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.