Staten Island Ferry

Without a doubt, the best subway station I have seen in NYC is South Ferry. It is at the tail-end of the #1 and is right next to the Staten Island Ferry. I have been told that the ferry is FREE, and provides an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty. I regret not being able to check it out!

Dizzy's Coca Cola Club

Dizzy's is a great club for a couple reasons. It's on the 5th floor with a fantastic vibe and great views of the city. It also has great service and food. The downside: the 11:30 shows are filled with people who just want to socialize. The focus is not on the music. This is a huge departure from other local venues. Most people here wouldn't last 10 seconds at the Village Vanguard.

That being said, the Joe Lovano Nonet (nine) played some very unusual sounding material from his recent albums. One thing that was not unusual: seeing Lewis Nash on the drums. He is clearly the most popular freelance jazz drummer in the area. The man is literally everywhere. It's a shame I didn't get a moment to ask him a few questions.

Chinatown!

I made a brief trip to Chinatown today to meet a friend from Lakeland! It's great to see a familiar face!!!

Village Vanguard

I went to the Village Vanguard last weekend. The Roy Hargrove Quintet was performing. I wasn't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but I got a few pictures of Roy Hargrove afterwards. He came out after the set and played piano for a bit. For what it's worth, their 11pm set was amazing.

Field Trip

We got to leave the friendly confines of St. John's today to observe some classes at Language Studies International, within Manhattan College. It was great to be able to do something different. Plus, we all got recruited to work at their summer program. If I did that, and was able to get a busker permit (see video in previous post), maybe I could be able to survive here. What a thought.


I study with a great group of people. They are not all this young.





Back at St. John's...

Columbus Circle Busker

Caught this guy on the way home today. He was playing a Squire strat through a Pignose and was running beats and a tuner through a Zoom pedal. Personally, I think the very end of the video is pretty surprising.

Teaching House NYC

Here are some random pictures from the Teaching House at St. John's in Manhattan.




The view from outside the front doors. There are a few picnic tables for people who want to eat their lunch in a noisy NY environment.


The dreaded phoneme chart.

Iridium

I had a great time at the Iridium last night. It's easy to imagine Les Paul coming here and turning the place upside down. When I was waiting in line for the 10 o'clock show, I met an older couple from Ft. Lee. They've been lifelong residents of Queens, with stops all over the world "thanks to Uncle Sam". It was really nice to have a normal chat. Most people here are ALL BUSINESS. They recommended the Village Vanguard for next week. Pictures to come!

Times Square

I'm headed to the Iridium jazz club tonight. This was the place where Wisconsin guitar legend Les Paul used to play Monday night gigs through his 80's and 90's. I did a dry run last night and discovered that it's in Times Square. As I slowly made my way down Broadway, the lights got brighter and brighter until ...










Even the hot dog carts have neon lights!

A funny thing happened on the way home from the Blue Note ...

On Saturday night, I saw so many people carrying around instrument cases. It seemed like about 10% of the city had a gig that night! Anyway, the Local 1 had some schedule changes because of the WTC construction. I had to get on a different train than usual and discovered these guys in the process. It was an interesting compliment to a night of busy jazz in an upscale club. I'll be looking for these guys next weekend too!


Here they are jamming "Yesterday" by the Beatles.

Blue Note Jazz Club

It was Jimmy Heath's night to shine at the Blue Note on Saturday. The 84 year old sax player had the most fun of anyone in the club. He played, sang, danced, cracked jokes, and made getting old look cool.