Monday, January 15, 2007

Shadows on the Hudson and Other Notes

Monday evening here and i'm getting ready to split for a short New Mexico/Colorado tour with Mark Weaver's band Brassum with Dan Clucas on cornet and Mike Vlatkovich on trombone. Looking forward to brassumn'ing. Mark writes great tunes and organizes a nice tour each time. Green chili here i come...

Been on an Isaac Bashevis Singer kick of late. Found The Magician of Lublin in East Village Books on 8th st. while hanging with British pianist/improviser/raconteur Steve Beresford back in December. Enjoyed it very much so picked up Shadows on the Hudson while in the Bay Area over the holidays with Sara. A beautiful, multi-faceted story about Jews living in late 40s New York City.

I first got into Singer when my friend Adam Rudolph gave me an old paperback copy of The Family Moskat to take with me to Gambia back in late 2002. An early Singer novel filled with life - it really sustained me in the first weeks of getting used to life in West Africa. For some reason I hadn't gone back to Singer all this time. Anyways, now Gimpel the Fool and other stories will accompany me to New Mexico, as will an early Amos Oz book called Touch the Water, Touch the Wind. I think I got into a headspace of reading Singer and Oz after being in Poland in the fall. It was my first trip to Eastern Europe and felt a strange mix of at-home-ness and other-ness.

Lovely gig last night with the Low Trio last night, with Ben Gerstein and Jose Davila. Tony Malaby, Angie Sanchez and Tom Rainey played after. They sounded fantastic. Dee Pop puts on a great series at Jimmy's every Sunday. Check him out at www.freestylejazz.com

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