Museum's Jazz and Baseball

The last two days have been a lot of fun. Yesterday we went to the Guggenheim Museum and Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. The Guggenheim is a cool building although I didn't really enjoy the exhibition. The Cooper Hewitt was interesting.

Last night we went into Greenwich Village to see the Vanguard Orchestra @ the Village Vanguard. We went in early for dinner and I went to a barber shop along the way also and got a hot towel shave which I've never had before....pretty interesting. We missed out on going to the first set because the club was full so we went down the road and saw a set at Small's of Jaz Sawyer and his quartet. We saw Cassie in line for the late set and ended up sitting at the front with her and another Aussie who we met randomly in line. Great band.....great music!!

Today we didn't do too much (slept in a bit) before we went to a baseball game in the evening. The baseball was fun....I still much prefer cricket.

That's all for now....more soon. You can see some baseball pics here and my week 3 pics here.

cheers,

shane.

Sunday

Today we checked out the area where we've been staying...Harlem. It's quite an interesting place and we still need to check it out some more.

Tonight we went to a cafe/bar called Havana Central in Times Square. We saw a Cuban band there that Andy Hunter was playing trombone in. We went to Birdland after that but got there too late to see the late set.

Our time here is going really quick and we still have so much to do and see.

Keep reading,

cheers,

shane.

Saturday

Tonight we saw the Eric Reed/Cyrus Chestnut quartet @ Dizzy's. That's Eric Reed in the picture with me. Eric Reed and Cyrus Chestnut are both great piano players and they were backed by Dezron Douglas on double bass and Willie Jones III on drums. Eric asked for a request near the end of the gig and people were yelling out stuff and he couldn't hear anybody. I put my hand up and he pointed to me and I asked for Green Chimney's by Thelonius Monk. They played it.....he came up after the gig asking "where's the brother who asked for Green Chimney's?!" and then shook my hand and gave me a hug. Had a quick chat to him and got a photo etc. Super nice guy.

During the day we spent most of our time in Soho and did some shopping. It's probably one of the best places you could ever go for shopping. Massive range of shop's/markets and some good prices.

That's all for now.....bedtime.

cheers,

shane.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

So Wednesday we watched the Socceroos have a great win over the Serbians but unfortunately not enough to get through to the second round because of Ghana having a better goal difference than us. Good effort though. Wednesday was also Andrea and Matt's last night before heading back to Aus so it was good we were all hanging out. Went and got some Japanese food and then went to a free gig at Central Park.

The gig we saw was part of the Care Fusion Jazz Festival and it started off with the McCoy Tyner quartet and then finished off with the Stanley Clarke quartet.

Line-up's were -

*McCoy Tyner
*Ravi Coltrane
*Esperanza Spalding
*Francisco Mela


*Stanley Clarke
*Hiromi
*Ruslan Sirota
*Ronald Bruner, Jr.

Great day and night.

Thursday we were up nice and early and met up with Andrea and a friend of his for breakfast before the Italy v Slovakia game. Italy were knocked out and we then had to say goodbye to Andrea who left that afternoon for Australia.

That night we went and saw Herbie Hancock at Carnegie Hall for his 70th Birthday Concert.
Bill Cosby was the Master of Ceremonies. The band for the first half was unbelievable and I still cannot believe I saw all of these guys playing together on the same stage. The line-up for the fist half was -

Herbie Hancock - piano, keyboards
Ron Carter - double bass
Dave Holland - double bass
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Wayne Shorter - soprano sax
Joe Lovano - tenor sax
Wallace Roney - trumpet
Terrance Blanchard - trumpet
Lionel Loueke - guitar

They played in different combinations and played classic tunes.....it was simply amazing to see. Carnegie Hall is also amazing!!

The second half of the concert was a different line up and they played stuff from Herbie's latest project. Very different but still cool. For the encore Herbie came out with Keytar and they played Chameleon. Pretty cool to see Herbie do this song after hearing every single school band ever do this piece.

We then continued on after that to the City Winery to see a Tribute to Herbie Hancock jam session lead by Jeff Tain Watts. Great 4 + hours of music there with way too many people to mention playing. You can see a few photos from that here.

Today (Friday) was spent sleeping in and then we finally made it out we went to Soho and Little Italy where we had dinner before going to SOB's to see Jimmy Bosch with his band. The first salsa gig we've seen here and it was unreal.

If you would like to see some photo's of my trip so far you can click on these links below.

Week 1
Week 2
City Winery Jam Session
Jimmy Bosch @ SOB's
Emily Photo's

Keep checking back and I'll try to keep updating regularly.

cheers,

shane.

Week 2

So it's Wednesday morning of my second week here. Haven't blogged for a little bit now. Had a big weekend and didn't go to any jazz gigs on Saturday or Sunday.

Shannon Barnett, a friend of mine from Melbourne who also plays trombone is here at the moment. We've hung out a bit at gigs and world cup matches etc. She asked me if I wanted to play in a parade with her at Coney Island. I said yes....and if you've had a look at Emily's pics at all you'll see some of the craziness from the day. We went out quite early in the morning to Coney Island so we could watch the socceroos match against Ghana with out leaving halfway through. After the match we did the parade. It's an annual parade and is very very strange in an American way...but it was a fun day and a good experience I didn't expect to have. After the hour and a half train ride home we were exhausted from the day and very sun burnt, so we didn't make it to any gigs that night.

On Sunday we went into Times Square and met up with Andrea and his kiwi friend to watch Italy v New Zealand in the world cup. We then went to Bryant Park for a little and relaxed and then went back to the pub in the arvo to watch Brasil v Ivory Coast. Emily and I weren't sure what gig we were going to see on Sunday night so we decided to see a broadway show instead. We went and saw Avenue Q - very funny show.

Monday we went exploring a bit and got a bit touristy. Checked out Grand Central station terminal and then walked down to the Empire State building. That night we went to another gig at Dizzy's Jazz Club and saw Darcy James Argue Secret Society (big band). Great band.....great players and amazingly written music. We got seated very close to the trombone section which was great for me.

Tuesday I had a lesson with Michael Dease. He's an amazing trombone player. Had a lot of fun at the lesson and got a lot out of it. He passed me a mouthpiece to try and as he passed it to me told me it was a mouthpiece Curtis Fuller gave to him. My jaw probably hit the floor then. At the end of the lesson he played me a bit of his new cd which comes out next month and then played some alto trombone - which he sounded great on playing jazz.

Went out yesterday arvo and had some drinks for Ange and Matt's birthday. It's Ange's birthday today and Matt's is a month from now but he's heading back to Australia soon so won't be here for it. It was a good hang and there were a few aussies there so we had a lot of fun. After all the drinking we walked to the diner that you see on Seinfeld and got some food. Emily and I then went and saw a free gig at Smoke Jazz Club before heading home.

Today will be a big day I think.....pretty nervous about the socceroos game.....but go the Socceroos!! Going to see a free gig at Central Park tonight featuring McCoy Tyner (he used to play with John Coltrane) then maybe off to some other gigs after that. Having an amazing time over here. Will write again soon.

shane.

Emily's Camera

Have a look at some of Em's camera pics here

Day 7 & 8

We've been here a week now. You can check out some pics here and tonight's pics here.

Day 7 was big so I didn't get a chance to write until now. We went into MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) for a few hours in the day and also checked out some of the area around there before we went and saw Ange at her work.

That night we went to Fat Cat in Greenwich Village and saw the Andy Hunter Sextet. It was an amazing gig featuring -

Andy Hunter - trombone
Alex Sipiagin - trumpet/flugel
Jason Marshall - bari sax
Dave Kikoski - fender rhodes
Boris Kozlov - double bass (he was playing Charles Mingus' bass)
Danny Fischer - drums (Danny is from Melbourne originally)

Fat Cat is an amazing venue....kinda trashy but it only costs $3 to get in and has a heap of pool tables, ping pong tables and some other kind of table that I've never seen before that they play some sort of sport on. They have live music there all of the time and a heap of couches near where the band plays. We played ping pong for about an hour after Andy Hunters gig and then watched a little bit of the jam that Stacy Dillard was leading. Made it home by about 4am.

Slept in a bit for Day 8 and then cleaned up our mess in Matt and Ange's lounge room. Did all of our washing and just recovered from the day/night before.

Tonight we went to a gig at the Care Fusion Jazz Festival which started yesterday. It was in a nice theatre at a venue called Symphony Space. The band was a put together band called "The Jazz Gallery All-stars" and featured -

Claudia Acuña - vox
Roy Hargrove - trumpet
Ambrose Akinmusire -trumpet
Miguel Zenón - alto sax
Lage Lund - guitar
Gerald Clayton - piano
Ben Williams - double bass
Pedro Martinez - percussion
Kendrick Scott - drums

It was a great gig. They played in different configurations and mostly played original tunes. Had a great time.

Now I should go to bed - heading off early - big day planned but I'll write about that more later.

cheers,

shane.

Jimmy Heath

Jimmy Heath @ the Blue Note

Day 6 - Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band - Again

Had a good day today. Went out for lunch with Ange at Columbus Circle and then went and did some shopping in Union Square.

Tonight we went and saw the early set of the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band and got a better view this time of the band. They played different tunes to the late set so I'm glad we saw both the early and late set. Got a photo with the legendary Jimmy Heath (who turns 84 this year!!) which I'll post on here in the next few days.

Went and grabbed some tasty curry after the gig with Andrea and once again it's another late night. Bed time now.....more tomorrow.

cheers,

shane.

Day 5 - Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band

Today we caught the train to West 34th and went to "Macy's". It's basically like Myer or David Jones in Australia but it is absolutely massive and quite cheap. You also get an extra 10% off for being from another country. We spent a few hours in there.....not really knowing what to buy and what not....there was so much range.

Caught the train back to Columbus Circle and went to an organic supermarket called "Whole Foods". Emily was in heaven because they had lot's of dairy free things.

Tonight we went and saw the late set of the "Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band" at the Blue Note. Killer band, which featured these players -

Jimmy Heath, tenor sax
Eric Alexander, tenor sax
Antonio Hart, alto sax, flute
Mark Gross, alto sax
Gary Smulyan, bari sax
Roy Hargrove, tpt, flugelhorn, vocals, director
Claudio Roditi, tpt, flugelhorn
Diego Urcola, tpt
Greg Gisbert, tpt
Frank Greene, tpt
Steve Davis, trombone
Jason Jackson, trombone
Michael Dease, trombone
Douglas Purviance, trombone
Cyrus Chestnut, piano
Yotam Silberstein, guitar
John Lee, bass/executive director
Lewis Nash, drums
Roberta Gambarini, vocals

They played a fair few arrangements by Slide Hampton and Roy Hargrove also sang on two songs. Had a quick chat to Steve Davis and Michael Dease after the gig.

Pretty tired now so off to bed.....go QLD in the state of origin in a few hours.

cheers,

shane.

Day 4 - Mingus Big Band

Didn't really get going until the afternoon today. Went into ESPN Zone (sports bar with so many tv's) at Times Square to watch the Italy v Paraguay game with Andrea today. Ate a massive meal there and then checked out times square a little after that.

Went back to Ange's and chilled for a little while and then caught three trains (which is much easier than it would be in Brisbane) to see the Mingus Big Band at the Jazz Standard. What a beautiful venue this is. We had dinner and some drinks there and enjoyed a great set from the Mingus Big Band. I didn't know any of the tunes except for one so that was cool to hear some of the different stuff they do. They also played a new chart that the bass player arranged from a piano recording Mingus did. The band line up was -

Steve Slagle, Scott Robinson – alto saxophone
Wayne Escoffery, Greg Tardy – tenor saxophone
Ronnie Cuber – baritone saxophone
Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Andy Hunter, Dave Taylor – trombones
Earl Gardner, Avishai Cohen, Greg Gisbert – trumpets
David Kikoski– piano
Boris Kozlov – bass
Adam Cruz - drums

Very cool line up. Had a quick chat to Andy Hunter after the gig. He's a very nice guy and a great trombonist. Going to see his quintet play this Thursday night at Fat Cat.

That's all for today.....more tomorrow.

cheers,

shane

A few pics so far...

Ok so I can only upload a few pics at a time. You can check out some more pics here

Day 3

Day 3 was a little rough with the socceroos loss to germany 4 nil. We went and watched the game at Kelly's sports bar where they had Australian meat pies on sale.
After the game we went and checked out a cd store called J & R. I didn't buy anything because there was way too much to choose from. I'm going to have to make a list and go back.

In the evening we went to day two of the Undead jazz fest. We were a little more tired tonight from the big first day of the festival and beers and pies at the socceroos game.
The bands we checked out were

Josh Sinton's Ideal Bread
Endangered Blood
Steve Coleman and Five Elements
Dave King/Tim Berne/Craig Taborn Trio

There was more on but all of us were tired so we went home a little earlier and got a good night rest.

The plan for day 4 is to go watch the Italy game with Andrea and then see the Vanguard Orchestra and/or Mingus Big Band tonight.

Day 2 - Epic Day!!

So day 2 is now turning into day 3. We got home at about 4.30am from the undead jazz festival. Saw so much music.

We started the day off after 11am and jumped on a train to colombus circle and had a look around jazz at lincoln centre and also checked out the shopping centre there which had some cool artwork for the fifa world cup. Had lunch at central park and walked around there a bit before heading back home for a bit.

Later on we headed into the Undead Jazz Fest and saw a heap of music.
The bands we saw were -

The Uri Caine Ensemble
Dave Douglas & Keystone
Ralph Alessi & This Against That
Dan Weiss/Miles Okazaki Duo
Ben Perowsky's Moodswing Orchestra
Ari Hoenig/Tim Lefebvre/Jean-Michel Pilc Trio
Fight The Big Bull
Alan Ferber Nonet
Josh Roseman Unit

It was an amazing night hanging out with Emily and Andrea seeing live jazz, having some beers and a couple of stops for felafal along the way, oh, and late night pizza before we came home as well.

I'm going to head to bed now before we go and watch the mighty Socceroos this arvo against Germany and then we do day two of the Undead Jazz Fest.

I have pic's and video which I hope to put up in the next couple of days.

cheers,

shane.

First night in New York

We made it into New York nearly two hours later than scheduled. Caught the Air Train to Howard Beach station and then from there we took the A train for just over an hour to 125th St station and were met by beautiful friends Ange and Andrea. Walked up to Ange and Matt's place had a quick shower and drink and then went mid town to a nice italian restaurant for dinner. We then walked a few blocks and caught the 11.30 set of the Joe Lovano nonet at Dizzy's Jazz Club. A great band featuring Lewis Nash, Ralph Lalama, Steve Slagle, Gary Smulyan, Barry Ries, Larry Farrell, James Weidman & Cameron Brown and of course Joe Lovano.

Got home about 2am very tired and crashed out. It's now just after 10am...not to sure what we're going to do today yet but we'll probably go exploring a little and then head out to the Undead Jazz Fest tonight - http://www.undeadjazzfest.com/

I'll write more about this amazing city soon.

Take it easy,

shane.