Category: Jazz Or Bust Tour

(June 16, 2012) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA to NASHVILLE, TN — Today I spent 14 hours in the same seat on the same bus (with a couple short breaks) traveling from Charlottesville, VA, to Nashville, TN. Needless to say, this diary entry will be less extensive than many of the previous entries. One interesting note on place names: Today I was in Charlottesville, Wytheville, Knoxville, Cookeville, Crossville and Nashville.

Charlottesville’s pedestrian mall was empty and very peaceful this morning about 6:30 as I walked from John Mason’s place to the Greyhound station.

I exchanged a “good morning” with two guys relaxing on a bench. Other than them, I didn’t pass another person on the entire walk.

The bus station wasn’t even open when I arrived — nor did it ever open before I got on the bus. I’m not sure what would have happened if I’d needed a ticket, but with my Discovery Pass that wasn’t an issue.

I had to share a seat for the first part of today’s trip, only the second time that’s happened so far. The first time was the first leg of the trip from NYC to Wilmington more than two weeks ago. As a friend said this morning, it seems like a lot longer ago that I left Brooklyn.

The ride from Charlottesville to Nashville was a trip through a lot of small towns that have seen better days, plus a few larger spots such as Roanoke (VA) and Knoxville (TN). In one town, nearly the entire main street was for sale or lease by the same real estate firm.

We stopped in Morristown, Tennessee. It was one of the few stops where folks had time to smoke, and most of the passengers got off the bus to do that. The resulting scene out the bus window was very engaging, so I wrote a poem called, creatively, “Morristown, Tennessee.”

Of course the bus that goes all the way from Richmond (VA) to Dallas (TX) would be a bus without wifi or power outlets. I had even brought my laptop on the bus for the first time because the trip was so long. I did manage to watch most of My Neighbor Totoro before my laptop died. Then I charged it during a layover and watched most of Blade Runner.

I also slept. A lot. I haven’t been sleeping long enough or regularly enough on the tour and every few days it catches up with me. I snore a lot and so I try to avoid falling asleep in public. And by “in public” I mean within about 25 miles of other people. But I think I don’t sleep deeply enough on the bus to snore and in any case I desperately needed the rest. Oh, and I also read The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, which I’m reading for the first time. (Want to buy me a Kindle book for my trip? You can do that here. Thanks!)

Which brings me to food. I grabbed a banana on my way out the door this morning. The bus left C’ville at 7:05 a.m. and our first chance to eat was around 11:30 in Wytheville, VA. Now I know what you’re thinking: “But Jason, Wytheville is famed for its eating establishments and its hospitality for the weary traveler.” You may be right, but I couldn’t say, because we parked between a gas station and a McDonald’s and those were our options. As a vegan, I opted for another banana and some pretzels at the gas station, figuring I’d have a better shot at real food when we stopped in Knoxville, TN, around dinner time.

“Surely, Jason,” I can hear you protest, “even a nutty vegan like you found sustenance in Knoxville, a mid-sized city famed for its eateries?” Which brings me to traveling by bus. When you travel on Greyhound, you tend to arrive in the parts of cities where the city council will still allow buses to bring in loads of strangers. In other words, you seldom show up in the business or nightlife district and much more often get dropped in unused brownfields or barely standing industrial zones.

Here, in all its glory, is the entirety of the food selection that awaited us in Knoxville:

Outside the station there was NOTHING. It looked like a scene from John Carter’s Escape From New York. So, for the first time since October 2010, I ate some meat. It was either buy a ham sandwich (the least meaty thing in the cooler) or not eat at all until Nashville. Being a vegan isn’t about starving, so I ate the sandwich. I really need a better system for traveling with my own food.

One other thing: When I left Charlottesville this morning, I didn’t actually have a place to stay in Nashville. Starting tomorrow, I’m staying with Evan Cobb, but he’s out of town today. So I reached out via Twitter and Paul Horton answered the call. He’s a pianist and keyboardist here in Nashville and he and his family very graciously welcomed me into their home on short notice. Thank you, Paul.

I’m doing a poetry reading at 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. I hope you can come.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 15, 2012) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — The photo on the upper left is what I looked like around 2 p.m. as I toured the Rotunda on the University of Virginia campus. The photo on the upper right is what I looked like after what I’m calling the Great Hair Massacre Of Twenty-Twelve. More on that later.

I spent much of my day at the University of Virginia, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson as a tax shelter. I was there to interview trumpeter John D’earth and drummer Robert Jospe.

Photo by John Mason

John D’earth is a phenomenal human being. Of course he’s an accomplished and multifaceted musician, but more than that, he’s a truly insightful and deep thinker who is trying hard to get at the essence of what it means to be human — using music as his vehicle. I left our interview very energized, which is the best possible result.

John also told me about his late brother, the poet Paul Smyth. Smyth’s life was one of those American stories containing both glory and tragedy. I can’t do it justice in this diary but I’ll try to revisit it with John sometime. John was kind enough to give me a copy of Smyth’s A Plausible Light: New And Collected Poems, which he pointed out is actually a “selected poems” because it doesn’t contain all his brother’s work. I don’t have much room in my backpack, but there was no way I was going to turn down that gift.

After a brief break to stuff some falafel in my face, I rushed back to UVa to chat, for the second time in my life, with drummer and educator Robert Jospé.

Photo by John Mason

The first time I interviewed Robert Jospé was about a decade ago when I was an elementary school student and the child prodigy station manager of Jazz90.1 in Rochester, NY. I played the hell out of his records back then and was happy to finally get to sit in the same room with him. I’m not even sure I knew where he lived when I did our first phone interview.

“Jos,” as he’s known in C’ville (or C-ville, depending on whom you ask) is another very thoughtful guy. He and John D’earth go back as far as high school together, and Jos has done as much as anyone to create a scene here in Charlottesville. He’s also well known as an educator who specializes in bringing out the groove in his students.

Following our interview I took a mostly self-guided tour of the Academical Village section of the UVa campus. That’s the section designed by Thomas Jefferson. The newer parts were apparently designed by Josef Stalin. UGLY. But the old section is truly magical. It’s like stepping back into the 18th century.

There are still tiny rooms lining the main rectangular lawn. Students live in these rooms. It’s considered an honor and it’s very competitive to get one. And they have no bathrooms. Or air conditioning. Or much of anything, really. But if you live in one, you get to add your name to a list of former residents that includes Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Winters, Shelley Winters and the Paul Winter Consort.

And now back to … the horror! the horror!

I asked my host, John Mason, if there was a barbershop close by. “I don’t know where white folks go to get their hair cut, but I can take you to Joker’s,” he said. We went to Joker’s, a local institution. The place has been there since at least the 1930s, and according to the late barber Mr. Payne, whom John knew before he passed and who’d been cutting hair there since 1938, many of the legends of the big band era got their hair cut there when they came through town. Apparently Cab Calloway and members of the Ellington and Basie bands all sat in a chair in Joker’s.

The only trouble was that Joker’s was packed to the rafters with people waiting to get their hair cut. So we went down the street to Mel’s, which has been open three years. I never should have done it. When I described to the guy what size clipper to use and he seemed unsure what I meant, I should have run. I sat in the chair. His VERY FIRST ACT was to run the clippers over the top of my head. From that moment, I knew I was completely at his mercy and that my hair would not be cut in any way other than the way he knew how. I was facing away from the mirror the entire time, which was probably just as well. I have no health insurance so there’s no reason to test my heart at this point in the tour.

After the massacre (I even tipped the guy), I went home, showered, wept, and then took a copy of the poem I wrote last night to the server about whom I wrote it. I know, I know, but that’s who I am. She seemed happy in the way you’d seem happy if someone you’d seen once in your life walked in and handed you a poem. But she offered me cold tea on a hot day (“a gift for a gift”), so that was lovely.

Next, John Mason and I went to a coffee joint to meet Scott Deveaux, a writer who specializes in jazz and has written several books. We had a nice chat about the music and Scott was kind enough to give me the most recent edition of a jazz textbook he co-authored with Gary Giddins.

John and I had some lovely food then went back to the same coffee shop to hear a few tunes by a band that included recent high school grad Veronica Swift, whose parents are both musicians. She’s about to start at the University of Miami. The band, composed of players who could all be my kids, played some adventurous tunes and, for their age, played them extremely well. They all appear to have bright futures.

The final stop of the night was the Twisted Branch Tea Room to hear John D’earth play in a band with a tabla player and bassist:

It was a thoroughly enjoyable set played by three musicians who were stretching and searching. I sat on the floor a few feet from the stage and blissed out.

This morning (it’s the wee hours on Saturday as I’m typing this), I have to get up very early to go to Nashville. It’s a 15-hour ride. I have no choice but to do it that way because I have a poetry reading in Music City on Sunday at 4 p.m. Details here.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 14, 2012) RICHMOND, VA and CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — Yes, of course that’s a large inflatable soldier walking down the pedestrian mall in Charlottesville. Every town has one of those, right?

I was sorry to leave Richmond today. I’m extremely impressed by the scene people have created there and the sincere way in which all the members of that scene support one another. It’s a real inspiration and a model that I think many places could replicate.

But I did have to leave. I interviewed drummer Scott Clark in the morning then went to the bus station.

It was a short ride to Charlottesville and we arrived exactly on time. My twitter pal John Mason was there to meet me. He’s a professor at the University of Virginia and a jazzhead. He took me to one of his favorite spots, Mel’s:

Mel’s is a soul food joint and needless to say not all that vegan-friendly, but Mel himself was incredibly friendly in a way that made me feel like I’d been coming there forever. And he called me “young man,” so he’s OK in my book.

John took me through the pedestrian mall. Whoever had that idea was a smarty. Charlottesville turned part of Main Street into a car-free pedestrian paradise with shops and outdoor dining and free wifi. WIN.

I dropped my gear at John’s and did some production work for Thursday’s episode of The Jazz Session featuring Harris Eisenstadt. Then I headed back to the pedestrian mall to relax and read.

Speaking of reading: Apparently no one in C’ville has heard that Americans don’t read books, because there are more bookstores here than anywhere I’ve seen outside of New York. And as you might guess, Charlottesville is slightly smaller than New York. I was having a phone conversation while walking down the pedestrian mall, and I kept stopping to tell the person on the other end of the phone, “I’m at another bookstore.” I think there are four in about two blocks. My kind of town.

John and I had dinner at Now & Zen. Yes, it’s a groan-inducing name, but the food was good and the service even better. I was fairly sure our server was from upstate New York, where I lived for many years. (She was: Lockport.) And then, to make things even weirder, the owner was from Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, not far at all from where I lived in Japan. And his nephews went to the same high school in Japan that I went to. Crazy! I’m working on a poem about the server and owner.

Then it was off to WTJU to be interviewed by David Eisenman and Steve Huff. Steve’s a regular listener to my show. I also met Gary Funston, another WTJU DJ and another listener to The Jazz Session. Here’s a photo of my stomach and me at WTJU, courtesy of John Mason:

I talked about the tour and the show and also got to read two poems, “eat at Joe’s” and “noir.”

Oh, and the university is getting ready for the tough economic times ahead with this wonderful gladiator arena, which I’m sure will be a big crowd favorite:

Tomorrow I’m interviewing trumpeter and educator John D’earth, so tonight I went to see him at his regular Thursday night gig at Miller’s. What a nice hang.

Finally, back to Richmond for a second. I can’t end this diary entry without showing you this:

You’re welcome.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 13, 2012) RICHMOND, VA — Today was my last full day in Richmond, and I spent a fair amount of it talking to Doug Richards, the person who created the jazz studies program at Virginia Commonwealth University and thus created the environment for the vibrant scene here in RVA.

The rest of the day I spent doing tour planning work in a vegan-friendly cafe called The Lamplighter. I booked a reading in Knoxville, TN, on June 22 and confirmed the details for another reading in Auburn, AL, on June 29. I also scheduled some other interviews and continued to work on places to stay.

I discovered this rare Shakespeare artifact and was delighted that the Bard decided to go with just the last name for his character:

I tried to rent a paddle boat here:

…but their credit card machine was down and I had no cash. Sigh.

Saw some good advice:

Also encountered this painting at the Lamplighter:

I think it’s supposed to depict people worshipping a coffee bean. However, the painting was on the men’s room wall, so the brown object could be something else. I kinda hope it is, actually.

Came back to the place I was staying and found this:

…which about sums things up.

The other thing I did today was to write a lot of poetry. Mostly really soul-baring love poetry. Right toward the end of my time in New York, I felt like I had a fairly good grip on the emotional landscape of my life. I’ve noticed since I started the tour that I’ve lost some of that clarity. I’m surrounded by people but feeling a bit lonely. I think that’s my default position, but I started to get past it in the past few months in Brooklyn, particularly as a result of a few of the close relationships I had. Being away from those people is definitely the hardest part of this tour. (K, C & N — I miss youse guys.)

Tomorrow I’m interviewing Scott Clark in the morning then heading to Charlottesville, VA, to meet my Twitter pal John Edwin Mason. We’re going to hear John D’earth play. I’m interviewing both D’earth and Robert Jospe on Friday. Then it’s off to Nashville.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 12, 2012) RICHMOND, VA — The title of today’s tour diary is the also the title of the new album by Janel & Anthony. That’s them up above, playing a fabulous show at Ghostprint Gallery in Richmond. More about them in a bit.

Today was a day of work. I spent the first several hours booking interviews, readings and places to stay for the next few weeks. I’ll be in Nashville, Knoxville, Asheville, Durham, Raleigh, Atlanta, Auburn (AL) and elsewhere. I also sent out a press release for my Nashville reading that has already led to both a Q&A and a radio appearance. Oh, and I did laundry.

Speaking of laundry, my Twitter pal John Edwin Mason, with whom I’ll be staying in Charlottesville this week, posted a link to this article about packing for travel. One of the tips is to not bring jeans, but to instead go with cotton or khaki pants. It’s a great point. For tonight’s poetry reading I wanted to wear pants, but I couldn’t even consider putting on hot, heavy jeans. And it’s not even really hot yet here in the South. So at the first opportunity, the jeans are going to go.

Anyway, after work and laundry I needed a break and some food. I’ve become so used to living in urban centers (something I’ve done almost without exception since 1993) that I keep forgetting it’s not really possible in a lot of Richmond to find food nearby. I left the place where I was staying and walked to a nearby Greek restaurant that had some yummy-looking vegan options. I got there one minute after they closed for a two-hour window between lunch and dinner. It was raining pretty hard, but I had an umbrella, so I decided to explore to see if I could find something else. Unfortunately, I found a place:

I should have known something was wrong when I walked into Su Casa and saw the life-sized carboard mariachi figure with a hole in the head to put your own face through. The place was empty except for one elderly customer, but it was 3 p.m., which is a weird time for lunch. I ordered the veggie burrito, being careful to ask them to skip the cheese and sour cream. I wrote more tour postcards while I waited.

The burrito came a little while later, covered in a 3- to 4-inch mound of iceberg lettuce. (Why is iceberg lettuce legal?) I dug down to find the actual burrito, which of course had cheese. So back it went, to be replaced a few minutes later with another mound of lettuce but no cheese. It was, in a word, awful. I immediately felt ill after I finished and continued to feel that way for the next couple hours. The only redeeming factor of the whole dining experience was listening to the server try to explain flan (about which she knew nothing) to the elderly gentleman who had never heard of it.

I headed back to where I was staying, did a bit more work and got my stuff together for my poetry reading. Scott, my host, drove me to Chop Suey books. Until about 5 minutes before the reading started, this is what the room looked like:

All was not lost, though. Seven or eight people came out, including Janel and Anthony, whom I’d interviewed in DC and who were performing in Richmond later that evening. What a wonderful thing for them to do. (Thank you both!) I also finally met Reggie Pace, who’s been on my show and who plays in both NO BS! Brass and Bon Iver. In fact, he’d just come back into town after playing at Bonnaroo.

I had a great time at the reading. I read the two new poems I’d written since arriving in Richmond, followed by the 30-minute set I’d used in West Virginia. I even sold books afterward, primarily using my new phone-based credit card reader from Square, which worked like a charm. If you travel and sell things, you need one of these gizmos. It’s free and it means the difference between selling something and not selling something. I almost never carry cash and often have difficulty buying CDs at shows because the artists can’t take credit cards. Now there’s no reason not to take them.

Following the reading I walked across town to Ghostprint Gallery to hear Janel & Anthony play. There were two opening acts, a noise artist named Scant who’d recently relocated from Richmond to DC:

…and then Boris Bobby, a group led by Jimmy Ghaphery. They played a piece based on the 1972 championship chess match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer (hence the name). I couldn’t follow everything that was going on, but at least part of the piece involved the players using printouts of the chess board from various stages of that match:

I’ve started to take shots of the audiences in the places I go. I find those photos to be as interesting as the shots I take of the bands.

You can click on any of the thumbnails above to see the larger versions. Here’s my favorite audience shot from tonight:

After a short break, it was time for Janel & Anthony…

They were fabulous. They played the majority of their new record, Where Is Home (Cuneiform, 2012). Janel plays cello and Anthony plays guitar, but that doesn’t come close to describing the experience of the album or the live show. They use loops and effects to create a gorgeous weave of sound that combines everything from traditional Indian music to country to jazz to noise. And you Maggot Brain fans? They’ve got you covered on that score, too.

Their album really resonates with me, not least because I’m also asking the question posed by its title. Add into the mix the fact that they’re two wonderful, kind people and that’s about all I need. They finished with a new tune that featured Janel singing. It was stunning. They’re on tour now, heading to Chapel Hill, DC (their home turf), Brooklyn and elsewhere. Go hear them.

A few things had come up for the person with whom I was staying, so I exited the gallery after the show around 10:30 with an hour walk ahead of me. I don’t mind walking at all, but that seemed a bit much for that time of night, so I thought I’d hail a cab. Then I remembered I was in Richmond, where that’s a laughable notion. So I hoofed it to a bar and waited for Scott Burton from Glows In The Dark to come rescue me. Just in time, too, because it started to pour again. I got my stuff from the place where I had been staying and went to Scott B’s house, which is where I’m bunking for the next two nights. Tomorrow I’m interviewing the guy who started the jazz program at Virginia Commonwealth University, and also the aforementioned Scott Burton.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 11, 2012) RICHMOND, VA — Today was a laid-back day. Maybe the most relaxed day of the tour so far. It started on that lovely porch you see above, which is where I made today’s episode of The Jazz Session, featuring Barry Kernfeld. Today’s show is a perfect example of the kind of interview that only happened because I went on this tour.

I’ve been going to State College, PA, for nearly two decades, starting in 1995. It’s where my former wife spent a lot of her childhood and where her family still lives. And now my children live there, too, so I go as often as I can to hang out with them. For all the years I’ve been going there, Barry Kernfeld, the editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, has been living right in the same town and I never knew.

I wouldn’t have known this time, either, except that through a strange chain of events I ended up staying with a guy who works at Penn State and also directs local musical theater productions, in which Barry plays saxophone. It was this man, Russell Bloom, who told me that Barry was right down the street and gave me his number. For the rest of the story — and a look at Barry’s fascinating life — you can listen to the show.

After producing the show, I went with drummer Scott Clark to have some Thai food. Then Scott brought me to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which is breathtaking. The permanent collection alone is very impressive. I particularly enjoyed the South Asian art exhibit, which contained some very old Buddhist and Jain sculpture.

The museum is also hosting a traveling exhibit of artwork and artifacts from the maharajas of India. I saw about half of the exhibit and was captivated by it. I’d like to go back if I have time before I leave town.

I futzed around in a coffee shop for a while. The barista gave me the lowdown on some of her favorite vegan places in town. I also finished Ghost Trails, the first book by adventure cyclist Jill Homer. Reading her stories of riding the Iditarod in winter on a bike and having to dig a trench in the snow around her sleeping bag so she wouldn’t die … let’s just say those stories really put a late bus into perspective.

I also stopped by Chop Suey Books, site of my poetry reading Tuesday, June 12 at 6 p.m. If you’re anywhere near Richmond please come by. It’s a lot more fun to read for a room full of people. And I’d love to meet you!

The rest of the day was extraordinarily relaxed. In fact, I spent most of it sitting on a stoop and alternately reading a book or writing a love poem. If you know me at all, you’ll know the latter is a fairly common activity for me. Speaking of poetry, I also posted a poem that I wrote on my first night in Richmond. It’s called “eat at joe’s” and will probably be the first poem I read at Chop Suey.

And that’s about it. Other than arranging some things for future tour stops, that was my day.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 10, 2012) WASHINGTON, DC to RICHMOND, VA — I’m writing this at 2 a.m. by the glow of a lava lamp after hearing music tonight in a small bar in Richmond that was as good as anything I’ve heard in New York. More about that later.

I did a final interview in Silver Spring this morning before loading up my backpack and heading into DC to catch my bus (that’s the bus station in the photo above). I really enjoyed DC. I didn’t get to do as many touristy things as I would have liked, but I got to see good music and meet some fine people, so that more than made up for it. But I’d like to go back and geek out on history. Next time.

Today’s bus was late leaving and late arriving at its destination. That’s the first time that’s happened and we were just 30 minutes late, so Greyhound is still doing fine by me. But I was reminded of Charles Kurault’s line, “Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.”

When you arrive in Richmond by bus, the first thing you see is an enormous stadium with flying squirrels on it. Knowing nothing at all about this town, I had no idea what it was for, but I assumed a college football team. I later learned that Virginia Commonwealth University is here. I then made the half-hour trek across town to Joe’s Inn, which had been recommended to me by my host, drummer Scott Clark.

Joe’s Inn was perfect. The folks were hospitable, the food was good and the iced tea was sweet, the way it’s supposed to be. I immediately remembered how much I love the South and how happy I am to be back here. It’s been too long since my last visit. I wrote a poem in Joe’s, too.

That reminds me: I’m reading my poetry here in Richmond on Tuesday, June 12 at 6 p.m. at Chop Suey Books. If you’re reading this and you’re anywhere near Richmond, it would mean a lot to me if you came. If you’ve never been to hear poetry before, don’t worry. My stuff is fairly easy to take, as long as you like poems about relationships.

After Joe’s, I still had quite a while to kill before Scott’s second gig, so I wandered toward what I thought would be William Byrd Park. I hadn’t paid enough attention to my spacephone, though, and didn’t notice that a highway was going to block my path. But right at the dead end was a lovely community garden with some plastic chairs, so I took off my pack and settled down with my Kindle to read.

After a little while a woman about my age came over to the garden.

“Visiting?” she asked.

“Just got into town. I’m heading to a show nearby in a little while. I hope you don’t mind if I rest in your chair.”

“It’s a community garden. Everyone’s welcome.”

She went to the other end of the garden to do some planting. When she came back, I told her what I was doing and invited her to my reading on Tuesday.

Twilight descended and it was time to go to the Commercial Taphouse to hear Scott Clark’s band. Even after spending quite a while in the garden, I was still very early for the show, but I enjoyed more sweet tea and used my Kindle light to make sure everyone in the bar knew I was a nerd.

The Taphouse is long and fairly narrow joint with a really good vibe. Tons of beer available (I don’t drink, but it looked impressive) and a friendly bartender who knew his stuff. Plus they book lots of music, including adventurous jazz. Thumbs up!

The Scott Clark 4-tet features Scott on drums, Cameron Ralston on bass, Jason Scott on saxes and Bob Miller on trumpet. They are, in a word, ballsy. The band started strong and just got stronger. It was, as I said above, as good as anything I’ve heard in New York.

I love the classic Ornette Coleman quartet lineup and Clark and the band make incredible use of it. They have a full, rich sound and they sound like a band. Because they’re a band. They’ve played together a ton over the years and it shows. Ralston is a monster on the bass, and his hook-up with Clark is really something to hear. Like a freight train loaded with dynamite crashing into an ammunition dump. Jason Scott and Bob Miller crushed all their unison and harmony parts, and when it was time to improvise, both had a seemingly endless supply of new ideas.

I met a number of other Richmond-based musicians at the show tonight, too. Scott is helping me assemble a group of them for a discussion about what makes the RVA scene so vibrant. I’ve already had several Richmond folks on The Jazz Session, including Fight The Big Bull, NO BS! Brass, and Darius Jones (here and here).

Apparently there’s an amazing art museum in town. I’m going to check that out later today (Monday) and also try to get to the river. I’m interviewing Scott Clark while I’m here, recording that group discussion, and probably also squeezing in another interview or two in addition to my reading.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 9, 2012) WASHINGTON, DC — My brain is full. I did two interviews today and saw four sets of music. I’m hoping that getting it all down in this diary will help empty out the old bean so I can function tomorrow. The 12 (yes, 12) hours of sleep I got last night really helped. I’m apparently not the spry young man I was just 20 short years ago. Excuse me, I need to drink my Metamucil.

Much better.

I started the day (after getting out of bed at 11) by interviewing Brad Linde and Brian Settles. I mentioned them both in my June 7 diary. They were excellent guests. I was particularly impressed by the thoughtful, almost monastic viewpoint Brian had regarding his path as a jazz musician. It reminded me very much of some of the things Sonny Rollins has said on my show (here and here). As I was walking him out, Brian told me a story about jamming with a parrot that I was crushed not to have on tape.

Following my interviews, I went to CapitalBop’s JazzLoft MegaFest (that’s the schedule pictured above). As you can see from the title, the folks at CapitalBop enjoy capital letters in the middle of compound words.

My timing wasn’t great. I arrived in between sets of music and didn’t see any live performances. But it was a cool event. Clothing and art vendors combined with live music, films and a panel discussion on the shared space of jazz and hip hop. I know from people who were there later on that it was packed and jumpin’. I did get a chance to chat with CapitalBop’s Giovanni Russonello and Luke Stewart:

I guess it’s an obvious comparison, but CapitalBop looks to me like the DC version of New York’s Search & Restore. It’s an attempt to bridge the gap between improvised music and younger audiences. By all accounts, CapitalBop is making it happen. Next time I’m in DC, I’ll be sure to interview them. I just ran out of time on this trip.

Right across the street from the JaZzLoFtMeGaFeSt was Busboys & Poets, a famous cafe and poetry space. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I was picturing the Bowery Poetry Cafe, but it’s more like a Macaroni Grill with better art. I haven’t done enough research to know if this is a new space, but by all accounts there’s a lot of good stuff happening, even if it does look like you should be wearing flare on your apron when you’re there.

Then I took a nice loooooong walk across town to Gallery O on H Street to hear music by two people I’d recently interviewed, Brad Linde and Jeff Cosgrove. The band also featured Sarah Hughes on saxophone and Michael Kramer on guitar.

It was a cool space with a good crowd. Sadly, I wasn’t able to stay long because I needed to get back to Silver Spring in time to make Joel Harrison’s gig.

(Below, left to right: Stickers on K Street; probably not a future jazzhead; Eric Dolphy folk art in Gallery O on H.)

Joel’s show was part of an event called “Off The Grid,” put on by Sonic Circuits at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, MD. The idea was a program of mostly experimental music for which the players were not allowed to plug into a wall socket. They could use batteries or solar power or hamsters or whatever, but not the grid.

I arrived partway through a performance by After The Pin drops, featuring a cellist and percussionist who used their instruments plus lots of found objects.

Then it was time for Animal Wigs, which was right up my alley. A fabulous mix of percussion and battery-powered electronics, led by Jason Mullinax, who also programmed the event. (I just typed and deleted the word “curated,” which I hate in this context but now use without even thinking about it most of the time.)

The band hit the sweet spot for me, combining tonality, abstract noise, periods of real rhythmic intensity and a sense of humor.

After a brief intermission, the packed house was treated to what may have been my favorite ever live performance by Joel Harrison. He was playing only the second solo show of his career. If he takes my career advice (hah!), he’ll play many more.

The best way I can describe his set is to call it alt-blues-rock-country-improv. It kicked ass.

Joel started with a bluesy improvisation featuring some nice vocal howls. Then he played “Remember,” which for me was the high point of the night. Over a series of sometimes eerie guitar sounds, Joel recited a long poem of memories, most of which sounded like experiences he’d actually had. It was gorgeous and powerful.

Then he played a very sweet version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Cry Of Love,” followed by a perfectly distorted, looped and angry cover of Neil Young’s “Ohio.” (Right before this tune, Joel said the following about one of his guitars: “This guitar, with a little distortion and slide through a Fender? It’ll make your dick hard.” File under: Things That Should Be Said At More Jazz Shows.)

Joel ended the night with his beautiful song “The Other River.” I thought his performance was not only a highlight of the recent live shows I’ve seen, but also a perfect way to end a night of very experimental music. It was a very smart and effective programming move and I applaud Sonic Circuits for making it.

By the way, the art at Pyramid Atlantic was fascinating. The exhibit I saw was called “Shangai Impressions: Ex Libris Prints.” I wish I had time to go back and spend longer looking at the prints. Here’s a bit of one by Zhang Songzu:

Tomorrow I’m off to Richmond, VA. I’m going to see Scott Clark’s band tomorrow night. And on Tuesday, June 12, I’m doing a poetry reading at Chop Suey Books. Details here. If you’re anywhere near Richmond, please come!

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.)

(June 8, 2012) WASHINGTON, DC — I ask people questions.

These days, it’s the main thing I spend my time doing. I’m an introvert and not that good in small groups of people. Or one on one, for that matter, except when I’m asking questions. It makes me happy to learn about other people. The things they care about. The things they’ve spent lots of time figuring out. The things they wonder about. The things they love.

Today I asked two very different sets of questions. This morning, I did the first interview for a freelance audio project I’m working on related to education. I can’t say all that much about it, but the basic idea is that I’m interviewing people from a particular education company so that their co-workers in far-flung places can learn more about the various projects this company is working on.

My guest today was an inspiring and brilliant researcher whose primary focus is on how we amass and analyze data in schools. It was an exciting interview for me because my main role was to be the extreme non-expert, a position for which I was eminently qualified. So when he would give me a brilliant answer, I would force him to reduce it to its core components so that someone without his academic background could understand it.

I felt well prepared for this, because it’s not dissimilar to what I often do on The Jazz Session. I see my role there as the stand-in for the audience. And I see the role of the show as a snapshot and archive of the current trends in jazz. So when someone talks about a term on the show (microtones or modal improvisation, for example) I make sure that everyone who’s listening to can follow the conversation. That means that the show is useful as an educational archive. More importantly, it means that people don’t feel like they’re excluded from the conversation by some high wall of expertise.

Back to the education interview. I had two favorite moments. One was my attempt to summarize our one-hour conversation in 60 seconds. But the other was the moment at the end when I asked my guest to take off his “smart-guy hat” and just talk about what made him want to get up in the morning to figure out new ways to crunch numbers. His elegant and heartfelt answer was a beautiful reminder of why I feel so lucky to get to listen to so many creative, passionate people.

(At left: I saw this guy on my way home from the interview. He sounded fantastic.) Later in the day I interviewed Janel and Anthony about their new album, Where Is Home on Cuneiform Records. Janel plays cello and Anthony plays guitar, but that doesn’t scratch the surface of their sound. That interview will be on The Jazz Session on Monday, June 18.

Oh, and speaking of photos, the one at the top of this post is of a sign I saw in a food truck in Silver Spring, Maryland. Broadway-Lafayette is a subway stop in Manhattan and the subject of an inside joke I share with a friend. Little things pop up in odd places.

Yesterday I hung out with poet Sandra Beasley. When I mentioned that I was staying in Silver Spring, she recommended an Ethiopian restaurant she’d heard about that, like most Ethiopian places, was vegan-friendly. Today I asked for the address and then took a nice, long walk to LacoMelza Ethiopian Cafe and Gallery at 7912 Georgia Avenue. I don’t know how this is possible, but it was my first time in an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was incredible. I ordered the veggie combination that Sandra had heard about, and this is what I got:

Lots of spicy and flavorful vegetable dishes and the injera (flatbread) to wrap them in. I loved it and hope to go back if I have time. I haven’t asked anyone to explain it, but there are nine Ethiopian restaurants within a half-mile radius here in Silver Spring. I imagine that’s because there are a lot of Ethiopians, but I’d love to know how they happened to gather here.

I’ve gone out or traveled every night of the tour so far, so tonight I’m staying in and taking it easy. Tomorrow I’m interviewing Brian Settles and Brad Linde, and then I hope to see two shows — a group with Brad featuring Jeff Cosgrove, and a solo acoustic performance by Joel Harrison. I think I’m also going to try to catch a bit of CapitalBop’s JazzLoft MegaFest. Then on Sunday I’m off to Richmond, Virginia.

(JUNE 7, 2012) WASHINGTON, DC — My day ended the way a good day should, listening to captivating music in the company of kind people.

It started at 5 a.m., which is when I got up so I could catch the one train from where I was in West Virginia to DC. Jeff Cosgrove was nice enough to get up at the crack of dawn and drive me to the train. The train itself was an experience. It was a commuter train, and there was an ever-increasing gang of friends and colleagues in my train car who obviously knew each other well and who spent most of the ride cracking jokes and planning a pool party. To which even the train conductor was invited.

I got off the train at Union Station in downtown Washington, DC. It was a little after 8 a.m. My first event of the day was about a 10-minute walk away … and I had four hours to make that walk. So I did what any self-respecting Brooklynite would do in that situation: I found a bagel place and had a nice 2-hour bagel. Then I futzed around the capitol district for a bit.

I’m a crazy radical lefty, but sights like the one above still give me a thrill. And I was lucky to grab this shot right at the time of an apparent delivery to Congress, as you can see from the vehicle to the right of the photo.

Two things about DC buildings — they have many entrances, all but one of which are usually closed. And they’re BIG. So to find the one open entrance you get to walk the 87 miles around each building. I did a nice circuit of the James Madison Building of the Library of Congress until I found the one secret door behind a potted plant where the public was allowed in.

Once inside, of course, I had to pass through the x-ray checkpoint. With a 50-pound bag of computer and recording equipment. All of which I had to remove. Along with my belt, of course. Then I had to wait some extra time while the x-ray technician asked me questions about individual images in the scan. He asked if I had a bike tool with me, which it turned out I had left in my bag … despite leaving the actual bike in Brooklyn.

But I made it inside, where I had the chance to cross an item off my bucket list — namely, “get naked in the Library of Congress.” It was cold when I left West Virginia, but it was hot — nearly 80 — by the time I reached the library. I wanted to change out of the warmer stuff I was wearing into some summer clothes. Proof of my accomplishment is in the photo to the left. Well, partial proof.

I went to the LoC to see a birthday tribute to the poet Gwendolyn Brooks. I learned about it from an acquaintance of mine, the talented poet and memoirist Sandra Beasley.

The reading was a lot of fun. There were two poets — DC’s own Kyle Dargan, and Janice Harrington from Champaign, Illinois. Both read Brooks’ poems as well as their own. Their presentation was followed by a librarian from the LoC who displayed several first editions of Brooks’ books. (The title of this diary entry is the title of a poem by Brooks.)

Following the reading, Sandra (at right) and I found a cafe and chatted about poetry and a life in the arts. After a few minutes I decided I should probably be recording our conversation, so we moved to an outdoor table and taped a 20-minute interview, which you’ll hear in a few days. Sandra is a fascinating person. I highly recommend her most recent book of poetry, I Was The Jukebox, which I loved. And her new memoir, Don’t Kill The Birthday Girl: Tales From An Allergic Life, has received a lot of acclaim. (That sounds like a weird way to phrase things — I just haven’t read the book yet so can’t comment in the first person. If it’s anything like her other writing, I imagine it’s amazing.)

I had big plans for the rest of the afternoon, but by the time I’d walked back to the Folger Shakespeare Library, I decided instead to find a shade tree and repack my backpack following the impromptu interview. Then it was off to find some food and a cafe to hang out in till the evening.

I took the Metro to the northwest side to hear music at the Dunes. (On a side note: Color-coded transit systems? No thank you.) There were three acts billed on the show, but it started so long after the advertised time and there was such a long break between the first and second solo set that I had time to hear just one performer, saxophonist Brian Settles (pictured at the top of this post and below). Brian has a raw, powerful sound and a very inventive mind. When I told people in the jazz world I was coming to DC, everyone said to talk to Brian.

I also hung out with Brad Linde, a saxophonist and educator who, among other things, books the Atlas performance space. Brad is one of those people around whom you instantly feel comfortable. We had a great talk about presenting music and connecting with an audience. If you listen to my show, you know I’m always going on about those topics. I’ll be interviewing Brad while I’m here, too. By the way, his last name is pronounced to go with “hop,” not “Paul.”

Brad was also kind enough to give me a ride to Silver Spring, where I’m staying while I’m in DC. Tomorrow I’m interviewing Janel & Anthony. Then Brian and Brad on Saturday.

(If you’d like to support my tour, you can make a one-time donation and get great thank-you gifts HERE. If you’d like to become a member of The Jazz Session and make recurring monthly or yearly payments, you can do that HERE.