Woke up before 5. Listened to the rest of Graham Priest interview and some Debussy. Tried to close a bunch of tabs, documents, etc. - the desktop itself is a to-do list. Got back to bed 7-10, felt a lot better. Read a chunk of Robbe-Grillet at coffee. Spend most of the day on home tasks - tidying my office and so forth. Listened to/half watched a set by Fay Victor, Jamie Branch, etc. from last year’s Vision Festival. Bought several things I’d bookmarked on Bandcamp, notably the new Verlaines album (and one other I didn’t have), and a new Dave Douglas/Andrew Cyrille CD/dl. While Bree was out, prepped to record that Secret Stars song. Got out the baritone gtr (which was hard to tune to my keyboard for some reason), set up the amp - physically difficult w/ the unassembled bookshelf boxes &c. - played a bit, found a key, transcribed the lyrics, rehearsed the song. Didn’t actually push record or anything before Bree got back. Obviously, this is no way to have a “studio.”
Went out in heavy rain at 6 to hear Fay Victor (v), Darius Jones (alto), and Sean Conley (double bass) do 2 sets of Ornette tunes at 55 Bar, between the Duplex and the Stonewall. Some lyrics (existing ones to “Lonely Woman,” new ones to “Eventually”), some scat, broadly defined, some extended vocal technique. Approach didn’t seem fully harmolodic, but the lack of a chordal instrument, as in O.’s quartets helped in not get too change-y. It was good, but Sam Newsom sat in for a couple of tunes each set, and frankly raised the level; everyone stepped up their game after an amazing solo on “Blues Connotation.” Low-key gig - 2 drinks and a tip bucket, seemed mostly like regulars of the scene, if not the bar. A very New Yawk woman in her 60s (70s) at a table near me complimented the coat I got in Ontario. “I like a good coat…and you wear it well.” Someone else gave me a Vision Festival schedule, and a younger woman commented on my Robbe-Grillet book. Which I finished over pizza after the sets. Odd that it happened to be set in Greenwich Village, of which I was in the heart. I don’t have much to say about it - admire the style and technique, not the politics or implied morality. (That there isn’t one is b.s.). Could have gone to see someone else at Small’s not far away at 10:30, but it seemed wiser to come home. Lights out midnight.