Covid Blues

 

I was hoping my next entry would be about the joys and details of the 2024 Jazz Cruise.  Until….

 

Up until this point, Ann and I had avoided coming down with Covid.  Mostly everyone we know has had the virus in spite of, like us, having the full arsenal of seven shots.  Feeling invincible, we boldly resumed our normal social lives, wearing no masks, although we were about to go on the one cruise we treasure above all, The Jazz Cruise. We went to the theater several times before departure and Ann participated in not one but two Mah Jongg tournaments.  It was inevitable I suppose but the timing couldn’t have been worse, Ann coming down with Covid exactly one week before our departure. 

 

We had a devil of a time getting Paxlovid which was unavailable at the nearest two drug stores and then getting a voucher (for Medicare recipients) from Pfizer to cover the new $1,300 price tag on the prescription.  So within two days she was on medication but still it was a bad bout, the worst being three days of an extremely painful sore throat.  Yet, naively we still waited to pull the trigger on canceling the cruise, hoping, hoping, but two days before departure we had to throw in the towel.  Another experience lost to this pandemic, although luckily, never feeling her life was in danger.

 

Our first Jazz Cruise was right before Covid hit in 2020.  One wasn’t even planned for 2021 as we were all in the nadir of the pandemic. We booked the 2022 cruise as it looked feasible with certain precautions, but then the CDC suddenly advised against cruises because of a new Covid surge at the time. We patiently, no anxiously, awaited 2023 and by then it was considered safe and we had the time of our lives.

So we were looking forward to this year’s festivities until Covid came to visit.  Not living in NYC any longer, and now being only an infrequent visitor, the Jazz Cruise is our only opportunity to see some of our favorite jazz performers live.  My other entries in the links above mention the names of some of the jazz artists we closely follow.  Most are on the present cruise, with the exception of Bill Charlap (he will be on the 2025 Cruise which we have already booked).

 

Still another experience missed, three years out of five, not a very good grade, 40%.  At our age, how many more opportunities?  Besides not seeing family, Covid also canceled our 50^th wedding anniversary, one we expected to celebrate, possibly, in the presence of the great man himself, Stephen Sondheim.

 

Being marooned at home again, gave me more time for my own piano.  Bill Mays, a great jazz pianist who I met a few months ago when I was playing for a Christmas party (talk about being outside one’s comfort zone, playing with one of the greats listening), was nice enough to send me some lead sheets of his music and one by Johnny Mandel who he worked with and we mutually admire although he recently passed.  I thought I had most of Mandel’s music but I did not have the one he sent, “The Shining Sea,” such a plaintive, Mandel signature song.  I love it and will eventually try to record it.

 

Mays’ own “Gemma’s Eyes” is challenging for me, both rhythmically and harmonically and I’ve been practicing it.  I like challenges such as that as it helps one keep moving forward.

 

He also sent me Quincy Jones’ “Pawnbroker,” again a song I had never heard before, the theme from the film of the same title, which more easily fits into in my playing style and is a haunting melody.  From our brief encounter, Mays certainly put his finger on what I would respond to and I’m grateful to him, especially this week as I feel cut loose in a space we had reserved for non-stop jazz. 

 

This leads me another musical observation, a very unlikely one for me.  I just “discovered” Taylor Swift.  I’m not sure what led me to her other than having this void of a week of great music lost.   Whenever I’ve seen her it’s been in the context of her world tour concert, with music blasting, back up bands, strobe lights pulsating, hoards of screaming fans, and, well, essentially the way popular music is presented now, everything geared to overwhelm the senses (“deadening” might be a better word).  Maybe that’s what we need in this chaotic world but I’ve always avoided that scene.  But I’ve also seen her briefly televised at Kansas City football games, cheering on her man, the outstanding tight end, Travis Kelce.  Except for her exclusive seats in the owner’s suite, she seems like just another football fan.

 

As I never really heard her sing, I tried to find her in a more intimate setting without all the over the top fireworks of her concerts and I came across Taylor Swift’s NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert.  It is 28 minutes of her performing four of her well-known (well, not to me) songs "The Man", "Lover", "Death by a Thousand Cuts" and "All Too Well" at the Tiny Desk, indeed an intimate setting where it’s just her and the guitar or piano and a handful, maybe a hundred, standing, adoring fans.  It was so enjoyable to hear her singing solo. 

 

 

It's as if Paul Simon was reincarnated more than 50 plus years after I first heard him.  There are eerie comparisons.   I can see the attraction of today's youth to what she has to say.  (I first heard Paul Simon -- who lived in my neighborhood --in 1957 when he performed “Hey Schoolgirl” with his partner Art Garfunkel. They were then known as “Tom and Jerry,” that recording making it to the national charts at the time.)

 

Swift is a cross over country and folk, a little rock and a lot of pop.  Yet every generation has its troubadour (or in this case a “trobairitz” -- in my generation there were Carole King and Joan Baez).  My generation also had Bob Dylan as our troubadour, singing his songs of despair and political activism.  But most of all, Paul Simon is more relevant to Swift’s music, with his songs of lost love, sadness, nostalgia and of course, loss in general (“hello darkness my old friend”  “and we walked off to look for America”).  When I was going through my divorce in the 1960s, his songs spoke directly to me the way Taylor Swift’s speak to her generation now magnified by social media.

 

Just listen to her sing “All Too Well.” I was touched by her ability to evoke a certain kind of emotion like Paul Simon did with a guitar (or in this NPR concert, her playing the chords on the piano as she sang).  It’s a song about autumn and lost love, a sense of the same emotion in Simon’s “Leaves That Are Green” (albeit, different rhythm, styles, one contemporary and the other vintage 1960’s).

  

In “All Too Well” she writes about a boy who was her love.  She sings:

 

Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place

And I can picture it after all these days

And I know it's long gone and that magic's not here no more

And I might be okay but I'm not fine at all

 

Some of the lyrics from Simon’s “Leaves That Are Green” could be that boy answering:

 

Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl

I held her close, but she faded in the night

Like a poem I meant to write

And the leaves that are green turn to brown

And they wither with the wind

And they crumble in your hand

 

She's the real deal and this intimate NPR setting helped me to fully understand her popularity.   Maybe in these Covid infested times I’ll become a Swifty!  I certainly respect her values, encouraging her generation to vote.  So many of those in their 20s and even 30s haven’t the slightest interest in voting, not caring (or even being conscious of) that my generation is handing off a world where the existential threats are far greater than when I was of that generation.  Shame on my generation, but shame on them to eschew the only possible route to change.  Maybe she will continue to be a force to set that right.

 

So we beat on.

 

NY, NY, In the Cold Rain

 

Every year we try to get to NYC for a stay on the Upper West Side, go to theatre, and see our “kids” (Jon and Tracie, Megan and Chris).  I usually write lots of details about the numerous sites and high points, but alas, weather at the end of April did not cooperate and instead an intense and raw rain made some of our plans obsolete. 

 

But first upon our arrival, when the weather was still good, dinner at Jon and Tracie's apartment which overlooks the Hudson River.

 

 

As luck would have it, though, our son booked us into a boutique UWS hotel, the Wallace, and in spite of the construction across the street, the requisite NYC street sounds, fire engines, police, early morning garbage trucks, it was a wonderful choice as we had a separate living area to hunker down with family or just ourselves to “duck out” of the weather, mostly a cold blustery rain.

 

The weather spoiled some of our plans but we managed to enjoy, not only all six of us being together, but being able to get to most of the shows and performances we had booked, special restaurants too such as the Boulud Sud where it looks like we arrived from the frozen tundra.  (The photo, left to right, Megan, Ann, Bob, Chris, Tracie, Jon.)

 

 

The highlight for me, though, was going back in time to the Village Vanguard, remembering I was there in the early 1960s for a performance by Oscar Peterson.  I was in college and sat at the bar with one of my college or HS buddies. Doesn’t look like they changed much.  This time the rising luminary was Samara Joy, just in her early 20s.  We saw her first perform at Emmet’s Place before she even graduated from college and then again on the Jazz Cruise. 

 

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good photograph of her because of the crowd and lighting so this will have to do.

 

 

Nonetheless, her Web Site has all the pix and information one might need. Her team has swung into high gear with performances scheduled all over the world and to see her emergence as a top jazz performer in such a short time is remarkable.

 

She is the real deal, a natural, titanic talent, often compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, you might even say having Ella’s range and Sarah’s smoky quality. But she is herself, her own style.  We once heard her sing Guess Who I Saw Today, perhaps it was on Emmet’s Place, exactly as the song was written, with the unforgettable final verse,

Guess who I saw today, my dear!

I've never been so shocked before.

I headed blindly for the door.

They didn't see me passing through,

Guess who I saw today? [Repeat: x3]

I saw you!

 

Instead at the Vanguard she inter-spaced lyrics from another song, affecting in some ways but lacking that three word axe that falls at the end.  Many singers have made “”Guess” a signature song.  We love the one by Edie Gorme and hope that Samantha stays with at least some of the standard lyrics.  But she could sing the telephone book, and we’d be there.

 

The two shows that we managed to get to in spite of the weather were like the bookends to one another.

 

Some Like It Hot is loosely based on the movie and it is traditional Broadway energy with fabulous performances and clever, complicated staging, tap dancing galore too.  I thought it had all the best elements that a Broadway production had to offer plus farce with the moving doors, not knowing what characters would dance, or sneak out of each one.  Huge cast.  While the music was enjoyable, maybe only one or two songs were memorable in some way, yet no wonder it has just been nominated for 13 Tony awards.

 

Then there was the Lincoln Center production of Camelot, reimagined by Aaron Sorkin.  This production is minimalist, with lighting being particularly important (almost like a Greek Tragedy), and although the “book” has been revised they have essentially retained the glorious Lerner and Lowe songs and orchestrations with a 30 piece orchestra.   Ironically, who should we see there for that performance, but none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda, a special collaborator for New York, New York, with John Kander which we were unable to get to (although we had tickets) because of torrential cold rain and the inability to get a cab or Uber.  So that was the one major plan that fell through.

 

 

Nonetheless, being in NY, and at a hotel where we had some separate living space during the storms, made it another wonderful visit to the past.  Maybe we will have to avoid future April showers and storms and visit during the lusty month of May, “that lovely month when ev'ryone goes / Blissfully astray.”

 

 

2023 Jazz Cruise – Music Unites Us Again

 

The Jazz Cruise vintage 2023 blew away the blues of years of Covid dormancy.  We had attended the 20^th anniversary cruise in early 2020 right before Covid upended all of our lives and booked it for the following year which never came (or the following year).

The 2023 happening was extraordinary as one could feel a singular energy between the performers and the appreciative audience, an energy which has always been unique to the Jazz world but was enhanced by the long interval and a deep appreciation of what music means to these extraordinary artists and their audience.  We went from one venue to the next, lining up our day of sometimes as many as five different performances.  This sometimes meant skipping a meal (shocking on a nice ship!).

 

Speaking of the ship, I might as well mention that we were on the newly upgraded Celebrity Millennium, but it is a charted vessel through the Jazz Cruise, so everyone on board is there for the jazz only, with Celebrity merely operating the ship.  Even the destinations are secondary, many people (such as us) preferring to stay on board, passing up Costa Maya, Cozumel, and Nassau, places we have previously visited.

 

Bill Charlap, Ann, Bob

It is impossible to summarize all the wonderful artists we heard, saw, and frequently met and chatted with.  It is probably the only venue where the latter is possible.  Nothing like talking to a piano God such as Bill Charlap as we were both in the solarium in shorts! 

 

The first six intensive days

This photo of the first 6 days of activities summarizes (the 7^th did not fit in the photograph) the frenzied pace and the extent of the artists on board.  Some of our little notations sketched out our “strategy” for making the most of our days, focusing on some of our favorites, although it does not show the serendipitous performances we caught as well, musicians who were new to us.  I’m certain we enjoyed a full eight to ten hours each day of music and talk with the musicians and other devoted fans.

 

Ann, Bob, Emmet Cohen

 

Here were some of the high points for us.  It is remarkable to witness the maturation of Emmet Cohen, who we first saw as a 28 year old at Dizzy’s (but has been involved in the Jazz Cruise practically right out of college).  His progression as a jazz pianist now places him near the top of such musicians, technically, soulfully, and multifaceted, eager and capable to play all forms of jazz, with a deep reverence for jazz history.  

 

Emmet made lemonade of the lemons Covid delivered, making more than 100 Monday night jazz performances from his Harlem apartment.   Live at “Emmet’s Place” frequently showcased many of his neighboring musicians, particularly his talented sidemen, bassist Russell Hall, and drummer, Kyle Poole.  Kyle is still his drummer, a talented recording artist and arranger in his own right, but his new bassist, on board the cruise as well, is Yasushi Nakamura.  Those Monday night shows were the highlight of the week for his fans during our quarantine.

 

Emmet Cohen, Yasushi Nakamura, Kyle Poole

 

Emmet has become a “rock star” at the age of 33 and an important part of the jazz cruise, as well as now touring the world.  We knew him when.  He organizes the popular Keyboard Capers towards the end of the cruise, all the talented pianists on board performing, with a camera cam projecting their keyboard strokes and then all of them lining up to take their turns with as many as 10 hands on the keyboard, such improvisional genius and pure love of the music and respect for one another.

 

Ann, Emmet Cohen

 

With “Emmet’s Place” Cohen has reimagined the music business model.  Forget about selling CDs.  Instead, go back to the days of Hayden and Mozart and seek patrons, but in this Internet world, smaller contributions from members of “Emmet Cohen Exclusive,” with four different levels of contributions.  We’ve been members from the get-go.  This allows such talented artists to free themselves from the music label, dependent on selling CDs (which have suffered in the Internet world), and to tour and to develop their unique styles (his CDs are part of the benefit of being a member, but the main one is knowing we along with hundreds (or thousands now) of others are helping an artist to reach his fullest potential).

 

For me, his popularity has a downside.  There was once a time I could email him about a Johnny Mandel song, as an example, and he’d eventually answer.  Now due to his enormous popularity he has a staff, a technical crew; he’s gone big time, but that’s fine.  It’s wonderful to watch him grow.

Bill Charlap

 

The other pianist whose performances we never missed was the incomparable Bill Charlap.  The other pianists on board have the same reverence.  With the exception of Oscar Peterson – and Emmet – my favorite ones are all named Bill: Bill Charlap, Bill Mays, and the late great Bill Evans.  As I mentioned, we happened to chat with Charlap as he passed through the Spa.  We were having a “health” breakfast.  I think he was a little perplexed when we told him that we have breakfast with him every morning.  Huh?  And we do.  We turn to Alexa and ask “her” to play the Bill Charlap trio.  He was amused and friendly.

 

All the “Bills” I mentioned, I think play with a similar sensibility.  I made that observation to him and, small world that music is, he said that Bill Mays is a close friend and he just spoke to him the day before.  Makes sense.  No wonder I am drawn so personally to their music.  The songs they prefer, and their styles are ones that I’m most familiar with, not that I can play anywhere at that level, but most of the songs they play are the same ones I play from the Great American songbook and Broadway.  At one of Charlap’s performances he played a song I’m intimately familiar with, a classic ballad I’ve tried to master, Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane’s “Too Late Now,” from the 1951 movie musical Royal Wedding.  As he was playing, I found the fake book version on my phone and was able to follow his unique style which he applied to the song, thinking maybe, just maybe, a little will rub off on me.

 

Bill Charlap, Peter Washington, Kenny Washington

 

Surprising to me was at times Charlap exhibited a sudden physicality in his performances along with his lyricism.  He seems like such a mild mannered person, a piano style which relies on a melancholy feel and suddenly an explosion of sound.  We sat close to him in each of his performances as he prefers the more intimate lounges (which were nonetheless packed to SRO).

 

Bill Charlap Keyboard Capers

 

The piano pyrotechnics of the younger pianists in Keyboard Capers was handed to Charlap to conclude, a salute to his stature by his contemporary greats.  Brilliantly, and in contrast, he concluded with the wistful “You Are My Sunshine” which I would put in the same category as two songs I like to sometimes conclude concerts with, “Smile” or ”Bye Bye Blackbird.”  Then all the other great pianists on board lined up for an extravaganza of multiple hands on the piano.  Just phenomenal.

 

Jeff Hamilton, Tamir Handleman, Jon Hamar

One of the pianists who we saw on the last cruise is Renee Rosnes, coincidentally Bill Charlap’s wife, who is a master in her own right, and I just have to wonder how it must be to grow up in such a talented family.  And then there is the incomparable Benny Green who we saw in several venues, once being interviewed with Tamir Handleman both of whom have their own distinctive styles.  Handleman is the pianist for the world class drummer, Jeff Hamilton Trio, along with the bassist Jon Hamar and we went to as many of their gigs as we could.  Jeff Hamilton is a drummer in his own elite league and has a rich history of playing with some of the great bands.

 

Benny Green accompanied Nicki Parrott who plays the bass and is a wonderful jazz vocalist (a little reminiscent of our favorite Doris Day).  Unbelievably she said it was the first time she has ever performed with Benny Green and the looks they were giving each other, back and forth, during their performance spoke adoration and respect.  It is something special in jazz as artists hand the melody back and forth for improvisation and then come together, almost like magic to me.   

Greg Hutchinson, Christian McBride, Benny Green

 

Green also was the pianist for the Jazz Hall of Fame bassist Christian McBride which honored the great bassist Ray Brown.

 

Tamir Hendelman, Leroy Downs, Benny Green

 

Benny Green and Tamir Hendelman were interviewed by Leroy Downs, talking about their own histories, approach to jazz piano.  Every word was fascinating.  But there was a certain body language and enthusiasm expressed by Green which Ann read as his being in a very different place in life than where he was when we saw him three years earlier, so she went up to him after the interview and made the observation.  Green was stunned.  He is such a soulful individual and he admitted that there was a woman in his life now and that he’s found a new level of contentment.  It showed in all his performances, with McBride, Parrott, and whenever he was called to play.  He is one of the greats in jazz piano, technically and emotionally.  

 

Also on board were established elder jazz greats, Monty Alexander, who we first heard in the early 1970s, a Caribbean pianist whose early work had that driving Caribbean rhythm.  We recently caught one of his performances at Dizzy’s too.   

 

Huston Person, Emmet Cohen, John Pizzarelli

 

Then the senior saxophonist, playing all the classics, Houston Person, now in his late 80s wowed every age in the audience.  He still has the heart and strength of a younger person (and had the courage to climb the five flights to Emmet Cohen’s apartment one night to perform with him).  We actually met Person three years ago at the 2020 cruise, sitting with he and his family on board in the restaurant waiting for our respective rooms to open, easily talking back and forth about music but our not knowing who he was.  He never said; we never asked and then we learned the legend we were honored to be sitting next to!  Then, although not an octogenarian like Alexander and Person is Wynton Marsalis who is almost synonymous with the word ‘jazz’ itself.  He’s won Grammy awards in five consecutive years.   

 

Dee Dee Bridgewater’s hilarious, playful solo with John Pizzarelli (above) was also memorable, honoring the induction of the late Joey DeFrancesco into the Jazz Cruise Hall of Fame.  Emmet Cohen also was part of the ceremony, playing Joey’s vintage Hammond along with Huston Person.

Ann Hampton Callaway and Trio

 

 

Ann Hampton Callaway, Ann

 

Ann Hampton Callaway and Niki Haris were in an elevator when we got on one day and as we pushed the button for the 7^th floor they broke out into an impromptu song about riding to the 7^th! (Nice chord in music.). We’ve seen Callaway many years ago at the Arts Garage and had a photo of that performance to show her later when she too was interviewed by Downs.  Talk about a soulful performer, a singer who knows how to sell a song.  And what a sense of humor, her standup routine being to pick on some guy as being her ex-husband, so I was determined to stay out of the first row! 

 

Tamir Hendelman, Tierney Sutton, Serge Merland

 

Tierney Sutton’s arrangements were memorable, one more great vocalist on board with so many others. She was accompanied by Tamir Hendelman, and her husband, guitarist Serge Merland.

 

Shelly Berg another pianist and educator of renown, who is one of the two directors of the shows, the other composer, bassist, and arranger, John Clayton, was omnipresent, playing and interviewing.  As with the last cruise, I loved attending Berg’s “Jazz University” lectures, this one covering a brief history of jazz juxtaposed to American history and what distinguishes a great jazz piano solo.  Imagine fitting that into an hour?  He did and played some selections as well.  I enjoyed watching Berg watching his many students perform, such as Emmet Cohen.

 

Shelly Berg, Samara Joy

 

One of his interviews though was with the “overnight” sensation, the 21-year-old Samara Joy.  He recorded it for XM radio as well.  We first took note of Joy, then a shy vocalist, about two years ago on Emmet’s Place.  She was just a senior in college as I recall then.  But by then she had already won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Competition, the range and control of her voice reminiscent of both Sara Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and as we learned in the interview, perhaps her greatest influence, Carmen McRae, who we saw in the late 1970s in an upper East side club.  We heard Joy sing one of our favorites, “Guess Who I Saw Today,” her range and intonation remarkable.  21 years old.  Imagine?  (BTW, I think Eydie Gorme’s version of that song, although a very different style, equally excellent.)

 

Berg asked her that if she could have a wish granted to sing a song with a pianist who has never accompanied her, she responded Sullivan Fortner who of course was on board and then with a little hesitation, her eyes opening wide, Bill Charlap.  That’s jazz, a circle of respect.

Bria Skonberg

 

Then, there is the unexpected.  A trumpet player, Bria Skonberg, played a song she wrote, “So Is The Day” and then broke out into song.  Extraordinary to have such a voice and presentation.  The rule on board is no videos are allowed.  I did take a few brief ones, those that are very personal to me, but will not post them.  There is a YouTube version of her song, so here is a link.  It starts with the vocals rather than the trumpet.  I think it is more effective the other way around as we heard it, a remarkable and unexpected moment.

 

As I mentioned, Emmet's Keyboard Capers is the concluding show in the main theater.  It is so special to me as all the great pianists on board come together, individually playing and then jamming together. It is a particularly joyous moment as these photographs attest.

Emmet Cohen Keyboard Capers

Emmet Cohen, Bill Charlap, Tamir Hendelman, Benny Green

Keyboard Capers Pianists

I’m leaving out so many of the greatest jazz artists we have seen in one place, ever, but I’m hoping my unrestrained enthusiasm makes up for the voids.  My apologies to all who I failed to mention.  So many of them.  But to Michael Lazaroff, the Executive Director of The Jazz Cruise (this being the first of four weeks of jazz on the ship, but this was Straight Ahead Jazz, our favorite, particularly the classic piano, bass, drum trio), our thanks for bringing us all together and to help us forget politics, Covid, and so many of the ills of the world.  United in music we stand.  And it’s all there, in one place.  Congratulations Michael!

The last night at sea...