Fun & funerals just don't mix

Or do they?

No blues

Annie: "Mom, would you put on some music?"

Katie: "What are you in the mood for?"

Annie: "Just some jazz, a little funky jazz. Not down, not blue jazz."

Unsolicited advice from me

When you open to learning about someone else, take notice of how much you learn about yourself.

Sitting at the sidebar

A year ago, this piece of music by Zakir Hussain helped guide me safely, but not painlessly across a bridge. And on this quiet morning, it reminds me to be fearless, to never cross back over, and at all costs to keep the door to my heart wide open.

In real time

At my place, Annie and Giselle do homework, eat fruit and cookies and listen to Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Good bad theatre

David's one-act play, The Greatest in the Whole Wide World, will be part of The Bad Plays Festival, "Best in Fest" this Sunday, September 23rd at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street.

For tickets, call (212) 242-6036

Safe landing

Anticipation is fun and nothing beats a good high, but the only time having my head in the clouds feels really good, is when both my feet are on the ground. ~kb.

Sitting at the sidebar

I thought no one noticed, I thought I was off the hook, but leave it to my friend Gary Regina to remind me that I failed to post the passing of the great Joe Zawinul of Weather Report.

Click the music player and listen to Zawinul's A Remark You Made.

On an apple box

New York City, Thursday September 20.

Photo by Rob Penner.

The look of love

Only when I can see it, taste it, will I even know what it is, and only then will I know whether or not I want it.

Sitting at the sidebar

Some Other Time by Bill Evans.

In real time

A day off, morning coffee, Clifford Brown and Harold Land play The Blues Walk, and there's a huge smile on my face.

Sitting at the sidebar

I'm here

I miss the Half Note, but you know me, it's all about the tides and the seasons. Right now it's a quiet end to summer, but things may get a little more exciting come fall.

Stay tuned.

Little miss sunshine

Looking less than sunny outside one of our favorite eateries, Sunshine Jamaican Kitchen in Harlem.

From the "A" train

The old Russian man ran past me and shouted, "Hurry up, life started yesterday!"

Do you really think that if you force another to keep a promise that you will have escaped injury? I tell you this: More damage has been done to others by persons leading lives of quiet desperation, that is, doing what they felt they "had" to do, than ever was done by persons freely doing what they wanted to do. When you give a person freedom, you remove danger, you don't increase it.

~From "Conversations With God."

Sitting at the sidebar

Billy Bragg, The Only One.

Sitting at the sidebar

I Remember Clifford, by Lee Morgan.

So pretty.

Click on the music player at the sidebar to listen.

I will...

... blog this weekend. It's just this crazy and amazing life of mine that keeps getting in the way!

In real time

Editing music, waiting on a sweet, attractive and artistic man who takes pretty pictures.

I'm here...

... but things look pretty different.

(42nd Street and Madison Avenue, New York City.)

Gift

The Universe is working, and this morning I surrender to its protection and care, and its ability to surprise me everyday.

Sitting at the sidebar

This is something I posted last summer, and here it is again, along with a piece from the album.

When I was 21, I spent the winter in Vermont with my Uncle Walter. He was my mother's step-brother and an accomplished jazz musician, songwriter and composer. He had a beautiful house in the mountains, and while he spent his days skiing, I spent mine in his beloved music room. There were shelves from floor to ceiling, custom built to hold LPs, thousands of them, including some of the greatest music ever recorded. Colorful Indian rugs adorned the wooden floors, and a warm tapestry hung over the wood-burning fireplace. There was a big leather chair in the middle of the room, and the wall-sized window exposed a view of endless acres of land and trees, covered by impossibly white and untouched snow. I spent days in that big chair, listening to music in front of the fire, looking out that window, watching deer and sunlight and hours pass. And sometimes I'd fall asleep, always hearing the music in my dreams. I played the jazz greats and stuff I’d never heard, and it was in this room that I discovered Pat Metheny’s New Chautauqua. It became the album that defined my experience there, and as I listen to it now in my apartment in the stifling city heat, I am brought back to Vermont, to the impossibly white snow, to a time when my uncle was alive, and to the room he so generously offered me, day after day of the most beautiful and musical winter of my life.

Secret...

Work is not the only thing that's kept me away from the Half Note these days.

Pssst...

I'm here.

Secret...

There's a story that surrounds this picture, but I'll wait to see how it unfolds before telling.

Sitting at the sidebar

Once in a while I get this question: If you were stranded on an island with only five albums, which five would they be?

Without a doubt, one of them would be Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell.

To listen to Burrell's Chittlins Con Carne with Stanley Turrentine on sax, please click the music player just to the right.

Now get me to that island!

New Terrain

Tonight, out of the blue, I was inspired to write lyrics for a song. I have a first draft, and you know what? I think it's kinda good.

In real time

In heaven, listening to one of my favorite albums of all time. Will post a piece of it in just a bit.

Let it shine

We women are forever comparing ourselves (superficially), to other women, and I have only recently come to a deep understanding of this: What is far more attractive than a perfect body or a youthful face, is how a woman expresses her femininity--it's all about how she radiates.

Sitting at the sidebar

Thankful that I'm always brave enough to hold its hand.

A favorite, by Bill Evans

In my dreams

Last night I dreamed I had a hidden talent for Looping.

Sitting at the sidebar

Let's lighten things up here at the Half, on the Frantic Freeway by Spike Jones.

All right

In the past two years, I've made choices that altered my life as well as the lives of others. I separated from my husband, got a place of my own, took a trip to Europe I couldn't afford, and repeatedly offered my heart to a man I knew was not in a position to receive it.

Here's an excerpt from the book Conversations With God, that puts into words why I believe, that regardless of the pain and suffering, we're always where we need to be, doing what we need to be doing.

"...I have never set down a "right" or "wrong," a "do" or a "don't." To do so would be to strip you completely of your greatest gift--the opportunity to do as you please, and experience the results of that; the chance to create yourself anew in the image and likeness of Who You Really Are; the space to produce a reality of a higher and higher you, based on your grandest idea of what it is of which you are capable.

"To say that something--a thought, a word, an action--is "wrong" would be as much to tell you not to do it. To tell you not to do it would be to prohibit you. To prohibit you would be to restrict you. To restrict you would be to deny the reality of Who You Really Are, as well as the opportunity for you to create and experience that truth."

Internationally Irish

Today, the Old Castle Restaurant & Pub on 54th Street advertised their "Irish" Breakfast Special. Belgian waffles, French toast, Bagels & lox.

Sitting at the sidebar

Something by Francis Dunnery

New York City 1963

Me & my brother Michael.

Secret...

Jokingly, I used to say that I wished marriage vows were different. I thought if instead of saying, "I promise to love and cherish you until death do us part," it would be more honest to say, "I promise to love and cherish you until I don't anymore."

I know it sounds terribly unromantic, but I'm beginning to think it makes more sense.

"Betrayal of yourself in order not to betray another, is betrayal nonetheless. It is the highest betrayal."

~From Conversations With God

Sitting at the sidebar

Jazz moves; it pounds and stirs the soul, leaving me closer to myself and more in love with the world.

Flying High by McCoy Tyner and the late, great Michael Brecker is doing just that, right now.

Sweet freedom

After almost 2 years, Annie finally had the dental extender taken out of her mouth. Although its purpose is to align little jaws, it also imposes a moratorium on all things chewy.

To celebrate, I let her go to town at Dylan's Candy Bar on Third Avenue.

Oh!

That fuse box!

Sidebar update

It's still Joni, only better.

Sitting at the sidebar

There's always a little Joni in me, and today is no exception.

The plan

The weather is beautiful, and David, Annie and I will spend the day together on a boat, circling Manhattan. We don't know what boat, we're not sure what time, but if there ever was a day to be on the water, it's today.