Slow one. Up around 9:30 (at least I slept through the night). Got coffee, finished Fukuyama (breezy) and read a longish Greene story, “In the Basement,” which was the basis for the screenplay for The Fallen Idol. Came back, listened to the rest of that Forster interview. Printed Schramms charts, added to folder for previous shows. Put in 30 min. on the F&C charts. Tried to tidy up. Took a corner bookcase, an ugly leftover from the apt.’s previous owner, out for pick-up. Listened to a lesser-known Billy Strayhorn LP, Cue for Saxophone (1959). Pleasing Ellingtonia, w/ Hodges, clarinetist Russell Procope, others, but not a vehicle for Strayhorn’s deepest original music - ends with “Rose Room.” Left around 5:30, listened to 2nd disc of Coltrane Bethlehem set, mainly outtakes, worked on Cook/Dunbar grafs in think for an hr. and change. Went to the Stone to see Myra Melford/Tomeka Reid/Mary Halvorson, but it was sold out (only about 10 min. before show), so I looked around in the Strand for a bit, bought an urban theory journal and a book of poems from the dollar racks, went back to Think for another 30 min. - they closed at 10. Read a chapter of John Shepard and Peter Wick, Music and Cultural Theory. They like structuralism. Lights out around 12:30.
june 12
Up 9. Coffee, Fukayama, picked up a package for Bree at p.o. Came home, read 2 Greene stories, got myself together. Called a car a little before 12:30 to take me to Main Drag Music in Wmsbg. Traded in my Fender Deluxe for decent credit (could have sold it for more cash via Craigslist or something, but didn’t want the hassle), and left my old Princeton for a repair estimate. Tried out a Korg D1 digital piano - the current model of what I have, which has sticky keys and a dodgy power supply; this one has virtually identical sounds, key response, etc., but is a little lighter and slimmer. That’s probably what I’ll use my credit on (though I also covet a Nord w/ a bigger variety of organ/synth sounds). Cafe I’d mapped out to go to was way too crowded, found another. Ate a salad, worked about an hr. on F&C arrangement (now I’m to the breakdown, where I’m less sure of the horns’ role - need to work it out at the piano), and 90 min. on a section of the TPA chapter that I hadn’t looked at for a while. Headed back to Manhattan, listened to Maucha Adnet, Songs I Learned from Jobim, a solid and well-sung and -performed if uninnovative bossa collection from 2105, w/ a few U.S. standards (“I Concentrate On You”) and more and less known Brazilian material. Taken with “So Danco Samba,” and its “Take the ‘A’ Train” quote. Met Drew Boston for ‘60s African shorts (Sembene, Mambety, Alassane), all having to do with Westernization in some way. Surprised to see a poster for the Golden Gate Quartet, touring in Dakar, c. 1968-9! Fascinating films, a little daunting to say something meaningful, briefly. Disappointed to realize I missed the screenings of Memories of Underdevelopment, as well as some Yiddish-(ish) films: stay on the lookout for Her Second Mother and American Matchmaker. Had a bite and chat w/ drew later. Headed to Threes Brewing to hear Annie Nero, Ray Rizzo and band do a Talking Heads cover set, heavy on Speaking in Tongues. Didn’t know a soul except for some of the band, but a lot of fun - great keyboardist, getting pretty damn close to all those Bernie Worrell parts. Started at 11, went past 12:30. Cab home, lights out 1:30.
june 11
Up at 6:30 w/ alarm. Left by 8. Read Cook on train. Therapy. Hungarian Pastry Shop: entered the intro/1st v. and ch. of horn chart into Sibelius. Worked for maybe an hr on a couple grafs about sheet music. Looked around Book Culture, bought remaindered copies of Francis Fukayama’s book on identity politics (know yr enemy?) and Michael Denning’s Noise Uprising. Lunch. Went to a Starbucks where I could recharge the laptop, took notes on the rest of Ross Wilson’s book on Adorno, which I’ve been trying to “process” for a few weeks. Wrote to dad’s lawyer and accountant, dealt w/ some other email. Started listening to a recent radio interview between Peter Paphides and Robert Forster. Starbucks. Unnameable called about my credit; email w/ set lists/charts from Dave Schramm. Headed to Roulette, waited in standby line for Andrew Cyrill tribute (1st night of Vision festival). Jean Cook showed up right after me. 2 sets of 3/4 acts each, inc. a trio w/ Quincy Troupe and a hand drummer; duo w/ Kid Jordan; trio w/ Tomeka Reid and a dancer (too short); duo w/ Milford Graves; trio w/ Wadada Leo Smith and Brandon Ross; duo w/ Lisa Sokolov (vocalist, new to me), and a closing duo w/ Peter Brötzmann. Saw Ira and Georgia briefly. Managed to resist buying any CDs out front. Had some Indian food around the corner w/ Jean during the break; Tomeka joined us for a bit. Turns out she never got the email offering to read a talk she was giving in Chicago. Finally finished Cook on the train home, started looking at Fukayama. Home 12, lights out 1. Oh, listened to disc 1 of John Coltrane, The Bethlehem Years, which collects his sideman recordings w/ Blakey and others from 1957, just as he was starting to record as a leader on Blue Note. Minor in the Trane scheme of things - we’re several years away from My Favorite Things or “modal” advances — but thoroughly listenable.
June 10
Barely slept after 3:30. Went to Cafe Benne after 6, actually worked an hr. or so on preface. Left at 9:30 for Mt. Sinai w/ Bree to consult about her kidney stone. Liked the doctor. CAT scan next week, another appt. Wed., and then we’ll figure out what to do - probably surgery. Bree isn’t too freaked out, just glad she’s getting help. Probably means she won’t sing at Sid’s at the end of the month. I had planned to stay out, was just too tired. Came back, got some groceries, read 4 short Graeme Greene stories, slept from 1-3. Made myself work on horn chart for “Faith and Credit” for at least 15 min. (That’s my plan until I’m finished w/ that and another one.) Called a car at 5 to get down to Unnameable w/ a box of books to sell. Buyer had left (though I’d called in the afternoon and been told he was staying until 8), clerk took the box and my # somewhat under protest - but I wasn’t about to haul it back to JH. Got ice cream across the street at Ample Hills. Walked quite a ways in slight drizzle and fog to hear Mara Rosenboom, the pianist I’d met at a Carla Bley show, at I-Beam, a tiny, collectively-run space w/ a nice piano near the Bell House. She seemed surprised I’d made it out (as I would be were the situation reversed.) Two sets - 1 trio, very diverse pianistically, with bangy free sections and very delicately voiced ones, with some glances at “Melancholy Baby” and “Caravan.” 2nd set added 3 strings, a project she’s calling “Bone Labyrinth,” w/ more composed passages. She’s good. Bought an early trio record. On the walk there and the train home, listened to the new Verlaines album, the perfectly titled Dunedin Spleen. 19 songs! Artfully arranged and harmonized rock tunes, mainly by a straightforward 4 piece band, often adding some genuinely contrapuntal (not “combo”/chordal) organ, with a more jazz-tinged or dirgey/difficult song every few tracks. Not stylistically flashy, for the most part, but a lot of dense musical content to chew on, as usual. Standouts on first listen include “None of the Chords,” “Man Selling Poems,” the title track, and the closer, “Way Too Old To Grow Up Now,” but I have no doubt there are some growers. Downes’ voice alone is a comforting pleasure to me. Inspirational verse: “Fascists have always been snappy dresser.” Home before midnight, lights out almost immediately. Read through ch. of Cook on “Resistance” in the course of the day. At least as presented here, so much of F.’s and A.’s though just comes off as a series of pronouncements.
June 9
Up at 8. Little of note in a.m.; read two Greene stories, inc. a satire on wartime bureaucracy at the Ministry of Propaganda. Put up a dry-erase display to track my writing. Left around noon, worked at Spacious from 1-4 pm. 1 hr. reading over and replying to writing coach’s assessment; 90 min. on preface; rest of time replying to a listserv thread about writing (I’d promised to comment on someone’s post a few days ago). Dave Schramm asked me to play keys on July 1; think I’ll use it as an excuse to get my gigging keyboard situation together, probably by buying something (a Nord) in trade for an amp I’ve been wanting to unload. Spent an hr. and change at MoMa across the street, mainly in a show around Lincoln Kirstein’s role at the museum. Guess it’s inevitable that the institution has to pay periodical obeisance to figures of that era, even though their aesthetics and sense of modern-art history has (at least officially) been somewhat superseded. In other words, they dragged up a lot of Pawel Tchelitchew dance sketches. Still, I enjoyed some of the Mexican and social realist art, and discovered two now lesser-known figurative painters: O. Louis Gugliemi (Egyptian-born, despite the name; Wedding and South Street, 1937), and Honoré Sharrer (Workers and Paintings, 1943), who was in the AbEx launching Fourteen Americans show and seems really interesting on a cursory image search. Also walked through the Joan Miró show, a current art & technology show that isn’t so much my thing, and looked at the full display of Jennifer Bartlett’s Rhapsody in the second floor space. Came back to go to dinner w/ Bree, and have a somewhat serious discussion of my writing issues/plans. Home around 9, took out some recycling and a bag of broken glass (from the bottle/staircase accident a few days ago); printed test results for Bree’s doctor’s appointment tomorrow; sent pics of amp to buyer at Main Drag. Read a few p. of Cook during the day (does secondary literature on critical theory have to be this intellectually and stylistically dull?), but that’s it. Lights out at midnight.