10.12.17

Up 9. Had trouble getting going, or doing anything more elaborate than buying tickets for something in a couple weeks, and falling down a Monk rabbit hole (inc. Ethan Iverson’s posts). Waited for Bree to make a dr. appt. for a time I can go with her. Left close to 2, read Levine on train – finished “rhythm” chapter (w/ discussion of prosody), started “hierarchy.” Worked near Lincoln Center from about 3:30-6, got a little bit farther into my emphatic discussion of the pervasiveness of the song/rendition distinction, but overall not as much flow as yesterday. Feel like the whole section needs to be cut by a lot. Can’t work tomorrow, but hope to devote a lot of Sat./Sun. to this. Broke for some online housekeeping; wrote to my editor. Met Pete Galub at Jazz at Lincoln Ctr. for a (free, lucklily) listening “party”/discussion of some unreleased live Monk from the 1960s, introduced by my neighbor Seaton. The music, inc. versions of “Criss Cross,” “Nutty,” and “Light Blue” was great, as were clips of Hall Overton actually getting Monk to talk at the New School (he learned to read music by looking over his sister’s shoulder while she practiced her piano lessons). Panel was Robin Kelley (biographer), T.S. Monk (son), and Zev Feldman (archivist/record producer): Some sweet anecdotes but also a lot of hagiographic generalities. Had 1 drink nearby w/ Pete. Returned a call from my cousin Lynda. More Levine on train back – some perfectly reasonable, to me, points about hierarchical binaries and their interactions, but the reading of Antigone is a slog (for me at least). Home around midnight. Had to stay up a while getting my schedule, directions, etc. together for tomorrow.

10.11.17

Up before 7. Worked at E77 from 9:30-1:30 – got through yesterday’s graf and 2 more, much improved from where that material was yesterday, 720 words – quite good, by my standards, for 4 hrs. Came home, spent 2 hrs on correspondence and mundane tasks, inc. printing charts for Dylan Hicks’ songs for our show in Hudson, and finding accommodations there. Left at 4, read Levine’s chapter on rhythm en route to meet Jenny at a kind of tech meet and greet in the Flatiron district. Kind of thing I dread, but I had a stiff drink and a decent conversation w/ Parker someone about copyright. Went to dinner at Jenny’s mom’s apartment, w/ one other friend of theirs – I had thought we were meeting for Chinese, but no, I got a nice home cooked meal, a gin + tonic, more wine. Very civilized UWS evening. Walked to the train; Jenny says she wants to play more music next year (we’ll play a couple songs together at the Love Hangover next Feb. then play it by ear. Daybook poem and more Levine on the way back – some interesting insights about institutions vis-à-vis Foucault and Williams. Home 11:15, lights out 1.

10.10.10

Up at 7, dithered. Figured out that Jenny had the date of the Beauty Pill/Arto Lindsay show wrong, emailed her to that effect; might meet her for something else tomorrow. Left at 10, put on read Margo Jefferson (compelling) at E77, put on Maiden Voyage and caught the bus to Langston Hughes Library around noon, since there was no need to go into Manhattan. Unfortunately, hadn’t checked the hrs., so I cooled my heels nearby w/ another coffee an typed up longhand notes from Sunday ‘til it opened at 1. Worked off and on until 6, tried to power through the conclusion of this section, so now there’s a draft of 1200 words where there should be 5-600 (if not less), and then went back to start clearning up. Got bogged down in detail by sentence 3, the previous 2 amounting to 67 words. Sigh. Distracted here and there by trying to figure out if I can get into a talk tomorrow, a Twitter exchange w/ Ted Reichman about “schmaltz,” and pacing/browsing in the small (but excellent given my interests) circulating collection. Any number of books I’m guilty about not having read, including Kevin Young’s Grey Album (because I know I want to take issue w/ what he says about “covering”) and Andrew Epstein’s on the New York School; also came across something (should get the title) w/ an interesting-looking account of Astaire’s “Slap That Bass” number. Ripped some CDs to my computer – a John Zorn/George Lewis/Bill Frisell trio date (News for Lulu), R.E.M.’s Accelerate just b/c it was there, and a cumbia comp. Checked out the recent Otis Redding bio, and walked home – 2 blocks from the library, 2 middle-aged guys shooting the breeze in front of a church saw it and we talked about Stax for a few minutes. One asked if I was a musician, and told me about his piano- and chess-playing 14-yr old w/ Asperger’s. The other had a Bible, and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but no, we just discussed Booker T. and the MGs.

Got home before 7, zoned out for a while, put on WKCR’s Monk centennial marathon, half-listened while reading ch. 2 of Levine – makes a pretty basic point that it’s difficult to do any critical or emancipatory work – in other words, to think – w/o reference to some “formal”/conceptual wholes, but it’s less impressive than the intro, and it’s depressing that that argument needs to be made at all. Then concentrated a little more on the music – most of a Jazz Workshop set, 1964, and the Straight, No Chaser LP. Daybook. Lights out ‘round about midnight.

10.9.17

Up around 6. Went to Starbucks at 7, dealt with some email, long post to a listserv. Listened to Schubert on train (I don’t know these pieces’ form, it’s just pleasant), had another coffee, daybook poem. Therapy, better than last week. Couldn’t go to a library – Columbus Day. Browsed at Bookculture, bought remainders of Margo Jefferson, Negroland;  David Treece, Brazilian Jive; Henri Poincare, Science and Method, Samuel Charters, The Legacy of the Blues. Passed over, among other things, Linda Simon, Lost Girls: The Invention of the Flapper (new – might have to see if it comes into the Strand). On train home, read in Prelude through a couple of Keston Sutherland sound-alikes (students?) – Ed Luker and Stuart Carlton, a section of Irish poetry that was largely more conservative than the rest of the magazine, though not nec. bad; standoud poems by Alfric McGlinchey and Cal Doyle. Home about 3:30, zoned out and watched card magic videos, ordered some light bulbs for Bree, checked in w/ Matt and Brandon about a rehearsal. Left 6:30, put on Schubert and started Caroline Levine, Forms on the train. Her conception of form (literary, but much broader than that) isn’t quite the primarily musical one I’m using, but several of her general claims apply. She naturalizes things a bit (forms are just there), and I think it’s overselling to claim that her book’s aim is radical social change. Went to hear Ethan Iverson and Orrin Evans (who’s replacing him in the Bad Plus) play a two-piano all Monk set at Greenwich House Music School on Barrow. Pretty great: not highly rehearsed, so not always in perfect sync but always going somewhere, generally aggressive (only one ballad). Individually – Iverson, though good and so sincere about the jazz piano tradition it hurts, does sometimes sound (and look) as though he’s working pretty hard to keep it together. Evans seemed as though he had less to prove, and often laid down grooves or played very simply and forcefully, but could also bring it. Set list was something like “I Mean You,” “Friday the 13th, “Shuffle Boil“ “Bye-Ya,” “Monk’s Mood,” “Misterioso,” “Straight, No Chaser,” maybe a couple more. Walked around looking for somewhere to have dinner tomorrow near Le Poisson Rouge. Finished intro to Levine on train home, switched to Margo Jefferson’s memoir. Hope 11, lights out midnight.

10.8.17

Slept very poorly – up around 3, watched another tepid SNL and, for some reason, an entire 90 min. BBC documentary about Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Went out at 7:30 and worked on email – mainly from Brian Macpherson about Doormat/n Music, whom I had a deal with 20 years ago, suddenly showing up claiming to own the publishing on a bunch of NPB/solo songs from that period. There are still a few emails from this summer hanging around – I seem to have some block against getting the inbox below 25. Came back 9:30, took to bed, fell asleep to episodes of Open Source podcast, up for good about 12:45. This is not a pattern I want to get into. Called dad. Left for East Harlem around 4, some Brossard on train. Spent an hr or so a coffee place I’d looked up on 109th, wrote daybook poem, and tried to draft part of the last graf of the current section of my intro (longhand in an unwieldy notebook I’m doggedly committed to making use of; I left too late to make taking the laptop seem worth it). Walked to El Taller Latino Americano, a language school/arts space/community center for a “Race and Resistance” festival/show, also billed as an un-Columbus day event. I saw Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid, and Ches Smith finishing their soundcheck, then waited around for a while; finished the Brossard.* Late start, really flaky intro, and then an interminable set by a tenor/viola/drums trio let by L. Mixashawn Rozie. He’s a talented, energetic player, the drummer had moments (but also miscues), and the strings were not adding much; but the whole thing seemed under-rehearsed, undifferentiated (despite stabs at “Purple Haze” and “Well You Needn’t,” and undynamic. I was either in a bad mood, or they put me in one. I left at the break, after 9, w/ Quincy Troupe, of whom I’m not a fan anyway, setting up to read w/ a guitarist. So I missed Taborn and Cooper-Moore, which is what I’d come for, but I just couldn’t hang. Read a good chunk of that recent issue of Prelude – frontloaded with some similar sounding (I assume by the editors’ intention) millennials, through a long, short-lined but baggy John Yau poem. Home by 10, put a couple of Schubert quartets (#s 10 and 14) on my phone, lights out by midnight.