jun 21

Really feeling the cold/congestion in a.m., a bit better as day went on. Don’t recall early part of the day well. Posted about States of Country, invited a few other people by email.

Played piano for a while at some point, then worked on horns. Called a car around 3:30, sold a box for books at Codex on Bowery + Bleeker - learned that it’s run by the same partners as Human Resources, Topos, and one other. Used some of the credit: Herman Rappaport, The Theory Mess; Paul Stephens, The Poetics of Information Overload; Vernon Lee, The psychology of an Art Writer; Karen Pincus, The Montesi Scandal, and a bilingual collection of José Martí, since I don’t know much about him (or Cuban literature, to be honest) at all. Worked on the “Goo-Goo Eyes” section for, oh, 1 3/4 hrs. - the puzzle now is where to stick in the Bert Williams song. 

jun 20

Up 9. Took out trash, got coffee and a much needed haircut. Came back, spent 30 min. on horns, starting to get ideas. Called Main Drag Music to put a hold on a Korg digital piano and order a case and extra power supply, so I can get them in one trip (I hope before the Schramms show). Dl’d facsimile’s of the “Goo-Goo” eyes songs. Headed to Schomburg, listed to Anthony Coleman’s trio record Sephardic Tinge. Worked 2-5:30 - Finished the Cook/Dunbar section, pending a few references. Had a bite, walked by Revolution Books and bought a new copy of the rev. ed. of Kelley’s Monk bio, so I could get out of there w/o Bob Avakian literature. Thought about going straight home, but once I was one the train felt energetic enough for one more Anthony Coleman set at the Stone - his rethink, basically, of the repertoire, cut-for-cut, from Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debby. For a guy who says he had resisted learning standards and that style of harmony, he knows a hell of a lot - something Mengelbergian in the conception, though Coleman fucks up less. Sat next to John Matturri and spouse (Lilian?), chatted a bit. Bought Coleman’s Jelly Roll Morton CD. Listened to most of a Braxton/Halvorson/Bynum/Laubrock quartet from an Italian festival, 2014. Home about 11, quite tired again. Edge of a cold. Have not been keeping up w/ reading well.

jun 19

Up 8, left w/ Bree at 9:15. Had to try to print some forms for her driver’s license renewal in between - also sat down at the piano briefly to start working out voicings for “Untimely.” Dr. appt. at Mt. Sinai; approved and scheduled her kidney stone operation for July 2. (There were options, but I’m not going into detail.) That at least clarifies that I don’t have conflicts w/ rehearsals and shows until the end of the month; afterwards, I will have to help/be around more during recovery. Lunch w/ Bree. Rode back up to Schomburg. Requested a few books on Cook + Dunbar. Half-wasted 2 hrs (except for a couple of research related query emails), but then read 1st 1/3 of Marva Carter’ s bio of Cook, found a bibliographical ref. I needed, and spent the last 45 min. revising. Also “discovered” a 1901 Williams and Walker song, “If You Love Your Baby, Make Dem Goo-Goo Eyes,” seemingly published after “She Made Them Goo-Goo Eyes,” but also in AA-bb-A form. Now I have to incorporate that info. Left 7:30, heard Anthony Coleman in a free duo w/ a drummer at Stone. Home at 11, really wrung out, watched some Dick Van Dyke and got back up to write some emails and spend just a few minutes on the horn chart. (Trombone reads in bass clef, which slows me down a little). Lights out 1 am. Continued slow progress through Shepard and Wick.

[Strange to be reading about American concentration camps on Juneteenth, by the way.]

jun 18

Up 7, left at 8. Therapy. Lunch. Worked at Schomburg from 12-7. Started reading a paper on pictorial representation by a philosopher I’ve arranged to trade drafts with. Saw a program of Anthony Coleman’s chamber music at the Stone - solo and duo string pieces, a sax/drums/piano[and organ] trio, and a piano/accordion/violin trio he wrote for his 60th b-day. Particularly like the last 2, made up of short sections that accrete into something larger w/o straining for development. Made my 15 min. “charts” quota before the concert started, by writing in the time signature changes and most of the chords for “Untimely Beggar” (from memory, yet). Listened to some Verlaines on the way home. Read a few pages of Shepard and Wick, but I’m bogged down. Home, lights out 12:30.

june 17

Late start. Maybe 40 min. on horn chart in late am; book work 3-7 at Lincoln Center. Read Ron Padgett’s very short book Among the Blacks (a translation of the Roussel story, an unguarded essay on RP’s own experience of race, and an afterword; the diptych organization has something to do in my mind with his poem “Tulsa.” Talked to Laura about rehearsal schedule on the way home. Played through “Daisy Bell,” “Pebble on the Beach,” other 19th c. songs. Read about 10 p. of Paul Steinbeck, A Message to Our Folks, a seriously researched history/analysis of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Looks great - learned in the first pages that Malachi Favors’s parents and uncle were part of one the founding family of the Church of God In Christ in Chicago (the sanctified denomination that produced Sister Rosetta). No other significant reading/listening - online too much overall.