Day 11 and a forgotten story from Day 10
Another good day in NYC. We walked through Central Park and down 5th Avenue and arrived at the Museum Of Modern Art. It was Target Friday which means there is no admission. The museum was very cool. It was very very packed but very cool. Some wonderful photography displays and some very nifty art displays. We spent about 90 minutes in there which is hardly enough but it was enjoyable nonetheless. After the MOMA we headed down to Broadway and 8th street but we took the bus which was really cool. To my knowledge I had never taken a bus in NYC and it was cool because of course its street level whereas the subway is all underground. It was cool ride. Alana wanted to head down to a few clothing stores that she had seen a few days earlier which was great news for me because there happened to be a spectacular record store nearby so we parted ways for about and hour and did our own thing. Amazingly I didn't buy anything, the store had some incredible things but it was very very overpriced and the two owners were extremely rude so why bother.
We then headed to the village to get some food, we were both extremely hungry and wanted to go to John's Pizza which Ellen Degeneres as well as native New Yorkers claim is the best pizza in New York. The Village was hoping, I mean it was packed everywhere. There are restaurants on every corner and they're all packed to the rafters. Its a neat atmosphere being in The Village on a Friday night. Everyone is all dolled up etc. Fantastic. We couldn't find John's so I called Joe Strasser and he directed us there and also invited us to Smalls to hear a band he was playing with. Of course he put us on the list. More on that in a minute. The pizza was great, I don't know if it lived up to all the hype but it was good. Alana and I were so hungry at that point I think cardboard would've tasted good. We had pitcher of Root Beer, man I felt like I was 10 years old! After dinner we cruised around The Village again and then headed to Small's. What a great club. Its downstairs, very small but more character than you can imagine. The band: Joe Magnarelli on trumpet, Steve Wilson on alto, Gary Versace on piano, Neil Miner on bass and Strasser on drums. The band was fantastic. Versace was particularity impressive playing amazingly inventive and creative solos. I only know him as an organist and heard him just once with Ingrid Jensen at The Cellar. He was very very impressive as was the rest of the band. After the show we headed home and caught the end of the longest 9 inning baseball game in the history of MLB. Something like 5 hours. The Yanks beat the Sox.
I forgot to write about meeting Joe Fields at Dizzy's on Thursday night. See, I put out a record a few years back by The Anniversary Quartet. Admittedly I didn't do enough research and soon found myself in a heap of trouble because 2 of the musicians on the record were under contract to Joe Field's High Note label. Alana and I were sitting at the bar and Cedar Walton announced that Fields was in the audience. He was sitting at the other end of the bar. I figured I'd better say hi but would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous. I wrote a note on a piece of paper, gave it to the bartender and asked him to get Joe a drink. Well, it went over well. He came over hugged and kissed Alana and gave me a big hug and a little slap on the face. He then proceeded to buy us a few drinks and all the stuff that happened....well...it seemed like water under the bridge....whew!!!!
We then headed to the village to get some food, we were both extremely hungry and wanted to go to John's Pizza which Ellen Degeneres as well as native New Yorkers claim is the best pizza in New York. The Village was hoping, I mean it was packed everywhere. There are restaurants on every corner and they're all packed to the rafters. Its a neat atmosphere being in The Village on a Friday night. Everyone is all dolled up etc. Fantastic. We couldn't find John's so I called Joe Strasser and he directed us there and also invited us to Smalls to hear a band he was playing with. Of course he put us on the list. More on that in a minute. The pizza was great, I don't know if it lived up to all the hype but it was good. Alana and I were so hungry at that point I think cardboard would've tasted good. We had pitcher of Root Beer, man I felt like I was 10 years old! After dinner we cruised around The Village again and then headed to Small's. What a great club. Its downstairs, very small but more character than you can imagine. The band: Joe Magnarelli on trumpet, Steve Wilson on alto, Gary Versace on piano, Neil Miner on bass and Strasser on drums. The band was fantastic. Versace was particularity impressive playing amazingly inventive and creative solos. I only know him as an organist and heard him just once with Ingrid Jensen at The Cellar. He was very very impressive as was the rest of the band. After the show we headed home and caught the end of the longest 9 inning baseball game in the history of MLB. Something like 5 hours. The Yanks beat the Sox.
I forgot to write about meeting Joe Fields at Dizzy's on Thursday night. See, I put out a record a few years back by The Anniversary Quartet. Admittedly I didn't do enough research and soon found myself in a heap of trouble because 2 of the musicians on the record were under contract to Joe Field's High Note label. Alana and I were sitting at the bar and Cedar Walton announced that Fields was in the audience. He was sitting at the other end of the bar. I figured I'd better say hi but would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous. I wrote a note on a piece of paper, gave it to the bartender and asked him to get Joe a drink. Well, it went over well. He came over hugged and kissed Alana and gave me a big hug and a little slap on the face. He then proceeded to buy us a few drinks and all the stuff that happened....well...it seemed like water under the bridge....whew!!!!
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