Happy New Year. Up at 8. Weight 215.9.

Bree’s eye is looking better. Left for Greenpoint at 9; read Jasen & Jones (on J. Mayo Williams/Paramount records, shift from published blues to country blues), wrote in daybook at coffee bar, finished just as Steve Silverstein walked in. Went to his studio nearby, final track assembly for upcoming Shrimper radio/demo/odds & sods tape. Made decisions about tops/tails, track order/spacing. Went smoothly, done by noon. Major step in getting this out, next one is to write liner notes (long and hard to organize b/c of variety of sources).

Had a bite, stopped in The Thing on Manhattan Ave. Picked up cheap CDs by Billy Bragg (the b-sides comp), Marvin Gaye (#1s, for reference), Walt Dickerson, and a 2002 collection of unrecorded Ellington from an unproduced 1958 musical; also took a flyer on a 1998 Oxford book on philosophy of interpretation, and a instructional book on pro jazz/pop arrangement from the mid-1950s. Defines “montuno” as “An ad lib solo with just rhythm interest playing back of it…Having no harmonies in the background gives the solo complete freedom to play any harmonies or in any key he wants to, as long as he finally works back to the key the orchestra is going into at the end of the montuno.” (Helpful for my James Brown chapter.)

At Oracle by about 1:30, worked on 3 paragraphs about various recordings of “I Ain’t Got Nobody” until about 6. I guess I made my 600 word quota (for writing days, of which there have not been enough lately), but it came hard, and I petered out on Louis Prima. Read to about the halfway point of Bullies on the way home; skipped poetry today. Rec’d Jameson book (An American Utopia) I’d ordered on discount. Needed to crash, napped to a couple of OTR Dragnet episodes (used to be a regular habit, may be again). Got back up around 9:30, returned a call, refreshed to-do lists for the next couple of days, located a phone repair place in the neighborhood. Misc. tasks and distractions, lights out past midnight.