New York Trip - Day 2

The day started with another hearty breakfast. This time in the West Village. We spent the morning exploring the Village and stopping bar famous landmarks: The Village Vanguard; the Cafe Wha! where Jim Hendix started his career; St Christophers' Street where the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was shot; Jim's Electric Lady Studio; Bob's House, where we spent a relaxing hour in the Cafe Dante opposite. There were plenty of photo opportunities - I wished I had brought Joshua's guitar case as a prop.

Looking at the map I could see that Bond Street was not far from Washington Square. Bond St was the location of Joe Lee Wilson's Ladies Fort loft the 1970s. Joe Lee rented the club when he won $5000 on a horse race and decided to invest it in five years rent on a place for jazz artists to perform. Through the club Joe Lee became a well known figure on the New York jazz scene, and many jazz musicians in NYC still remember it and Joe Lee. I have seen one photo of Joe Lee standing outside it so I had some idea of what I was looking for. Much of Bond St has been redeveloped so I was ready to walk away disappointed, until I realised that the street continued West across one of the avenues. After a few minutes I found a spot that looked close. I popped inside to a design store and, after enquiring, they sent me downstairs to the studio of fashion designer Tunji Dada. We wandered inside, found Tunji and, yes, there it was - The Ladies Fort. Tunji new all about it having met Joe and Jill a few years ago when Joe Lee's documentary was being filmed. Tunji was very charming and delighted to meet us and chat about Joe Lee and the history of the place. It was great finding Joe Lee's place, poignant too. Tribeca Arts Centre currently has a serices of concerts called Lost Jazz Shrines celebrating Ali's Alley, Sam River's Studio Rivbea (also on Bond Street) and Barry Harris' Jazz Cultural Theatre. It's a shame that The Ladies Fort wasn't on the list.

The afternoon was spent on the Staten Island Ferry before hand back to relax ready for the evening. We then head up to the NY Port Authority and took a bus out to Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, home of bass player Earl Sauls. This was a great evening. I got to hear Joshua's trio in Earl's front room! The third member of the band is a brilliant drummer called Jakubu Griffin, son of free jazz trombonist Dick Griffin and until recently working in Las Vegas with the liked of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Kahn, David Cassidy and Sheena Easton (remember her?). The Trio burned their way through a number of tunes before taking the tempo down for a beautiful Soul Eyes (which I managed to catch on video) and a Barry Harris tune I have been listening to a lot recently, Lolita.

In second set I got to play a few tunes with the band - Blue Monk, Have You Met Miss Jones & Stella. It was inspiring playing with and listening to musicians of such calibre. Earl did some wonderful soloing, with lines and rhythms stretching way out. We met some real characters at the party and got a lift back to Manhattan with drummer David and his wife Peg in an ancient Buick that John had driven up from Arizona (over 3000 miles). They dropped us in Washington Heights and travelled the subway almost from one end of the Island to the other. The evening ended in a bar next to the Chelsea Hotel.

New York Trip - Days 0-1

My first view of the famous Manhattan skyline was from the plane. In the hazy distance it sat suspended in the air like a vision of Avalon.

After a good flight, coach and shuttle to our hotel in Chelsea, we hooked up with Joshua Breakstone. Joshua introduced me to my companion for the trip, a D'Angelico New Yorker guitar - a gift to Joshua from D'Angelico that, I was told, had been coveted by the likes of Jimmy Bruno and Pat Martino. We then drove downtown to Greenwich Village, passed famous jazz clubs like The Village Vanguard and The Blue Note before arriving at our destination - a funky little Italian called Arturo's which featured a jazz trio squished around a piano. By the time we got to bed, Keith and I had been up for 24 hours  . . .

Friday morning began at the famous Empire Diner for a huge breakfast that set us up nicely for the day. We then went uptown to the Museum of Modern Art where we two fascinating and contrasting exhibitions - a retrospective by performance artist Marina Abramovich called the Artist Is Present (the artist is in fact present, along with a large number of naked men and women recreating installation pieces from her past), and an exhibition of Cartier Bresson photography. We then strolled up to The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, gaping at the skyscrapers (I kept on think of the line "canyons of steel" from the song Autumn in New York) and enjoying a stroll through a very sunny Central Park.

Highlights at The Met included the exhibition of their Picasso collection and the beautifully arranged collection of modern art - huge rooms exhibiting de Koonings, Warhols, Barnett Newmans and the like. After about three hours we ended up on the roof with a huge, intricate bamboo sculpture and wonderful views across Central Park.

We then headed all the way downtown to the curious mix of glamorous high fashion and wholesale meat market that is the Meatpacking District. From here we made our way up on to former raised railway line that has been transformed into an urban park called The Highline. This has to be one of the most laid back places in Manhattan - people reading, picnicking, chatting, strolling among beautiful flowers and grasses. This led us eventually to a pier on the Hudson where we say on a disused lightship (The Frying Pan) drinking beer, eating burgers and watching the sun set over New Jersey.

Our final stop of the day was Smoke, a small  at the upper end of Broadway where guitarist Peter Bernstein was playing with legendary Milers Davis drummer Jimmy Cobb, Richard Wyland on piano and bassist John Webber. Although I know Peter's recording well I have never seen him live. He told us it was years since he played in London but would like to get over there with the trio he has with Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart. I recognised a number of the tunes from his recent Live at Smalls release featuring the same band. The band played really well - Jimmy Cobb with his trademark "no frills" approach, Richard Wylands with a lovely laid back feel and Peter with his great, blues inflected lines. Bassist John Webber probably got the loudest applause for the night for his solos - he seemed to really play out of himself, with imaginative lines and great dynamics in his soloing.

Needless to say, I went to bed shattered.

Jim Mullen - Rhythm Changes Solo

Here is guitarist Jim Mullen in full flight soloing on I Got Rhythm chord changes. Notice that extraordinary right hand technique - yes, he's speed picking with his thumb! He's fond of the odd quote - my favourite here being "If I Was a Rich Man" from Fiddler On The Roof at 1:40.

Kineojazz presents Claire Martin, 2nd June, The Basement

Following on from the success of the Joe Lee Wilson/Remember April event, we have organised a gig with Claire Martin. Claire lives in Brighton but has an international reputation as one of the finest jazz singers of her generation. For this gig she has a great band consisting on Jim Mullen (guitar), Laurence Cottle (bass) and Ian Thomas (drums). Here is the flyer for the gig:

[Click to enlarge)

Claire will be supported by my own Trio featuring Keith Baxter (Fender bass) and Tony Kenyon (drums), with guest singers Jon Gilhooly and Ela Southgate.

Tickets from The Dome Box Office (01273 709709). Full details of the gig here: http://www.kineojazz.com/ - the site includes links to photos of the Joe Lee Wilson/Remember April gig.

Bobby Wellins with the Terry Seabrook Trio featuring Spike Wells & Dan Sheppard, The Brunswick, 18 April

Introducing the first set tenor player Bobby Wellins explained that he hadn't played in a while before delivering a blistering set of Thelonius Monk classics, segueing from Straight No Chaser to In Walked Bud to Monk's Mood and on though tunes such as Little Rootie Tootie and Blue Monk. In all, almost an hour of non-stop jazz.

There's something about Monk's tunes that encourages improvisers to take on Monkish qualities - thoughtful, surprising phrases, large intervals, dissonance. They all steered away from the obvious notes - Bobby Wellins never loses his fantastic sense of swing, pianist Terry Seabrook releasing a tumult of ideas, bassist Dan Sheppard developing interesting melodic ideas and drummer Spike Wells throwing in rich, complex rhythmic patterns. Collectively Bobby rightly referred to the band as "great improvisers".

The second set kicked off with My Funny Valentine as a waltz, moving to Green Dolphin Street and Mad About the Boy (according to Bobby, written for Douglas Fairbanks Junior by Noel Coward). One of my favourite tunes of the evening was the ballad It Never Entered My Mind, a song of solitude and regret played from the back of the stage, sans mic, by Bobby, with the acoustic sound of the sax reflecting the fragility of the lyric ("And once you told me I was mistaken/That I'd awaken with the sun/And order orange juice for one/It never entered my mind"). He also did a great, upbeat version of Neil Hefti's theme from Neil Simon's The Odd Couple with Walter Matthau as Oscar & Jack Lemon as Felix (Oscar: I know him. He'll kill himself just to spite me. Then his ghost will come back, following me around the apartment, haunting and cleaning, haunting and cleaning, haunting and cleaning...).

From the photo you'll see that I had no view of the drums. I did however have the delightful sight of Bobby and Terry looking on at Spike as he delivered another knock-out solo, a look that I can only describe as pleasure mixed with pride mixed with the anticipation of more pleasant surprises to come.

It was a great gig ending with Bobby graciously thanking the audience for turning up to watch the boys "fight the good fight". What's more, it was free!

Just one negative - the use of the PA. Why would you want to chuck the bass, piano and sax through PA  speakers in such as small venue? My experience of The Brunswick and similar venues is to get the sound guy to make minimal us if the PA for essentials such as voice, horns and piano if required. Musicians of this calibre can find their own balance and no one turns up to a gig like this expecting to be shouted at.

Reflections on Joe Lee Wilson at The Basement

[Photo by Emily Harris]

Thursday's gig with Joe Lee was a great success. We knew the pressure was on when the tickets sold out almost a week before leaving many people ticketless and, presumably, disappointed. However, from the moment Ela's band Remember April went on we would tell that the evening was going to be special.

Having played with Joe Lee a few weeks' earlier, he had clearly gained in strength and confidence in the couple of weeks spent in Paris, which included gigs with the New York band Spirit of Life.

Terry Seabrook and I had had a chance to run through a set with Joe Lee but the gig was the first time we had played with the fantastic rhythm section of Steve Watts (bass) and Martin France (drums). Like Terry, Steve has toured often with Joe Lee over years, and Joe Lee was very happy to be surrounded by such familiar faces. For my own part, it was the best band I had ever played with!

With fifty years of gigging behind him, Joe Lee knows how to the attention of an audience and he won them over from the moment he stepped on the stage. Though looking a bit frail, he has a big soulful voice and he chose material that was very accessible including standards (Violets For Your Furs), gospel (May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You) and hard bop classics (Song For My Father).

Following the gig I had lots of feedback from people who may not typically go to a jazz gig - "beautiful", "excellent", "enjoyable", "life affirming", "a great gig". This was testament to the hard work promoting and preparing for the gig by Steve Rayson of Kineo, Ela, Terry Seabrook, Jill Wilson (Joe Lee's wife), the staff of The Basement and, of course, Joe Lee Wilson.

The next Kineojazz gig is Claire Martin on 2nd June supported by the JH Trio plus guests. Tickets (£15) available from The Dome - better get in there early!

Phoenix Gallery Brighton - Dream Home "Housewarming Party" 23rd April

A "Housewarming Party" for an exhibition at The Phoenix Gallery on the theme of Dream Home has had artist & vocalist Jonathan Gilhooly, bassist Keith Baxter and myself scurrying around looking for off-beat tunes to perform. We have a growing list including: Roxy Music's In Every Dream Home a Heartache; Robert Johnson's Come on in my Kitchen; Tom Waits' What's He Doing in There; and standards such as A Cottage For Sale, You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To and On The Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady. For the time being we've decided against The England World Cup Squad 1970  hit - Back Home, but then again . . .

The Housewarming Party is on the 23rd April and you can "meet the artists, explore the house and experience a number of impromptu performances throughout the evening."

More info on the Phoenix Gallery Website. The image above is from Gary Barber.

April 24 - June 6. 2010

Late opening: Fri 14, Sat 15 & Sun 16 May until 9 pm  Apr 24 - Jun 6, 2010 

Daily opening: Tue - Sun 1 am - 5pm