-02-14T12:11:00.004-05:00

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.

2008-02-09T02:01:00.001-05:00

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.

2008-02-08T01:31:00.000-05:00

2008-02-07T11:58:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-02-05T23:54:00.000-05:00

Crazy Day

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

2008-02-05T16:45:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-02-03T07:38:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn Sights

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

Wow.

2008-01-31T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Heights

I'm discovering a cool little slice of New York in historic Brooklyn Heights. I'm about to leave to go there again to study with Yoshio Kurahashi, the great shakuhachi player and teacher.

He is teaching at Dan Soergel's place on a street called Columbia Heights. It is the first (or last) street in Brooklyn, just above the BQE, hugging the cliffs to which the nabe owes it's name. That is lower Manhattan, framed and vertical, in the pic above, from last Sunday the 20th.

I say historic because it was right at the northern end of this street that old Geo. Washington himself evacuated a few thousand Revolutionary soldiers across the East River on a foggy summer's night in August of 1776.

The fateful "live to fight another day" retreat at the inevitable conclusion of the first major clash of arms - of course it would be in Brooklyn - and just a few weeks after the upstarts had held their treasonous spectacle in Congress in the sweltering heat of Philadelphia (July 4th rings a bell).

2008-01-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

New York Fu#%in' City

This news is somewhat dated, but still with me. Two consecutive Wednesdays I went out to the van to drive to my shakuhachi lesson in Brooklyn and found my gas gauge not just on empty, but BONE dry. I keep a pretty close eye on the fuel reading (who doesn't these days?) and know that I had something less than a half tank, but not anywhere close to a flatline. I remember the Wednesdays because they both followed holidays - the 26th of Dec. and the 2nd of Jan.
In both instances I was off the Tuesdays prior and the car sat, up on Riverside Dr., the second time on Henshaw (somehow the probability of bad things happening to your car increase exponentially the longer it sits on the street).
I pretty much knew someone had siphoned the tank after the first time, the second time compelled me to act, hence the portrait of my new fuel savior (no problems since!). Can you believe that shit? Has it gotten THERE? This was a first (and then a second).

2008-01-04T23:32:00.000-05:00

Two Years, Counting

It will be a while until the date Jan. 4th doesn't get my attention. That was a dark, dark period in 2006. It has been a gradual improving, strengthening of the left shoulder area. I don't think about it as much as I used to and I experience pain or discomfort more and more rarely - although it is still with me. How much am I just used to the "new normal", how much is it "really back"?. Planning on having the pin taken out in a few weeks. Moving on.

2008-01-02T17:02:00.000-05:00

Young 2008,
Old Manhattan

2007-12-31T18:11:00.000-05:00

Last Light 2007

Fading Year

Happy New Year

One particular memory of a New Year's Eve sunset stands out:
2003: Athens, Greece.
Me: Sitting on top of Olympic Stadium
View: Acropolis shining, lit up in forground,
Radiant sunset behind
Thousands of years, Millions of eyes, One moment

I will be in New York harbor ringing it in this year...

2007-12-29T16:57:00.000-05:00

Bach Fest

Have been digging the week-long celebration and non-stop airing of the music of J.S. Bach on WKCR here in NYC (as well as WKCR.org). From Christmas Eve to New Year's Day they devote at least a token of the time necessary to honoring this Musical Genius of geniuses. One week is a nice start.

Amazing scope.

This is the same station that airs Phil Schaap's "Birdflight" on weekday mornings - dedicated to the music and legacy of Charlie Parker. Monday he signed off for the year and mentioned the BachFest which is an annual event. Highly recommended.

<<<<<<>>>>>>

Have been working on the Yoraku website. Looking forward to getting that up and running.

2007-11-26T23:40:00.000-05:00

Me and Jack Benny

I was on the phone not too long ago with "customer service" and the lady asked me my age.

"39", was my reply.

A short pause.

"Mmm Hmm. You and Jack Benny".

So I'm ready to move on to where Jack Never went!

2007-10-28T10:49:00.000-04:00

Take Two

Just about to leave to play shakuhachi at the New York Botanic Garden for the Kiku Festival. My second and final performance of this festival which runs thru Nov 18 - anyone in the NYC metro area, if you have the chance to check it out, I would highly recommend it!. The shot above is from Friday last (19th) and I am remiss for not following up and writing about it.

It is VERY cool. The Kiku fest not only showcases the Chrysanthemum (more like a choir of chrysanthemums in a HUGE pot - but all one plant), but also many AMAZING bonsai trees (a major fave of mine, the Bonsai: old:wise:small:counter-intuitive... rather yoda-like).

It is a great space to add shakuhachi and the people were very in to it, asking lots of questions and listening intently before moving on (there are four of us set up variously around the grounds playing). So it really gave me hope that there is an audience out there for this instrument, this sound, this music - esoteric as some of it is...

2007-10-19T10:07:00.000-04:00

Shakuhachi News

Playing shakuhachi today from 12-4 at the New York Botanic Garden in the Bronx - across the street from the Bronx Zoo. I am playing for a festival called "Kiku - the art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum" (this is the kind of thing that is a turn on for a Botanist). It looks pretty cool, actually.

I started back with Jim a couple of weeks ago - onto the optional, and final, level.

But he is out of optional level Honkyoku books and is very busy now. So I offered to make up a batch - as ongoing teacher training. Not to mention the practical fact that I need to make up my own books to teach with.

First steps of opening the Yoraku Dojo!

I have substitute-taught for Jim a few times over the years, but taught my first beginner lesson for him last Wed. Nice guy - Andrey. He has had only a couple of lessons. It was a good experience for me. I remember being that guy! Shak is a challenging - but rewarding - undertaking. Patience a must! Andrey is doing great. He seems really into it.

I'm back in to a daily practice. I'm playing Rokudan everyday as an exercise (not to mention to really learn the thing!). Little bit of almost everything in Rokudan.

2007-10-09T23:29:00.000-04:00

Unrelated People

It's a stormy one tonight in NYC. It held off all day and into the evening and started letting loose about 8:00 as we sailed around the harbor.

I'm actually really digging it.

We've had no rain and indeed, warmer than normal temps for a long spell now. I'm not complaining, mind you. We had a stunning Sept here in the teeming metropolis and October has been a summery surprise (which for you lawyers out there has GOT to beat a summary surprise).

But the CHANGES are inevitable and they are here and they are manifesting themselves.

I had a thought one night months ago as I was walking home from the gig - one night that for no apparent reason had a sort of feeling to it that the night before did not have, nor I believe the night after - and that thought was,

"sometimes life - a brief moment in life - just feels like poetry"
not sentimental or saccharine - it is difficult to describe in PROSE.

what i mean to say is that there comes a time occasionally when all the pressing issues of your life - all the things you have to get to, all the stresses and pressures, all the things you have to keep TRACK OF, recede for just a glowing instant and whatever it is you are looking at at that moment becomes the visual analogue of the poetic moment.

sometimes helps to have a soundtrack on the ipod.

it is more of a feeling than an emotion.

that is what i saw in the much missed rain tonight.

^^^^^^^^^^^

As for the unrelated people, I will pick two:

Fantasia,

from American Idol who is now doing The Color Purple on Broadway.

&

Vicente Fox,

former President of Mexico 2000-2006.

Fantasia was on the Bateaux tonight hanging out with some friends. Including a rapper I'm too unhip to have heard of Young Dro. Didn't sit in. Danced a few.

And my man Vicente walked right by and nodded as I played a trio gig last Sat. with Paul Shapiro at Bergdorf Goodman Men's on 5th Ave.

I instantly recognized him b/c I had just heard Jon Stewart on fri. mention that he was going to be a guest on the Daily Show this week (he was on Monday night). And who could forget those long heart to heart photo ops he had on horseback with his good cowboy neighbor to the north George W.

I thought he looked a little casual in his khaki shorts and no security detail until later when it occured to me - Oh yeah, he's not prez anymore.

Just another dude walking around NYC. Well, except that he was walking around a store that offers $1700 sweaters, $5,000 suits and at least one $25,000 attache made of some kind of soon-to-be-extinct animal hide. Nothin' but the best, eh?

2007-09-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

NYC Hang

Heard some good music the last couple of nights after my gig. Buddy Scott Feiner got in from Rio to play some shows and we've been hanging out.

Tues went up to Smoke and heard Mike LeDonne's organ quartet with Pete Bernstein on gutiar, Eric Alexander playing tenor sax. Last saw Eric in Athens in Jan when his group was playing the week before Quinn's gig at the Half Note. All sounded good. Only heard a couple of tunes and then it got opened up for a jam session.

And last night heard the second set of Kurt Rosenwinkle's group at the Village Vanguard. Killer band - Mark Tuner on tenor, Aaron Parks on piano, Ben Street on Bass.
Aaron and Kurt both sounded amazing.

Scott had hung with Kurt in Rio earlier this year, so we stayed after hours and hung a bit. That basement is a trippy place to be anytime, let alone when it is emptied of people and can be seen in the glare of "we're closed" light. Lot of moments on that stage...

2007-09-11T23:46:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

It has finally cycled back to Tuesday, September 11.
A day of remembering and memorials.

Contrasting weather from 6 years ago when it was a sparkling, clear, "perfect" day.

Today's weather here in NYC was actually closer to the mood, as it was overcast with periods of rain - heavy at times - coming and going.

I was actually down there, not far from the site, today. I had to take my bass in to Gage's shop to have a crack in the top glued. His shop is at Walker and Church - about 15 blocks north of the site.

Took out a loaner bass to play the gig tonight.

Took some shots of the memorial in light from the Bateaux as we passed the site. And then left my camera on the boat. Will upload tomorrow.

And say more too...

2007-08-29T23:45:00.000-04:00

Bird's Birthday

Happy birthday Charlie Parker.

Listened to quite a bit of the WKCR all-day broadcast of Bird recordings.

All you have to do to get more into Bird is listen to him. He is utterly unbelievable - consistently so. Head and shoulders above almost everyone he played with.

I've been thinking a lot about the cat.

I think I appreciate what he left behind more and more as time passes and I hear more and more music. His individuality shines through more and more.

*** ***

Today is also the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which means it is the two year anniversary of Bob being buried in Michigan.

2007-07-25T16:51:00.000-04:00

R.I.P. Grey Beast
Requiem For a Friend

Well, it was an unlikely run, but it ended abruptly when I left to go to my gig Monday night only to find Old Trusty missing.

Just gone.

That thing was no Bentley. Who would want to steal that?

I had ruled out people even being interested in breaking in to it - chalk it up to the gentrification of the hood, socio-economics morphing for car thieves or what have you, but it actually seemed like we had turned a corner.

It was a surprise to find her not-there.

(And yet, in NY, you are never TOO surprised by anything)

A buddy of mine needed his car moved for a few days this week, so I lucked in to the "car sitting gig". So at least I am still moving around at will. ;-)

2007-06-21T18:13:00.000-04:00

Keith Jarrett Trio @ Carnegie Hall

A buddy of mine has an extra tik tonight to see the great pianist in the great hall during what looks to be a great thunderstorm that is now reaching the western edge of NYC - during these first few hours of the spanking new summer.

2007-06-02T18:26:00.000-04:00

Yankees 9, Red Sox 5

Went up to Boston yesterday and caught the Yankees, Red Sox game at Fenway. My first time to Fenway, my first time seeing these two teams go at it live, and the first time I have sat behind the freakin' PLATE!

My friend Deb from KC got these tix. She is up in Salem, MA for a three month stint.

Just drove back from Boston and gotta get down to the gig. More...

2007-05-27T09:31:00.000-04:00

Excavation

This shakuhachi journey is a long one.

You can approach the shakuhachi from any of a number of different ways - all seemingly futile at first ;-D.

Right now I am playing my longer flute - the 2.4 - and trying to find all its "spots". I am trying to dig down deeper into the flute and understand how I must conform to the bamboo to produce the sound I want to hear.

This is complicated because that sound itself is somewhere off into the future. You can't produce it yet, so all you have to go on are recordings, other players you may hear and your teacher.

All you can do in the beginning is practice and be patient. More of the former, less of the latter will help speed you along, but there are - as they say - no shortcuts.

I haven't played my 2.4 much since getting it a couple of years ago. This is why I am thinking in these terms now. I've played the 1.8 (the "regular" sized flute) a lot and that definitely helps to a degree, but the 2.4 is still a different animal.

The 1.8 is used in almost all the ensemble music and the longer flutes are used for the zen honkyoku. Their lower, mellower tone is perfectly suited for that music.

So this is where we get into the power of practice.

It seems an impossible task at first. The sound you are making versus the sound of great players with their fully developed tone and technique. And even if you can achieve a modicum of the vibe you're attempting, it will quickly leave you - in mere days - if you don't stay on top of it.

It is definitely a lifetime commitment, but one that is beyond gratifying if you can stay with it.

2007-05-20T17:10:00.000-04:00

Volos, Greece Dec, 2006.

Katha

Added the solo 6 string bass piece I did a while back called "Katha" to the MySpace page, as well as a couple of tweaks.

Had a rough week this week with a throat virus that swelled up, but I am better now, post anti-biotics.

Missed one night on the boat - Thursday. Wednesday was absolute hell. Nice to be able to swallow food and water again!

Enjoy the tune.

2007-05-11T15:11:00.000-04:00

Tenri Gig

Had a nice gig on Sunday playing Rokudan with Mutsumi Takamizu as well as Ichikotsu, which was danced to by the dancer Sachiyo Ito. The gig was one of Sachiyo's ongoing "salon series" featuring not only performances of pieces, but some discussion and description as well.

Just put up the vid of Rokudan on the YouTube channel.

2007-05-04T02:31:00.000-04:00

Shakuhachi Next

So the next thing I have to look forward to playing shakuhachi on is a concert this Sunday May 6th at Tenri with the dancer Sachiyo Ito as part of her ongoing Salon Series.

I will be playing two pieces, each with Mutsumi Takamizu on koto.

We have a rehearsal later on today and I am stoked to play.

Gorgeous day here in NY today. Bright and beautiful.

2007-05-02T09:59:00.002-04:00

Crazy Mash-Up

I was talkin' to my buddy Marcus the other day and he commented that you can now hear the shakuhachi playing along with Joel on the MySpace postings if you play them at the same time.

It is nothing that isn't happening on many sites, but last night I decided to put it to the test. I loaded "Estate" and eventually pushed play on the Echigo Sanya vid.

As i was doing other stuff, the mash-up that was created was uncanny. The way the two recordings were blending was surprisingly syncing up in weird and sometimes wonderful ways. I wrote down the timing differential and have tried it again a couple of times. It is weird, but it puts a new spin on both things.

Remember, they were recorded some 11 years apart, and other than the time-sync there is no editing. The time-sync itself was completely random the first time I did it.

Here it is:

Play Estate. At exactly :40 of Estate play Echigo Sanya.

*Not for the purist*

2007-04-28T13:06:00.000-04:00

Zan Getsu

Just put up a clip of the other piece that I played on Thursday - the great Zan Getsu. This clocks in at 21:00 so the 10 minute limit on YouTube is significant. It just starts to get cookin' when it cuts off. I'm going to put up both in their entirety on my website soon.

2007-04-27T15:50:00.000-04:00

Recital

Had a good night playing last night at Tenri for my shakuhachi graduation and certification.

I played one honkyoku piece - Echigo Sanya - and a Sankyoku piece with Mitsumi and Masumi Takamizu - Zan Getsu.

(I just posted a clip of Echigo Sanya on YouTube and the MySpace page.)

I was given the name "Yoraku" by my teacher Jim "Nyoraku" Schlefer.

I'll be playing Echigo Sanya again at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for the annual Cherry Blossoms festival - Sakura Matsuri - on Saturday at about 3:30.

And I'll be playing once again at Tenri with the dancer Sachiyo Ito and Mitsumi-sama on May 6th.

Just enjoying the all the playing. Have been having some good nights on bass on the boat as well. More to come!

2007-04-07T04:26:00.000-04:00

Billie's B-Day

Just got home a bit ago from a nice hang with my bud Scott Feiner. Should crash, but WKCR's b-day broadcast of Billie Holiday has started and they are playing all this great early stuff from 1937/38. She's 22!

Here is a sampling:

"witout your love"
"me myself and I"

buck clayton tpt, lester young ten sax, freddie green guit, walter page bs, jo jones dr. among others

"Brunswick" Label

June 1937

Feeling pretty inspired anyway after hearing Kreisberg at Iridium tonight - the midnight set. Killin' band: Will Vinson on alto, Frank LoCrasto pno, Obed Calvaire dr, Orlando LeFleming on bass. Mostly Kreisberg's tunes, with the exception of "Autumn in NY" ("inverse seasons") which he played as trio. Everbody sounded great.

My first time hearing Frank. Obed I had heard a couple of weeks ago at the Zinc on a Sat with Marianni. That cat is FLExible! Great touch, and can play the brazilian stuff as well as the spang a lang.

JK's tunes were cool, esp a new thing in 5. Pat Martino was playing the gig earlier in the night and got his props from Kreis.

OK, now I AM fading. It is almost 5:00. Billie is the perfect latenight soundtrack. WKCR is going to be playing all Billie over the next 24 hours straight. So many great tunes i have never heard i am now hearing...

Billie Holiday singing in 1930's New York. On and on it goes.

2007-03-30T07:50:00.000-04:00

Yoga Back

This is some long over-due news. Yes! March 1st was the first day that I had rolled out that mat in not just since January '06, but add another 6 months before that and then keep going a couple of years if you want to find a consistent practice.

Even then my most consistent and best times were always out of town in other locales besides NYC (?). This has been an ongoing question.

But my real question this past year has been "How will it be?". Different I'm sure, but will it lose its essential quality of calming, strengthening, relaxing, or will it be a twisted reminder that I am not what I was?

ANSWER: (short)

I am one L-U-C-K-Y M-F!

Yoga is amazing.

I am a dope for doubting.

ANSWER: (longer)

The thing is I DID try and do it about 6 months ago and was quickly informed by my shoulder that I wasn't ready. Sorry pal. Call me again sometime.

And another thing is, the body has a natural, beautiful, almost sacred equilibrium and balance to it. Originally that is. If that is ever taken away, you are in for a different kind of life than all the other people walking around in their healthy, balanced bodies, who never give a wink of thought to it. And why would they?

So that equilibrium is challenged everyday by gravity, your posture, your activity or lack thereof, and say, any stray car accidents that may get in your way, among many other things. And mine was literally broken that day. And I have been kind of walking a little crooked, kind of leaning to the left ever since.

But it HAS been getting steadily better through the months. This supposed setback in February was enough to signal a true second chance has been given. (Please don't waste your blessings, sir)

So March 1st was the day to find out.

And dude, believe me, if you lay off yoga for a year or two or three and try and do it again, it is going to be a little rough in the beginning. I have, in my past, layed off, tried it again, and I felt WORSE the next day. But that is an illusion!

But I can tell you that even that first day I was more relaxed, breathing deeper (and that is huge) and feeling better than I had in months.

Was I crooked? I think yes, maybe a little. Maybe its the plate (which is coming out in Jan) holding me, maybe its just how it is. Disconcerting at first, but practice is the answer.

Fast forward.

This has been a great month. I have missed only a couple of days. The unfolding of the practice is back on track...

2007-02-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

All Clear

Shwew!

Just got back from Union Sq and the Dr visit. Took and x-ray, she felt around, I moved my arm around, everything fine.

I'm still feeling a huge sense of relief...

I definitely smacked it - probably right on the plate - and the wood on titanium sound is what I heard "pop". A good reason right there to have the hardware taken out, she said. The residual soreness a result of the impact.

And it is still sore, but essentially I would not be able to do the things I can still do if it were broken.

Hall-e-luh!

So! Back to it!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So yeah, playing BB King's tomorrow night with Quinn doing the Rita Hayworth show with a big band playing charts by Tedd Firth. Peter Retzlaff is on drums so that will be cool.

2007-02-21T07:14:00.000-05:00

Setback?

Here we go again.

(you've GOT to be kidding me)

I will know more later today, but it is entirely possible that I broke my collarbone again!

In a different place this time. And not all the way through i.e., I can lift the arm and somewhat function, albeit with stiffness/discomfort/pain. The irony being that I had just seen my Dr last week and everything was looking good.

How did this happen may I ask?

It happened Sunday at a rehearsal for Quinn's Thursday night gig at BB King's on 42nd St. I was playing upright and the neck of the bass just clipped my left shoulder at one point when the bass was at an angle.

I thought I heard something, and it definitely felt different, but what could I do? It wasn't life and death and I could still play, so I finished the rehearsal (2 more hours).

Timing was a bitch, it happening on a Sunday before a holiday. Finally got ahold of my doc yesterday and will see her today with an x-ray.

Which has meant:

Sunday: come home, eat, veg out, crash
Monday: in denial, play some flute, guitar "it's not that bad"
Tuesday: i think it IS broken - still can't see dr

the uncertanity and emotion of being down again hits - a bad day, yesterday

Wed:

clarity (later today that is)

::::::::::::::::::::::::

Another irony to this is that my last post of the anniversary of the accident stood up there solo way too long.

I've been pretty busy since getting back from Athens at the New Year. A smattering of gigs in January and continuing to work on the shakuhachi as I close in on the final lap of the program with my teacher Jim.

The bateaux was in drydock until feb 10, and we have done a half dozen gigs since it's return.

And I have been getting some things for the "home studio", preparing a dedicated, partially soundproofed room to be able to record the many things that I have to record.

I'll check in later -

2007-01-04T21:32:00.000-05:00

Jan 4, 2007

It's easy to remember when it happened.

It was 9:00pm on the dot.
It was Jan 4, 2006.
It was time for the kickoff.

It's easy to remember because it was the night of the biggest college football game of the year - and perhaps one of the most exciting - the Rose Bowl, pitting USC against Texas.

I wouldn't know how exciting it was - the final score tells me it was 41-38 Texas.
(I actually just went and found it on the web and watched highlights - yeah, that was one exciting game alright. It was on ESPN classic the other night as well. I have not wanted to revisit that night in any way shape or form and so all details had eluded me until now. Esp. ironic is that my whole family was born in Texas and it would have been fun to watch it with my pops)

Hwy 41 northbound at Braman in Ft Myers, FL. Monika and I were heading back to my Dad's from the beach after a great last day of hanging down there - we'd come down New Year's Day.

We were going to head home to NY the next afternoon. But there were other plans...

That was almost it. Pack up the tents, move along folks. There's nothing left to see here...

But seatbelts and airbags do work - given the right circumstances - and we were lucky to have those.

I saw her pull out from the stop sign, saw the whole thing in slow motion - I guess about 60 ft in front of us - heading across our path from right to left. She was pulling out from a side street to head south and I guess just did not see us (she reeked of booze apparently - 49 year old woman according to the police report). I veered slightly left in the split second I had to react, so as not to tattoo her door and most likely kill whoever was driving in the process.

That LaBaron convertible we were driving was a like little tank I must say, and it sent her car spinning and wound up a good distance away down the street to the right - not into oncoming traffic, thankfully (it is a 7 lane road).

And as for us, we we're stopped cold, a smoldering wreck, airbags deployed, wrinkled hood, cracked windshield, broken driver side window, glass everywhere, impact absorbed by our bodies, steaming radiator fluid flowing away and then that eery silence and stillness that seemed to settle in as everything turned toward our catastrophe. The traffic, the passersby - in that one area the impact of the collision had gaveled all things to a temporary but complete stop.

A moment in time.

And then disbelief registers. You just think, "no". That did not just happen.

How could this have happened in literally the blink of an eye?

Next.

2006-12-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

Athena

I will get this out of the way first:

For those interested:

Hotel Herodion

tel. 30 109236832

room 304

till Friday. Vc mail will pick up if I'm out.

Got in to Athens yesterday the 21st @ 10:00am or so local time - 9 hour flight. This post will register 7 hours earlier than I am act writing it, as I'm assuming the timeline will remain EST, absent my changing it (yes, it is 4:20 am!! - but I'm up).

First off I have to say, for whatever the reason(s), I LOVE this city. This is my third (technically fourth - once on a ship, for a day, hardly counts) time here and each time has been a different feeling. The first was just walking wonder at the ridiculous archeaological remains seemingly around every corner in the Plaka neighborhood we're in.

The second was a dedicated effort to walk around and get to know some of the streets that are around the hotel and the club (Half Note), which are about a 5 minute walk from each other.

And now this time, it really has a feeling of return - of visiting an old friend that I have missed and want to catch up with. It continues to blow my mind what you are constantly presented with here: Temple of Olympian Zeus, framed by Hadrian's Gate (Hadrian the ROMAN), the Acropolis (of course!), etc etc etc.

We opened tonight with Quinn Lemley - David Epstein on piano, Marcus McDonald on alto sax, Peter Retzlaff on drums and I'm on bass. Went well. We are sold out all 7 nights and have now added a matinee on Wed. They dig her here. We all heard a radio spot for her in the van on the way in from the airport, with clips of the gig we played here last time, now on a CD - pretty funny.

Eric Alexander's group was playing at the club last week, so we went and hung last night and heard them (David Hazeltine, Nat Reeves, Joe Farnsworth). All swingin'. I hadn't seen Eric in years and years. He did a couple of gigs with me at a restaurant 10 years ago (he was killing then too!). Funny to see those guys, who are fixtures at the club Smoke in NY, so far from home.

This is going to be a fun week. More to come...

2006-12-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

To Athens

Here's a pic from a previous trip.

Heading back!

2006-12-14T11:02:00.000-05:00

Postings

Put some more photos up on MySpace. The slideshow on the first page is pretty cool.

Had a nice night on the Bateaux Sat night. Jim Ridl played his first gig with us on piano and sounded wonderful. I've known Jim a long time and I don't get to see (or hear) him enough. It was great to play with him again.

Speaking of Jim, he's also playing on a record that I did with my buddy Marc McDonald that will soon be released. Marcus just got his MySpace/MarcMcdonald page up and has three of the tunes from the date streaming. That's my hometown KC boy Steve Cardenas on guitar on some of the tracks.

And we had Brad Shepik back last night on the boat. Brad's great. He was just out recently with Cardenas (ironically) playing with Joey Baron's two guitar group "Killer Joey".

2006-12-09T00:30:00.000-05:00

MySpace

I put up a myspace page - check it out!

Updates to come - (yeah sure)

There's also a link on the blog sidebar.

http://www.myspace.com/karlspicer

2006-12-08T17:49:00.000-05:00

Pearl Harbor

On the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor - Dec 7th, 1991 - I happened to be working as a musician on the (now defunct) American Hawaii Line "SS Constitution".

I was also filling in for the bandleader who was on an 8 week vacation.

So it was up to me to lead the band in a memorial service held out on deck.

I was a 24 year old from Kansas (though I had moved to NY by this time) trying to piece together the meaning of what I was experiencing.

The navy never lets commercial ships into Pearl Harbor, but on this day they allowed us to pass and we sailed right up to the Arizona Memorial.

You could see the interminable oil circle on the surface from the leaking behemoth underneath.

There were a number of veterans on board and there was a period of silence and a wreath laying ceremony right around that fateful 7:00am hour.

It was one of the heaviest things I've ever witnessed on or off ships, and certainly an incredible departure from the normal vibe on a cruise ship.

We played WWII era songs and the air was suffused with contemplation and the silence of grown men weeping at what was.

To be fortunate enough to be in THAT place at THAT time is something that has never left me.

2006-10-22T09:53:00.000-04:00

Work It

Doing a double today - as I did last Sunday. This week it is with Tony DePaulo at a catering joint in the Bronx, Marina del Rey, and tonight back on the Bateaux.

Last night was the first night with Nate Radley on guitar. He sounded really nice. Dave Stryker did one a few weeks back which was a gas.

Gotta hit it...

2006-10-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

New York, Airplanes

Flew back home from the great Mid-West Tuesday. It had turned a little chilly in KC on Monday, with rain on the way (cooler low-pressure front moving in to supplant the warm/high status quo) and so when I touched down in Newark to a gorgeous sunset/warm temps, I knew the changes were coming.

The next day was the day Corey Lidle/Stanger flew the small plane into the apt bldg on E 72nd. New York has seen it all.

This place is just able to absorb whatever crazy shit goes down. It is always changing and yet somehow always New York.

I had a great visit in KC. Way better than I had expected or even hoped.

I will catch up more.

I have a double today.

Playing up at the Arrowwood today with Dave Oliver and back on the boat tonight.

2006-10-07T03:04:00.000-04:00

Kansas City

Happy to be writing from KC where I'm hangin' for a couple of days to attend my 20 year High School reunion and see my bro' Kurt and niece Rachel.

Beautiful day today to touchdown in the Midwest. This is a great time of year to travel and the bright day did not disappoint. I miss this sky. This sky has long ago disappeared in NY, if it ever existed at all. Too many people competing for that limited strip of sky... If you've got the dough, you can buy a nice slice of it. Until the next guy, with more dough, comes along and builds 5 stories higher and to the west/east.

I've been back here only twice in the last ten years so it is definitely an overdue trip.

It's been a flurry of activity for me in NY over the last few weeks so its nice to have a little downtime, get outta town.

2006-09-11T10:49:00.000-04:00

September 11, 2006

Alot going on today for the 5 year anniversary of the attacks.

Strangely I'm feeling the desire to unplug and let people memorialize and every other thing people are doing in the name of rememberance today, without participating.

I do have some materials I want to share of my experience that day. Namely, I hopped on my bike with my camera and shot as I rode downtown from upper Manhattan where I live.

Tonight I am going to Cooper Union to hear Charlie Haden's group at a fundraiser/memorial hosted by Democracy Now. So I guess I am participating in something!

2006-08-05T19:08:00.000-04:00

Gig in Norwalk

Playing bass tonight at The Silvermine Tavern up in Norwalk, CT with Dave Oliver on piano, Maria Tiscia on vocals, John Cutrone on drums.

Must needs boogie now.

2006-07-29T09:45:00.000-04:00

Shakuhachi in the Park

Here's the website for today's event:

Shakuhachi Fest NY 2006

Gotta run...

2006-07-25T13:23:00.000-04:00

BB King's

Playing BB King's on 42nd St tonight with Quinn and a bigger band than usual. Tedd Firth is MD and is doing all the arrangements.

Been busy on the Bateaux of late. Nice to be playing regularly again. Brad Shepik played a couple of good nights, as did Dekel Bor.

I'll see my surgeon on Friday for the first time since March. Anxious to see an x-ray and see how the bone is coming along. It feels better, no doubt, but there are still episodes of pain and I still have to take it kind of easy. It's a ways away from being solid. I've got a pretty big-ass collar bone and it went clear through. I'm just lucky to have my hands and face.

Speaking of Quinn, it looks like we are going back to Athens to play the Half Note in December. We went in late 2001 and late 2003. I miss it! Athens is amazing.

In shakuhachi news I'll be playing with the dojo this Saturday in Central Park at the bandshell from 11:15a-12:00p. I'll play a couple of pieces with the group and will also play Kyo Choshi solo.

I got Logic Pro earlier this year and have been checking it out. It is truly incredible what you can do at home now. I also just got Absynth 3 and am digging what it has to offer.

But you know, no matter how far-of-field some of these sonic sources get, I always come back to playing tunes on the piano. That has a sound and feel which is truly timeless. Truly overtone rich.

Now to marry the two.

2006-06-20T17:12:00.000-04:00

Shakuhachi Return

Went to see Sensei Jim in Brooklyn yesterday for the first time since December. Felt great to see him again and hear his sound playing back at me.

We were at the teaching review level when my season so abruptly came to a halt in January. We picked it back up with Mama no Kawa. Everything pretty much felt ok physically - my sound feels good, but my endurance is low. Both in sustained notes and holding the left arm up. But that will all come back with time and playing.

My schedule is filling up with Bateaux gigs as well.

2006-06-13T20:13:00.000-04:00

Relaxin' With Lee

Set to go out and here my buddy Pete McCann playing with Lee Konitz at the Jazz Standard.

It's a nonet.

Hung downtown today. Got both court dates put off until November. Was down at Ground Zero. Looked into the pit. Can't believe that was almost 5 years ago.

2006-06-13T09:24:00.000-04:00

Civic

I've got to hand it to NYPD. I drove around for about two weeks in early April without wearing a seatbelt. A seatbelt was about the last thing I wanted to put over my seatbelt-related injury. I just drove extremely defensively and took my chances.

I was starting to get pretty cavalier about "the Law", thinking cops don't pay much attention.

And then of course the very week I thought that to myself I got stopped twice.

The first time the cop was pleasant enough when I explained my injury, but still gave me a ticket and assured me I could go to court to argue it.

The second time the cop was in an unmarked car and had a militancy about him - hard core takes-no -shit kind of guy. I told him about the injury, showed him my 4 inch scar, and he immediately said (with the air of someone who knows), "I don't mess with anybody with any scars on their body or arms", and let me go.

There was no third time because I got tired of getting stopped, so now I wear the lap belt but side-down the shoulder strap. It is still risky I know. I used up a few of my nine lives in January and don't want to contemplate any sort of repeat. Be careful! I see assholes driving like idiots every day. It ain't worth it.

So my court date to argue the seatbelt ticket is in November.

It was April 17 that the guy stopped me. My 6 month ins. card had expired on the 15th and I had neglected to put the new one in my wallet, but had the old one. So he actually gave me two tix, assuring me I could argue the ins card as well.

So I am now leaving to go down to 19 Rector St in lower Manhattan to deal with it.

Probably not my idea of an ideal afternoon, but all the times I've done jury duty down there, or dealt with other things official, I've always dug the vibe. Something about the history and the quirky little Old-World streets which are now New-World canyons. New Amsterdam 1626. New York 2006.

2006-06-08T03:05:00.000-04:00

Gallery Online

I just put up some pics I took tonight. Check it out here.

Pete McCann played guitar tonight.

2006-06-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

Update

Well I have finished my fourth week back doing gigs. By week I did 3,4,5 and 4 respectively. The Bateaux is cranking every single night on into August and probably beyond, so anything less than 7 per week is a result of subbing it out. Last year, if there were 7 cruises in a week, I would pretty much do all of them. I remember doing strings of 13 in a row. 217 in all. I think I like the idea of not doing so many.

Right now I'm doing 4-5 per week.

So how is it going?

Short answer: Getting there.

Longer answer: I can play, I'm regaining my strength and endurance on bass. There are fewer episodes at the end of a certain tune, or the end of the night, when I am groaning (had a couple of each of those over the last two weeks).

As far as the bone actually getting together, and hardening, I'm not sure. I haven't been x-rayed since March.

I am definitely way past March. I remember the first day I saw Cheryl Ann - April 3rd. Man, I had no mobility, plenty 'o pain and an uneasy uncertainty how everything was going to shake out. The future seemed like a pretty dark road in those days.

I'll see her again tomorrow after my first week NOT seeing her last week (Mem. Day and then I mixed up days and missed one - doh!).
And I'm doing 5 nights on the Bat. this week.

Also got a call from David Oliver last week to play Sono in Norwalk, CT with the drummer John Cutrone. I did this gig once in August 2004. Really cool - right out on the water.

I think there's still a picture of that day at the bottom of this page. Also some interesting shots of some great musicians.

I noticed he's had the great trumpeter Scott Wendholt up there to play the gig.

2006-06-02T18:34:00.000-04:00

Highlands

Went up yesterday to the northern end of the Hudson Highlands Ridge, 60 miles north of the City, parked on 9W and hiked up to the peak of Buttermilk (pictured). Went solo, shooting a fair amount of vid and stills.

The day was a little overcast (also pictured), but into the evening it had a very cool diffuse light thing going on.

2006-05-31T16:59:00.000-04:00

Jones Beach

Went out here Memorial Day - nice Day to see the Atlantic. Hung out a little bit in Long Island afterward.

That night I brought the MiniDV to work and shot what turned out to be a pretty nice sunset. Shot it from the end of Pier 61 - the Bateaux Pier - and learned some things in the process.

I was just looking at it today, having imported it to the Mac and there are things I noticed on the 20" screen that I did not notice while shooting.

I'm basically getting material to create an original project combining music with images/video to hopefully creat a third thing. Ultimately it may be something that I'm able to perform live as well as canned stuff. Ah but this leads into another post. I'm playing the Bateaux tonight - gotta go.

2006-05-29T09:09:00.000-04:00

Yankees 6, Royals 5

Kind of a strange game:

Yanks score all 6 in the first two innings. Royal bullpen sends down something like the next 16 in a row.

Royals chip away, adding one run per inning from the 4th until it is a good game late. Yanks had to bring in Mariano to close it.

Fun to be out there.

2006-05-28T11:27:00.000-04:00

Royals vs Yankees

Set to take off for the stadium for my annual pilgrimage to see my home-town Royals take on my live-town Yankees. I will always root for MY home team (KC), no matter where I live.

I just hope the Royals don't embarass George Steinbrenner's crew too much. Don't let the league-worst 11 wins in 47 tries fool you - they are set to POUNCE!

This is the third game of the series and during yesterday's game one of the announcers was, I would say, lamenting the passing of what used to be a very heated and fun rivalry back in the 70's/80's (back when I was IN KC and when they weren't statistically eliminated every year by early June - when they were guud).

But of course, that has been supplanted by the Red Sox/Yanks hatefest.

Some baseball seasons come and go and I hardly notice. But I've been into it the lastcouple of years. I've decided to be into it.

The secret of enjoyment I've learned is to not be in too much of a hurry. The game will not proceed with any amount of haste. If you are not prepared for that, the game seems interminable.

And someone once pointed out to me that it is one of the only games where the defense has the ball.

The one on one pitching duel, bad teams beating good teams with pitching - or fluke hitting - or costly errors, these are all well known to someone describing themselves as a fan.

There is something very zen about it too. Long stretches of what seems like not-too-much going on, followed by focused, crisp activity, only to give way again to watching the grass grow.

And it just humms along - the game. All summer long there is the certainty that that ritual is going on somewhere. No rush. No hurry. Let it happen. Watch it happen. Eat a hot dog. Drink a beer. Prod your legs which are falling asleep under the lotus position.

I mean you can't get too high falutin'. It is afterall a bunch of sweaty jocks trying to one-up each other. But I suppose the layers are there to see or not, depending on your predisposition.

2006-05-27T02:38:00.000-04:00

I shot this 5/23 from the Bateaux.

Conspicuously absent (still to me): two World Trade Towers.

2006-05-27T01:58:00.000-04:00

Working

Played the Bateaux again tonight. I played Mon-Wed this week, tonight (Fri) and tomorrow. 5 total. I did 4 last week and 2 plus Maryland the week before that, so it is a gradual thing.

This pic was taken my first night back - May 8th.

Cheryl Bailey played guitar Tuesday, Pete McCann played Wednesday. Both sounding great.

The first few nights were definitely just something I was trying to get through. Pain, stiffness in the L arm/shoulder, weakness in the hands and soft, fleshy fingers were my materials to work with - a bass player's dream!

But by this week it was starting to feel more natural again. Just build it up, gig by gig. Strength is returning and it really does feel great to be out playing again. Not a moment too soon.

------ ------ ------

It's raining in NYC tonight.

And the city is quiet. Many left town for the holiday.

2006-05-13T05:16:00.000-04:00

Washington D.C.

Just rolled back into NY. It's 5:15am and the birds are singing!

I had a change of plans after I blogged from Salisbury this morning. Looking at a map, I felt something tug at me when I looked at Washington DC. So tantalizingly close. So many cool things to see.

So I jumped on Rt. 50 West in Salisbury and just took it, all the way up to the Bay Bridge, across to Annapolis and on to downtown D.C.

I lucked in to a meter right at 17th NW and E St - the entrance to the south side of the White House.

I had a great time and shot alot of video and a few stills - I spent my time at the W.H. (both north and south sides), the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. Super cool.

I didn't have time for the Capitol or the Lincoln.

So after pulling into town around 4:00 and thinking I'd leave to come home once the sun went down, I found myself walking around trying to fit more in.

I went to the north side of the W.H. and checked out Andrew Jackson's park and shot some nice night stills of the scene (I have to get these up online - I want to share them).

And then I finally got back to the van and decided to drive over to the Capitol and try and find the Supreme Court bldg - the map told me it is just to the west of the dome. I found it but it would be a better experience on foot.

And then it took me way too long to get out of DC.

But the drive up 95 is pretty quick - around 3.5 hours.

2006-05-12T10:18:00.000-04:00

Salisbury '06

Just about to shove off from room 528 of the Hampton Inn in Salisbury, MD.

The gig last night went well - one LONG set and then we were pretty much finished, save the waiting around listening to dutiful hospital employees names being read.

I can report that the L shoulder/arm area is still stiff and the bone/plate do have a daily menu of different kinds of pain, but I am getting stronger by the week and even feel a daily improvement. And while I am still moving slow, it is not AS slow. I'm using the left arm now and can even carry light things with it. Mobility has improved vastly, thanks to my PTist Cheryl Ann.

Last night's gig on bass was my third overall, second this week, and I will play the Bateaux on Sat. I'll do 4 next week. There are cruises literally everynight so I'll ease into it.

I would say that I am somewhere around 65-70% of the "new normal". It has been just over 4 months, 3 since the surgery.

I mention the room number above because I have been shooting some video on this trip and I shot some stuff from the window of the hotel last night and got some pretty cool, slowly developing scenes of moon/clouds/radio towers/lonely traffic, etc. We'll see what it looks like on a bigger screen.

It is a slamming gorgeous day out there and I'm looking forward to driving up the coast of Delaware from Ocean City, MD and then taking the beast on the ferry across to Cape May, NJ and then over to the NJ Pike and home to NY.

We did this gig last year and I did the drive up the coast, but did not have time to take the ferry - I had to be back on the boat that night. Tonight I'm off and will check it out.

Well, MY checkout is 11:00, better go. The day is going - mi voy a casa.

2006-05-11T09:40:00.000-04:00

Maryland

Just about to hit the road and go down to Salisbury, MD to do a gig with the Bateaux band. We did this last year. Nice chance to get out of town. I'll come back tomorrow.

PT:

Yesterday added 25 lbs of weight to resistance exercices (ala boat row), as well as the rubber bands from Monday.

An eventful week last week when my Mom came to town, ostensibly to see me graduate from the shakuhachi Dojo. That didn't happen, but I did play Kyorei, impromtu, at the Cherry Blossom fest at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Steve Buchbinder did get his teaching certificate.

2006-05-10T18:39:00.000-04:00

Bateaux Return

Did my first gig of the year back on the Bateaux last night. Really nice to see the familiar faces - Kyle, Joey and Tony were playing.

I got thru the gig OK. Not without some pain and stiffness, but with the help of Phys Therapy (since APR 3), I've gotten quit a bit of mobility of the left arm back.

2006-03-04T00:03:00.000-05:00

Getting There

I should have checked in by now...

It's been three-weeks-plus since the surgery. The cut is healing up fine and I am feeling gradually better as it gradually heals. The bones are now in place (lined up), and now it is just a matter of time and waiting. I'm supposed to be able to work by May. It hasn't been without a few Episodes of extremely bad feeling in general, but I suppose that is to be expected.

I picked up a guitar a week ago for the first time since Jan 4 and was humbled to the core. Wow.

My left hand, having been in a sling/next to my body for 7 weeks just did not know what to make of the feel of the strings. I couldn't even finger anything! It hurt. The wrist was stiff, yes, but the fingers were so tender and weak... Humility thy name is down time.

So that was basically very depressing, but the good news is that I've been out of the sling since the 21st and the left arm can now hang and swing and that improves blood flow to the hand, etc.

I played some piano this week and even used the left hand a little bit. I broke out the silver flute for the first time as well, but that will take some time. The proper playing position of the left hand is problematic for me - I can't lift that far up, or at all, really. If I duck my head way down I can play a little, but that will have to wait.

I picked up the nylon string again today and it felt better than last week - alot better, but I still have no endurance. I literally can't lift the left arm to change fret positions and the chording fingers are really weak.

None of this is a surprise, of course, but it has certainly got my full attention.

The one thing I can say is that I also picked up the shakuhachi tonight and was able to play for a while. Where my left hand rests is fortunately right where it needs to be to play, and most of the weight is supported by the right hand below the left.

So I warmed up a bit and then played "Kyorei". One of the three oldest Honkyoku, and a perfect piece for my condition. It doesn't "do" a whole lot as far as technique, but is very meditative and when you have to work so hard just to play one note, the few notes that are there seem to take on added significance.

This whole experience I think is going to shed new light for me on "the approach". If our notes are not in infinite supply, but are numbered (in the greater picture), then great care should be placed on selection and choice. (Seemingly) infinite notes are pretty meaningless anyway. Its not enough to stand up there and freak out. There has to be something else behind them, propping them up, giving shape and direction. Language yes, but conjuring up some specific, open feeling is the goal. You know it when you hear it. And you also know it when it is destroyed by a barrage of notes. It is a very fragile, mysterious thing.

So, nice and slow, easy does it. I'm not in a hurry. I want to get back, but I also want to learn from this time whatever it has to teach me.

2006-02-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

Home

Just got back from the hospital. Surgery appears to be a success. I'm pretty out of it right now and will keep this short.

I'll check in later...

2006-02-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

So I did indeed go to the Dr. last Monday the 30th and was given the news:

Bone not healing, we have to go in and "fix" it.

It's funny the role the mind plays in "coping". I was totally focused on the bones coming together, healing, and moving on. I was told I'd be out of comission for 6 weeks or so in the first week of January. At the 4 week point, looking at the x-rays, no apparent healing was taking place, so the decision was made.

I'm going in tomorrow at 8:15am and will be back home later in the day. Then the recuperating begins all over again, this time in earnest. She is going to meet up the bones of the left clavicle, put a plate on top and screw it into place. What this all means for my playing, only time will tell. Sometimes we squint and try to see past the curtain of the future - but it will not lift. Not out of it's own time anyway. Nope, you gotta live through it.

To tell you the truth, it took me about three weeks after the accident to shake the feeling of being on borrowed time.

I remember clearly the night I got out of the first real doctor's visit back in NY - Monday the 9th of Jan. The accident was Wed the 4th. We spent 4 or 5 hours in the ER that night, dazed but still here. Flew back to JFK on Thurs the 5th. Friday the 6th I saw my first Dr who referred me to my current one which was the aformentioned Monday.

Her office is at 60th and Madison, right across 60th from Barney's Dept store. I came out onto the street that night and just took a big breath, stopped, looked around, watched all the people cruising along in such a hurry. There was a guy, perfectly framed by the sizable plate glass window, on the third floor of Barney's trying on a suit jacket. Somehow, in some way, this perfectly monotonous moment was being recorded by me as something more.

Here, in this crazy, hyperactive city, was a moment of stillness, under glass. And I was trying to think of what was going through the guy's head. The usual stuff, surely: "does this jacket fit me, is it what I want/need, is it the right cut, what am I going to have for dinner?", etc.

But what was so ordinary and routine up there, to me down here was miraculous and meaningful for no other reason than that I was getting to witness it. Still here.

I walked, hunched over, down 60th St towards 5th Ave and the SE corner of Central Park. I noted the huge, amazing windows of the Metropolitan Club above to my right and remembered playing a gig there years ago. I walked across 5th to the imposing gold figure on the horse, determined to find out who it was - it seemed like it was something I "should have" known by now. Damned if it wasn't William Tecumseh Sherman. I wondered, idly, if the choice of putting him at the southeastern corner of the park was symbolic in any way, conjuring up the (in)famous "march to sea" from Atlanta to Savannah, in a southeasterly direction. I also see that he was born on Feb 8, 1820 - the day, 186 years removed, of my surgery.

I looked down 5th and across Central Park South to what used to be the famous Plaza Hotel - the same one where, in 1958, Miles Davis recorded the great Jazz At the Plaza, with one of his best bands. I did a couple of gigs there too - one a memorable New Year's Eve. Walking my bass back across CPS to the Columbus Circle subway stop that night, I saw Ethan Hawke with a small group of people walking the opposite direction. One of those quick, interesting, and ultimately meaningless NY moments. But the famous Plaza Hotel's days were numbered. They are now turning it into condos.

All this stuff - this life, these memories. They are somehow more precious on the other side of this thing.

2006-01-30T00:44:00.000-05:00

Long Road

This Wednesday night Feb 1st will be 4 weeks since the car accident in Florida. The first week anniversary - Jan 11th hit us pretty hard. We looked at each other at around 9 pm that night and acknowledged the passage - or completion - of one week.

It has been a flurry of emotions this month. Emotions and a strange mix of surrender, bewilderment, acceptance, gratitude, humility, disbelief, resignation - did I mention gratitude?

Seeing the car the day after solidified my impression that there was a certain element of luck or good fortune that it wasn't any worse. We plowed into some lady that missed a stop sign, pulled right in front of us.

The following Tuesday was a bad day when we found out from the Police report that the lady we hit had been drinking. It somehow made it worse.

I've got a fractured left clavicle - collar bone in normal speak. They told me 4 weeks ago that it would take 6 weeks to heal. I have a Dr.'s appt tomorrow. I'll know more.

2006-01-07T20:16:00.000-05:00

Crash (Ouch)

Writing this from NY where I'm feeling fortunate to be alive.

After 4 great days visiting my Dad and bro' Clyde in Ft Myers FL, Monika and I were in a serious car accident on Wednesday the 4th. I was driving N on Highway 41 to go back up to N Ft Myers to watch the Rose Bowl. At about 9:00pm a car swung out from the side street Braman - a stop sign - across the 3 Northbound lanes to try and get in the Southbound flow. She didn't make it.

It was just-as-you-would-imagine-it-to-be.

More...

2005-11-29T16:13:00.000-05:00

The Brad Plus

Sunday night the 27th at the Vanguard hearing Mehldau was really great. So glad we went.

I had ordered tix online from the Vanguard website (getting TICKETS to this 70 year old "institution" in Greenwhich Village which has seen it all, ONLINE was something of an anachronism).

Worked perfectly. I told M to get there by 10:30 for the 11:00 set. I finished my gig at Chelsea Piers at 10:30 and scooted over (NYC tip: parking on Perry St between 7th Ave S and Bleecker is golden for the Sunday night Vanguard set, due to the Mon. am street cleaning).

She called me at 10:40 and said she was going in. I got there at 10:45 and there was already a long line (two, actually: with and without reservations). I slipped in underneath.

Down those famous stairs. I hadn't been to the Vanguard in a while.

El Unico!

Kind of funny - I got to the door, told the door guy my name, spotted M at a table on the little raised area by the side wall, and started making my way over. As I walked I looked up to see the Matriarch Herself Lorraine Gordon - Mrs Max Gordon - chatting with someone that looked familiar. I kind of slowed down, smiled, and said hello for no reason other than to be civil, and was quickly reminded where I was and who I wasn't:

The familiar looking guy, I later figured out was Ethan Iverson, pianist of the Bad Plus. This was confirmed when I went to their site looking for a picture to make sure it was him and he blogged about the night as well (intersecting blogs - kind of a strange concept).

(I will warn you that if you want a much better musical review of Brad's trio's set than mine, cut your losses now and get over there. I noticed and analyzed a fraction of what he did, but I was digging it just being there, not trying to "hang" with what was going on, but just experiencing it in some raw way. Not to be confused with Rahway, NJ)

So as I said hello, Mrs Gordon looked up, gave it a split second, didn't recognize me, and said, "Ok, guh-by" and helped me along my way with a push to the right wrist!

I thought it was hilarious.

All I can say is, how much riff-raff has that woman endured through the years? Such a place of permanence (70 years of a jazz club in NY is unprecedented), and such a place of transience (get the 100+ people in, twice a night, every night, get 'em out, rinse, repeat). And how many starry-eyed jazz wannabe's have gone in there, and trying to soak something - anything - up in that place, have recognized her and tried to butt-in?

But a night in that place is a night experiencing something truly unique. The dust at the tops of the red velvet curtains, all the pictures of past greats who played there on the walls, the rattle of your seat about every 20 minutes as the subway goes by (you ARE underground at 7th Ave, afterall), the tourists (I heard only French, Italian and Japanese on the sidewalk upstairs), the young musicians (they are the ones playing their napkins and jesticulating 40% more than most)...

But the trio was killin'. Larry Grenadier is one of my favorite bassists and he impressed me again. 100% in tune, feeling good, great sound, great lines, right on top of whatever Mehldau threw at him... what a pro.

Jorge Rossy has been replaced by Jeff Ballard on drums. Jeff sounded great.

One funny little thing from him was the very last note of the night - nay of the WEEK (Tues-Sun, 2 sets) - when Brad and Ballard both kind of played what they considered to be the last note - the "button". Brad played one more and Ballard played one more after that - and then one MORE. Mehldau scoffed, shook his head and in an ironical stage whisper said, "drummer".

We sat so close I could hear it, but he repeated it - just to get it in - on the mic prior to introducing the band.

I've got to say though, that those guys are subdividing the 8th note in amazing ways, creating a feel, a groove that is coming from many different places at once and yet is firmly established in where it is going.

Brad is really showing the way toward something that can both be called "jazz" and "new".

2005-11-27T12:59:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday...

...to me.

Ah yes, the years roll by. Good ones.

This last year was a great one. A year ago, Monika and I were in Warsaw visiting her Grannie. We were in Costa Rica for a week in June and I also had a few side trips for gigs around the easteren seaboard.

I don't know why, when I look to sum up the year, travel is the first place I look. Habit maybe.

Its also something palpable. It feels like alot of the work that I'm doing now, on my own (as distinct from the gig I play most nights), has some vague, future payoff attached to it (learning/playing tunes, developing sound/repertoire on the shakuhachi, etc).

But that is probably just all in my head.

Anyway, random thread...

So we are off to have a lunch and then I will play the Bateaux again tonight. But then there IS a payoff:

We are going to meet down at the Village Vanguard to hear the last set of the week of Brad Mehldau. Psyched about that. Have yet to see him live.

2005-11-24T05:53:00.000-05:00

Yoga 101

It's an early Thanksgiving morning, but I'm up. Slept about 5 hours.
It is now, from what I have gathered through some reading, the optimal time to do yoga - around 5:30-6:30am.

I did it on Sunday morning the 13th after a tense (for various reasons) Sat night in which I felt like I could not really BREATHE. Nothing asthmatic or even physiological per se. I could breathe in, I just didn't feel like I could get it ALL in. Nothing was wrong with me, but nothing was right either.

I don't really get that "walls are closing in on me" feeling - very often. But when it breaks down like that I have to just break IT down and take stock.

And the place to begin?

The breath.

And the best way, that I have found, to look at that?

Yoga.

I know atheletes will tell you that they are in that zone when they are pumped and moving. Having had a few pretty exhalted runs of my own in years past, I can see their point.

But the advantage Yoga has for me is that it addresses not only strength, flexibility, energy, metabolism, and cardio (and some of these on subtle, mysteriously effective levels), but also that still point - the center of the spokes' wheel, around which the chaotic, ceaseless flow of things, people and ideas radiates. And right next to which you can always find yourSELF quietly breathing.

This is important because our breathing follows - as if tethered to a chain - our emotional state. It mirrors it. If you have ever been panicked for whatever reason, you know of what I speak. But it can also work in reverse order and the focus on the regularity of breath can create its own state, it can literally calm yourself down.

Now, everybody KNOWS this, if only instinctively. The trick is the application of the knowledge. It is the gleaning of wisdom out of the information. This is why it is easy to misunderstand yoga - because we THINK we know what it is. Better to say you don't know - as I want to say here.

This what I'm typing? They are just impressions.

So anyway, the 101 part of the heading was for me, not for what I can offer.

Because I learned again how powerful and centering and generally good the asanas are. And the breathing with them. The perfect symmetry of 6 seconds in and 6 seconds out...

And so I did it again on Thursday last and now it has been a week and I am missing the daily, or near-daily practice.

Why I am not IN that daily, or near-daily? The inscrutible mystery of my life...

But everyday is an oppertunity not to be lost and afterall, it is the perfect time.

2005-10-05T09:53:00.000-04:00

Sympathetic Vibration

Well, I just had a pretty strange little moment.

The boiler maintenence crew is here with their truck outside, so the hot water is off until later today.

So with the time I now have, I picked up the shakuhachi to warm-up/play something. I put the metronome on 60 bpm (that's one beat per second last I checked - more on that later) as I usually do, and played the first two notes of the warm-up: low Ro, to Tsu. (The pitches are: D above middle C, up a minor third to the F)

But when I stopped the breath on the F, the Tsu, it kept ringing. It was very subtle, but there. At first I thought something in the apartment somehow tuned to an "F" was ringing sympathetically. This will occasionally happen with one of the guitars laying around - I will play a loud note on the shak (it helps if its loud) and one of the open strings on the guitar will ring (guitars are generally tuned, low to high, E-A-D-G-B-E; the 5 holes of the standard 1.8 length shakuhachi play D-F-G-A-C respectively. So the D-A- and G occur on both and when played on a shak will cause the corresponding strings of the guitar to vibrate, to ring - I'm still trying to figure out how to do it the other way around;-).

And it is actually not even limited to the pitch of the note itself, but will incorporate the overtone series as well. So a note one fifth away is also likely to get things a hummin'.

The phenomenon is fascinating. It is almost magical. If we didn't understand what we are told to be the physics behind it so well, we would be much more impressed, I'm sure. To cause something across the room to come alive and sing back to you the pitch that you are putting out into the ether has many levels of metaphor. Metaphors of class, culture, gastronomy, spectra, etc. Things and waves and people tend to gravitate to what they find most familiar. That is the comfort zone. Other types of people seek things out that are the LEAST familiar, to try and understand the other and themselves better. We're all some mixture of both, I suppose.

And so anyway, it was with me just now that I was curious as to the source of my duet partner.

Alot of times it will be the piano ringing as a result of something laying on the keys at the low end, releasing the dampers from contact and allowing those strings to vibrate. But the sound was coming from the opposite direction.

Also immediately off the list were the guitars, because the pitch was an F - the vibration would not be what the guitar strings found interesting or familiar enough to answer back to. The F was "some other", "different" sort of vibration, one not easily recognizable. Probably a sound that should be feared, or perhaps eliminated (maybe I'm reading too much into the guitar's mal-intent - it is, afterall, set up to be a polyphonic instrument).

Not to mention the fact that all the guitars are presently in their cases.

On the other hand, I got to see the pull, first hand, of what it means to make a sound you think noone can really hears, or cares to hear, be echoed back to you as an identification - as an invitation to continue the dance. "I am You, You are Me, continue, continue". It was irresistable. Suddenly that F above middle C was the only note on the flute that mattered, because somewhere, something else was singing it too.

This felt like some kind of "Free Willy" moment.

The other, random movie reference would be to one of the Indiana Jones movies (the one with Sean Connery as the Dad) where Indy is in some old library in Venice, which is actually also the place on his map where he needs to excavate to move on with his day. So he grabs a brass rope divider holder and smashes the floor marked with an "X" at the precise moment that a library clerk slams the due date stamp down onto the page of the book he's processing.

The force of the smash echoes through the marbled, high ceilinged atrium and the clerk looks at the stamp quizically and after a pause, tries it again. And again, it is synced up to the smash of the floor by Indy and the clerk begins to question his true power.

What was making this sound? I walked toward the kitchen. It got louder. I played the note again. It felt still better. The drop returns to the ocean. The calf to its momma's teat. Ahhhh....

I stuck my head out the window. It was the boiler truck's mechanized machinery making that awful racket.

"Hey, shut up down there!".

;-)

2005-10-03T23:50:00.000-04:00

16 Years

Oct 3, 1989 I rolled into NYC with my basses, records (yes, VINYL!), a few clothes, and whatever else was packed into my little Honda wagon.

I had left Kansas City in January of '88 to get on a cruise ship that spent 7 days a week circling the Hawaiian Islands (thank you, God for that one!).

My purpose there, besides gaining some much needed experience (I was a wee 20), and having the days to "woodshed" (and yes, bike/swim/hike/etc) was to save some $ and move to NYC, which I had visited once, for a week, in the summer of '87.

After a year and a half in Hawaii, it was time for the big move. I had saved up $7,000, half of which I spent on the car that I would drive to NY (and which would later be stolen). I had an apartment to move into as a third roomie with two actors in a huge place north of the Geo Washington Bridge, Manhattan.

I didn't know shit.

Still don't.

But I did have one thing going for me: the ability to walk through it, whatever it was going to be.

It just felt like, if I showed up in NY, eventually good things would happen.

And good things did.

But I must touch on the here and now...

Wow - I have to share this random playlist that the iPod is doling out to me. Its a 20 GB and I have 3622 songs on it.

I don't want to go backwards, but I just HAVE to give it up to Nat King Cole singing "What Is There To Say?" just now. Sounding SOOOO great. What a genius that guy was.

And now another, and totally different form of genius: James Brown singing "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag".

Anyway, check it out:

1- Frank Sinatra on Capitol '61 (Billy May arr. - badass!) - On the Sunny Side of the Street
2- Joao Gilberto "Legendary": O Barquinho
3- Joao Gilberto "Legendary": Este Seu Olhar:
4- Glenn Gould: J.S. Bach Fugue #10 in e min, Well Tempered Clavier
5- Joao Gilberto: "Amoroso/Brasil":Bahia Com H
6- Bill Evans "Portrait in Jazz": What is This Thing Called Love
7- Sonny Rollins "The Bridge": The Bridge
8- Jonathan Kreisberg "Nine Stories Wide": Summertime
9- Paul Chambers "Mosaic Box Set": Four Strings
10- Jos Van Immerseel: Mozart, Pno Sonata in Bb Maj ii. Adagio
11- Nat King Cole "After Midnight Sessions": What is there to Say?
12- James Brown "20 All time greatest hits": Papa's Got a Brand New Bag.

OK, that's enough.

1 - This 3 disc set on Capitol with Frank arranged by Billy May, Nelson Riddle is some of the swinginest stuff he did.
2,3 - This out-of-print CD compilation of Joao's first three records combined into one 40 track set is THE standard of Bossa Nova. 5 stars.
4 - Glenn Gould was a freak of nature, showing us what was possible on piano, with seemingly absolutely no technical or tempo limitations. Unbelievable.
5 - This tune - it's funny the Pod played it randomly #5 out of 3,600, because it keeps popping into my head. I haven't learned it yet, but it is high on the list!
6 - Also funny that a tune came up in the first 10 from this record. I had just been thinking about my time in Spain from '97 - '99. A club I played in alot would always play this record REALLY loud over the p.a., and it sounds GREAT way up LOUD!
7 - Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest jazz improvisors on tenor sax of all time, Jim Hall on guitar - 'nuf said!
8 - Kreisberg has done the boat gig with us a few times, mostly last year. Very talented cat. Almost has TOO much to say! But one to watch for sure.
9 - The Mosaic re-release of 4 of P.C.'s solo records (mostly on Blue Note from the late 50's) is a high-water mark for be-bop bass playing. Not to mention great contributions from the likes of Donald Byrd and John Coltrane.

...to be continued...

2005-09-28T01:53:00.000-04:00

Bird

Just sitting here listening to the ipod.

It's playing Charlie Parker from the complete Dial sessions.

Just heard Relaxin' At Camarillo. And now a tune called "Cheers". Bird was just amazing - as soon as he puts two notes together, it immediately just feels great. He's saying something not only with the harmonic vocabulary of his lines, but with the rhythmic way in which he presents those lines. It has an attitude. A strut.

It's like, "I'm gonna say exactly what I want to say, in exactly the way I want to say it". Other guys on the date take solos too, but it's just not the same.

His playing didn't come completely out of nowhere (no pun). It wasn't totally without precedent. Listen to Coleman Hawkins punish a string of eighth notes. Or even the flow Lester Young's lines. Bird was around alot of great musicians in his early days.

Parker grew up in Kansas City in the 1930's (B. AUG 29, 1920) and at that time, the city was run by Tom Pendergast who was basically the Boss Tweed of KC. There were all kinds of saloons, gambling, prostitution, and of course along with all this vice, there had to be musicians supplying a beat.

Music was changing then. The world was changing then. Post WWI.

The music of Swing Bands and Big Bands was evolving from African and European roots to become it's own thing.

Anyway, easy to digress.

I think I just wanted to rave about Bird.

2005-08-24T11:04:00.000-04:00

Gone

About to climb into the horseless buggy and ride it to the border of Canada at Niagra. And then thru Ontario to the Ambassador Bridge crossing the Detroit River and into the city itself to be with Mom in her (our) time of grief.

Went on another run this morning. This time after repeating the beginning of the route, I turned into the forest and around the tip to the Hudson. The mighty Hudson. Got right down to it, to where you hear the lapping of the currents (tidal and maritime).

I miss spending time down there.

Good to sweat.

Heard from a few people responding to the limited email I sent out. And everyone on the Bateaux last night was really supportive.

It is times like these that people stand up and you can feel it and it is good.

Must go!

2005-08-23T11:09:00.000-04:00

Death In the Family

Was awakened this morning at 6:00 by a call from my Mom in Detroit. My stepdad Bob Howard passed away last night around 9-10pm.
I really loved Bobby and I can't stop bawling right now.

As per my usual, I was just attempting to deal with the emotion through music. The playing of...

I was just trying to play "Blame It On My Youth" on piano and could barely see through the tears.

The crazy thing is I was playing nylon string last night - at around 10 - and I started playing a little progression going down from e minor that was one of those, "This could be something" moments. I picked it up this morning and there it was - this little tune that is Bob's. It's not finished (needless to say!), but...

I have been very fortunate to have been pretty well insulated from death of immediate family (which Bob for me most assuredly was) over the last few years and, the ever present Death, has been experienced at a remove.

I didn't cry immediately. It was like, "Oh look at that piece of information". And then the sound of Mom's voice. The finality of it. The one way-ness of it. And then the memories start coming back. Memories you hadn't thought about for a long time. And that's it. That's all there is, at the end of all of it. The impressions he left on my little mind. Not overarching dogma or orthodoxy, but actual experiences that summed him up when I thought (think) about him.

And there were SO many GOOD ones! This is where the love is. And this is where the corresponding amount of grief is. This is why I couldn't play that sappy (but beautiful) tune. It just triggered how much I miss Bobby already. And now those very same impressions are what I will have to go to to remember him.

A better case for treating each other well - here, now - has rarely been made. Love each other peeps!

So once my own grief started settling in for the long haul, I just wanted to get out and go for a run. The weather has cooled off and turned gorgeous around here (NYC). Getting out was the best thing. I was not disappointed. Strange b/c I just this week was watching some of that 6 Feet Under box set I got. And Nate - one of the undertaker dudes (the reluctant one) - is always going out on runs and sweating It (whatever) out. To feel what it feels like to be alive, still on this plane.

And I watched those runs of his on my tv screen as I sat on my ass in my apt and ordered sushi delivered because I didn't even want to leave the bldg.(!)

Today I had to get out.

It is so beautiful up here on the northern tip of Manhattan. I ran to a spot in Inwood Hill Park which is below the Henry Hudson Bridge, and you've got the Hudson/NJ in the background, the great forest of Inwood Hill rising up to meet the bridge on the Manhattan side (where at the moment the Parks Dept is into about it's third year of re-introducing bald eagles to the lower Hudson Valley) in the foreground and the swirling waters of Spuyten Duyvil (Harlem River) at your feet.

I just kept looking up into the sky. The clear, blue sky. It is just an instinctive thing to do at a time like this. To look for your loved ones, in their non-corporeal forms, up above in the ether, somewhere, in some no-place. Or maybe it is just the place to look when you are forced to consider the inscrutable Mystery of our existence here, for this limited time.

So from that spot I ran along the north shore of Manhattan to a point across from the Columbia U. rowing house/football stadium. That is the spot to go to get the full-on rising sun. It was about 7:00am. The sun was so brilliant. Impossible to look even in the general easterly direction without a hand-shade, the effect doubled by the reflection on the water.

This was a sunrise Bobby did not get to see. But in some sense, he is a part of it now. A wave of energy in this Whole Show.

I ran to the loop and on into the forest itself to go to the lookout above the Hudson where you can see from the George Washington Bridge (the GWB) to the Tappan Zee bridge 15 miles north in Westchester. It was on my way up there that I got the germ of a thought: I noticed how dark the forest was down below, on the floor, on my level, but how bright the sun was 80 feet up at the tops.

Here are the lyrics so far:

It's so dark here on the bottom
But it's bright up on the top
With the whole world spinnin' round
You think it ain't ever gonna stop

Well I'm here to serve you notice
And its sittin in your hands
That the time that's come before
You don't ever understand -

Until it's gone

For Bob Howard

R.I.P. Dear Friend

2005-08-11T16:25:00.000-04:00

Solo

Getting ready to go over to the Dyckman Farmhouse to do my solo gig.

Yesterday I went to Sam Ash and got a great little mini mixer made by Yamaha. The MG8/2FX. It has onboard effects, so it totally changes what I can do with a mic (and the Boomerang sampler).

Finally had a night off last night. Monday night the Bateaux lost steering out by the Statue of Liberty and we limped home/were towed into the dockage. Tuesday we sailed on the Spirit of New York (which was cool - 4 decks!) and last night they called off the cruise.

Off to play some Joao!

2005-08-02T09:56:00.000-04:00

Create

I have a million connective thoughts. Mostly when I'm driving. Something about the mixture of motion with static (the world whizzing by vs. sitting in the cockpit).

So why, when it seems it is flowing so freely at 11:00pm as I'm driving home from the gig up the West Side of this amazing city, do I struggle when I get in front of this machine to recreate those thought-fractals?

Write it down (or these days, speak it into the cell phone).
I do remember some of the main ideas. But they are more like the major trunk or limb of the fractal. The best thoughts are those tiny, unintended loops that bring everything back again. Back to symmetry. Back to some kind of order. Not an Imposed Order. The natural order. The celestial order (if you like). Not a phony religion of self satisfying, self serving rules and regs. The order that is inherent in the overtone series for instance.

The wave frequencies of light (color), sound (harmony), the ocean (gravity), these are all realities. Fundamental, physical realities. We, if we are going to be in tune at all, must attune ourselves to this order. This order will not bend and change it's properties to suit us.

There is that middle way. Gotama Buddha called it as such. Surfers (when they're surfing) physically render it.
Not the extreme of austerity, nor the luckless lot of the lazy lout. But in the middle. You've got to take that step towards it and the rest as they say, will take care of itself. What does that mean, though, 'Take care of itself'?

I think it has to mean that you don't have to re-create the laws of gavity and light, just get to work on building the cathedral. Just make patterns framing what already exists in some no-place that has no-time. Use the achievments and advancements of the craftsmen that came before you and get to work.

I think good music sounds good to us not because "gee whiz, that guy's a magician", but because it suggests a possible way of being that was there all along, but it had never been pointed out.

Like the profile of JFK, naturally occurring in the rockface on the way to the Iao Valley in Maui. We recognize it. Someone just happened to look up one day and see it. It was there long before anyone named John F. Kennedy walked the face of the earth (and ironically, come to think of it, I think I heard about 5 years ago that it had fallen down in a rock slide).

This is a rather mundane example.

Geniuses that well-understood the laws of vibrating audible waves were able to craft windows onto the play of sound (Bach, Mozart, Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, etc etc). The don't come along so often. The thing is, many times it feels to me that the marketplace is glutted with what I would call magicians employing tricks and sleight of hand to achieve a triggered response.

This may be veering off course...?

I think my point for now is only to get busy with the work.

For me, that means the Gaikyoku and Honkyoku pieces for the shakuhachi, Bach flute sonatas, the myriad standards of the Great American Song Book (on piano, guitar, flute, singing), and the great Bossa Novas of Brazil (on nylon string/singing). And accompanying all this, of course, is the life blood that can run through (nearly) all of it - the musical language of jazz and be-bop.

There are tons of other things. Life is not long enough to get to all of them. But the world of musical exchange is opening up like never before, facilitated by the revolutionary age of internet communication that we are now living through.

listen up

XX WSD XX

12 Weeks of Life

Happy Thanksgiving

New Vid

Oaf of Office

Hello, Jan. 20, 2009!

Lifting the Icy Bird

Happy Birthday, Bird

Oh Yeah

Yee-Haw!

Day Three -

Day Two -

Cross Country Day One -

Relaxin' (Near) Camarillo

R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

Ups, Downs, Ups

Free At Last, Free At Last

Stillness

Babca Genia

Early Bird

60 BPM

60 Beats Per Minute

Charlie Parker

Rinse, Repeat

BB King's

Stryker/Slagle

Am Not

Crazy Day

Kurahashi Sensei

Brooklyn Sights

The Heights

New York Fu#%in' City

Two Years, Counting

Young 2008,Old Manhattan

Last Light 2007

Happy New Year

Bach Fest

Me and Jack Benny

Take Two

Shakuhachi News

Unrelated People

NYC Hang

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Bird's Birthday

R.I.P. Grey Beast Requiem For a Friend

Keith Jarrett Trio @ Carnegie Hall

Yankees 9, Red Sox 5

Excavation

Katha

Tenri Gig

Shakuhachi Next

Crazy Mash-Up

Zan Getsu

Recital

Billie's B-Day

Yoga Back

All Clear

Setback?

Jan 4, 2007

Athena

To Athens

Postings

MySpace

Pearl Harbor

Work It

New York, Airplanes

Kansas City

September 11, 2006

Gig in Norwalk

Shakuhachi in the Park

BB King's

Shakuhachi Return

Relaxin' With Lee

Civic

Gallery Online

Update

Highlands

Jones Beach

Yankees 6, Royals 5

Cross Country

Day One -

Young 2008,
Old Manhattan

R.I.P. Grey Beast
Requiem For a Friend