All That Jazz

I've been catching quite a few shows and concerts lately, which has been fun. I love this time of year, when comps flow a bit more freely.

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine and I caught Dave Brubeck and his quartet. Having a few occasions where he was either sold out before I knew about the show, or the last time, when I had tickets and he canceled, it's been a long time coming. Luckily, we got tickets way back in September and it all came to fruition this time. What fun! Great music, of course. He's a legend for a reason. And you have about 400 years of cumulative experience on the stage, which is always fun to watch.

Last night, we saw the Billy Taylor Trio. Wow. This was in the same series as Brubeck, but I wasn't nearly as familiar with his work (outside of his work with Coleman Hawkins). He's truly amazing. And his trio is equally as exciting, musically. Within the first few bars of the first tune, I leaned over and whispered to my friend "I want to have access to that drummer!". The drummer and bass player (Chip Jackson) each got jaw-droppingly more amazing as the evening progressed.

Theatre-wise, I haven't seen that much of note lately. I did get to go to the final dress rehearsal of the "Collected Stories" revival. It's very much worth seeing, if you're able. Linda Lavin gave a remarkable performance, perhaps her best yet. If she doesn't get a Tony nod, I'll be surprised. Of course, attending a dress rehearsal for a Broadway show was pretty cool on its own.

I'm looking forward to the Tony announcements, but it's been kind of a lackluster season, so I'm curious to see what will come out of it.

Lots of upcoming jazz shows, though... Karrin Allyson and Kurt Elling are both playing this month, for starters. We'll see what the comp gods bring to the table, too.

Star

Living in Manhattan, especially in the theater district, one gets pretty used to seeing a fair share of celebrities. Some are more "celebrity" in my eyes than others, but usually it's a passing mental shrug, if anything. I think some of it is having been in "the biz" since I was basically a kid, so even if I remotely care, I like to give them the same respect I'd give any potential colleague. Even if we make eye contact as I'm thinking "wait- is that someone I actually know or do they just look familiar because- oh, oops, I'm staring at a famous person who probably thinks I'm a stalker now" (busted), I try and just give a polite smile and move it along.

Tonight, I have to admit to being a tiny bit star struck for a moment. As we were entering the theater, I looked at the girl directly in front of me and thought, "huh, that kinda' looks like Mamie Gu.... (Gummer) OH!! And that would be her mother (Merryl Streep) right next to her!" (I've seen Mamie in a couple of things, so not really unusual that I'd see her around town- and poor thing that she's probably gotten that reaction her entire life). That is one classy, talented woman. I still didn't really turn my head and certainly didn't say anything until well out of view or ear shot, but I got kinda' fluttery.

All in all, it was the best September birthday I've ever had. We'll forget for a moment that my birthday was in June. It took a while for us all to be able to get together. We're still waiting to do R's from May, so I'm not all that behind. Summer in the city- weird time to try and schedule stuff.

"Wishful Drinking" was a lot of fun. Even having read the book, the material transferred well. I laughed my way through.

We started out at one of my most favorite restaurants (shhh... it's a secret), so the bar was set pretty high early on in the evening. Good food, good friends, good entertainment. Love it.

Time now to call it a night. Sadly, not even midnight, it's a school night and well past my bedtime.