Night 2, Day 2

I ventured back downtown last night to hang with Jim Rotondi (a great trumpet player) from here in NYC. He has played the club a few times and is really buring. We started at Smith's which was a little to crowded so we ended up at The Bull Mouse, had a few beers and yaked about a bunch of stuff. The cool thing is that he it trying to bring out Chris Tarry (bass, himself and Joe Strasser (drums) to Vancouver to hook up with myself and Brad Turner on rhodes do three nights at the club and hoepfully record a record. The project is gonna be cool, we just have to find out when is the best time. From The Bull Mouse we went to SMOKE. My place! A tenor player named Jerry Weldon was playing. Older dude, who swung his can off. Not the 'typical' vibe at Smoke but it was good to be there. We didn't hang to long there and then I took a cab home and was in bed by 12:30. I have to say that this time out I'm not as into checking out music as I usually am. Having said that, there isn't to much to check out this time around. Dave Holland's big band was playing at Birdland but $40 is a little out of my league. Kenny Garrett and his crappy band were at The Blue Note so that was a no go and not much else happening.

I got up this morning and went to my lesson with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. The best $80 I have ever spent. It was great. He really laid some shit on me that I can dig my teeth into. It was very cool. He is such a great guy and probably my favorite young saxophonist. Plays with a lot of power. Big sound! The cool thing about it is that we talked about getting him and George COleman to the club. Can you imagine that? How amazing would that be!

Im just gonna chill out for a few hours before heading to my gig tonight!!