Up 8. Coffee, poem. Some tasks for Bree, inc. installing an A/C unit in the kitchen. We need it. Left for Brooklyn around 12:30, read Green on the way. Stopped at Spoonbill and Sugartown, bought a used copy of Frederic Tuten’s The Adventures of Mao on the Long March. Went to Devocion, worked on “I Ain’t Got Nobody” from about 2-4; am up to the bridge of the better-known Spencer Williams version. Went to Main Drag and picked up my new Korg digital piano and case, and my repaired Princeton; the other Fender I’d sold them covered about 1/3 of the cost. Wasn’t expecting rain. Got a car back to Queens. Not a great deal of action in the evening - finished quota of Green, read Daphne Marlatt and Catronia Strang section of Canadian anthology. (I’ve always liked Strang’s poetry; I hadn’t realized her collaborator Nancy Shaw had died.) Didn’t touch the horns; had thought of going to hear some jazz at E77 but didn’t care to go out in the rain. So humid. Lights out at 11, listened to more of the Joe Jordan disc (had played his “Lovie Joe” from a David Jasen collection of facsimile sheet music earlier, and some James Reese Europe). Was up again for a while around 2, wrote some twitter responses to a somewhat authoritarian-sounding pop-music-theorist type. Probably inadvisable. Eventually got back to sleep.
jun 10
Up about 8. Finished last few p. of Rappaport. Bromides. Left 9, went to Think Coffee near Union Square to work before meeting Bree. Started Toby Green, A Handful of Shells on the train - voluminous history of West African through the centuries of the slave trade, w/ an emphasis on new discoveries about long-standing European contacts and the African societys’/kingdoms’ internal development and financial systems. In other words, they had currency, and credit. And a history, contra Hegel - this is ammo for me against James Snead. Revised the Adorno chunk of intro, sent it to Holbo, 10-1. Bree’s doctor’s appt.; really just a check-in/up, nothing new. She went home, I tried to go to Faccio’s on Bleeker for a sandwich, but they were closed for a July vacation; ended up at Dos Toros. Saw Paris Is Burning at Film Forum. Moving. I sure didn’t know in college what a huge rip-off Madonna’s “Vogue” was. (Taylor Swift’s whole queer-friendly campaign of late is offensive of late - not, of course, because of the side she’s on, but b/c of the cynicism of her allyship.) Got out, called dad, headed up to Bar 55 to hear Jane Irving, 2 sets. Straight vocal jazz, some R&H and some unusual material, inc. Gil Scott-Heron’s “Ain’t No Such Thing as Superman,” a Jimmy Rowles/Johnny Mercer tune called “Baby Don’t Quit Now,” and a song called “Alice in Wonderland” that seems to be by Sammy Fain and Bob Hillard. Tried to get back into the Canadian anthology before the gig and during breaks - Erin Moure, Daphne Marlatt. I’m afraid I’m not finding either the poetry or the thinking behind it that engaging. Home about 10:30. Touched on the horns. Lights out midnight: more Gilberto.
(Also listened to a little João Gilberto on Sunday. R.I.P.)
jun 8-9
6/8 It’s now Tuesday and I can’t do a blow by blow of Monday, but I spent about 3-8 at the library, still working on the intro revision. Dead when I got back; couldn’t do horns, poetry notebook, or the Canadian anthology. Read 50 p. Rappaport on the train, that’s it.
6/9 Up at 6. Sorted piles of books in my office, mainly into those I’ve read but want to copy my pencil notes from, and those I haven’t and might take to CA. Bought tickets for David Byrne on Broadway in October. I haven’t seen him perform since high school. Left at 8, read Rappaport. Therapy. Hungarian Pastry Shop, worked from maybe 10-2. Getting closer on this task, still tarrying w/ Adorno. Bookculture, bought poetry by Stephanie Young and Miyo Vestrini; had really gone in for a jazz studies book but in perusal it didn’t seem necessary (or very musical). Got a slice. Home by about 4, read until 5:15, worked on horns until 6:30. Dinner w/ Bree in neighborhood, as planned. It adds up. Wrote my daily poem at one point while she was in the bathroom. Home a little before 10.
jun 7
Woke up around 5, listened to a couple of podcasts. Should have tried harder to get back to sleep. Finished the Schimmel AEC book - solid history and responsible musical analysis of selected records (inc. 2 live ones I don’t have access to), and v. Interesting on the group’s professionalism and business acumen (esp. Lester Bowie’s), qualities not usually associated w/ experimental jazz, and on the Bowie/Marsalis beef, but also hagiographic and intellectually credulous in places. Listened to Hank Jones and a couple of Verlaines tracks. Went to coffee at 9. Read Rappaport - basically a hit piece on Derrida’s opponents, a counterpart to Against Deconstruction, David Lehman, etc. So hot it was hard to do much in the house and not attractive to leave the neighborhood. Wasted early afternoon. Eventually got cracking again after 3, went back to cafe and worked on intro until 7. Made some sensible edits. Came home and read more of the Canadian anthology - M. Nourbese Philip, Karen Macormack (who has a hard-ass Marjorie Welish quality that makes for an entertaining trainwreck of an interview, but who’s poetry has more levity than I’d remembered), and the interview half of Rachel Zolf. Bree went to bet early, worked on horns from 9-10 or so.
jun 6
Up at 6. Read a bit of AEC in bed. Went to coffee, wrote 2 poems (one a collage of phrases from The Trial and a coffee-table book on shabby chic decor, both sitting on the cafe shelves), read Natalie Stephens section in Canadian anthology. Not taken w/ the work. Came back and read a bit of AEC book. Found someone online to take my extra ticket for tonight. Listened to Sparrow Spectacular. Left around noon, worked on intro revision 1-5, sent some Frankenstein version of the ch. to Holbo. David Nagler texted proposing we try to get a show together at the Owl, which would be great. Straight from there to Joe’s Pub, had enough time to call my dad. Saw the Mighty Sparrow — he’s around 80, used a cane to get on stage, and performs sitting down, but he was totally commanding, singing strongly and playfully (occasionally throwing in a Louis Armstrong imitation) interacting w/ band and audience. Band itself, w/ 3-pc. horn section, was mostly white session guys, except for the excellent pianist, led by Lane Steinberg on unobtrusive electric guitar, w/ several players I know: Tom Shad on bass, Dave Foster on acoustic, Jeff Hudgins on alto. I’ve probably met the drummer but couldn’t see him. I didn’t know much of the material (Sparrow has written 700 songs) and would like to learn, but the songs were more variegated, esp. harmonically, than what one might naively expect of calypso as a genre. Highlights: “Who Killed the Sparrow?” (Basically a decades-old diss track against Lord Kichener and Lord Melody, both dead), and the cannibalistically signifying “Congo Man.” Great show. Got back around 10, made myself do a couple measures of the horn chart, lights out not long after 11. Also made it through 2 chapters of the Canadian anthology - Gail Scott and Margaret Christikos.