49th birthday. Up at 7. Read a few ch. of Martin Eden – I don’t find the pace of the character’s development especially believable, but I’m starting to get the point. Liked a bunch of b-day wishes on fb and wrote a retrospective post of my own. Returned to take Mom, Dad, and Lori (the same caregiver we had at the hospital) to Mom’s doctor, to consult about the fall and other matters (not the business of this venue to discuss details). Home by 1. Rested, rec’d or returned a couple of birthday calls from extended family. Opened Bree’s presents – a number of music books, mostly on jazz, from Pasadena, inc. a biography of Jay Gorney (blacklisted composer of “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”) by his daughter, and Listen to the Mockingbird, Douglas Messerli’s little collection of 19th c. public-domain song lyrics. (Bree would have no idea I know Douglas.) Read quota of Mandel, wrote in daybook. Also glancing at a book my dad has around – Michael Howe, Genius Explained, a psychologist’s demystifying account of the early lives of Darwin, Faraday, &c. I like it’s matter of factness, but there’s no special reason to finish it.
Headed out to Pasadena at 4. Listened to Caetano Veloso, Zii e Zie (2009; “Aunts and Uncles”), in his ‘00s/’10 stripped-down alt-samba mode, w/ a young band. Stopped at Canterbury Records, bought a Golden Gate Quartet best-of and a disc of Vaughn DeLeith radio performances, 1928-9 as gifts-to-self. Dinner at Samalang Garden. Met Dan Clucas and Daniel and Kristi at Battery Books to hear a jazz quartet led by locals Steve Bowie (bass clarinet) and Dave Williams (trumpet), w/ Nord “piano” (wish he’d chosen a different sound) and a notably strong double-bass player – a lefty, it turns out, who strings his bass in reverse, something I’ve never heard of. Talked to Dan and Rich West, the owner, a bit about our gig on the 18th, traded CDs. Bought $3-4 LPs of Elton Britt, the Rooftop Singers, and Roswell Rudd, a disc of earlier Thomas Ades compositions, and a 3CD set Hi Records retrospective (Al Green, etc.). Tempted by a large format book about the life and career of Harold Battiste Jr., and (for $20), an 78 copy of James Brown’s “Please Please Please” on the original Federal label. If that’s there when I go back….Had one drink w/ aforementioned folks at the Pasadena Hilton a block away. Drove home to The Four Bags, Waltz and some Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Bag. Back just after midnight, finished quota of Martin Eden, asleep by 1.
I’m getting through the days, but the persistence of the cold is draining – no real energy.