2022 – Stumbling towards normal?

Every time I think it’s over – it ain’t over!  But for the most part, this year was something closer to a normal year than the last few, so trending in the right direction. 

Pretty good year gig-wise – lots of solo playing, a few jazz gigs, some rock.  Teaching at new school, and that seems to be going ok.  Zoom classes were a blast – looking forward to more in the New Year.  Local gigs seem to be pretty scarce for upcoming year, so time to really start to branch out geographically. 

Managed one new record this year.  Fun to get back to my rock and roll roots.  

Fair amount of home improvement – that counts as some sort of accomplishment, right?

Billy Memorial Jam/Irish Wake.  Maria visit.  Chrispy's first football game.  Worrying about people in the hospital.  Goodbye to Jeff of the Magic Bus.  Old friends Zoom call, and follow-up Fantastic Four Zoom.  

Listening – what was new?  Found new appreciation for Bruckner and Schubert.  Dave Pell and Phil Nimmons.  Lots more Stan Kenton/Bill Holman/Bill Russo.

Re-read all 40 Spenser books (third time through the series), Hitchhiker’s Guide series, and most of the Sherlock Holmes short stories.  Lots of Perry Mason and Cool & Lam.    

Wish I had more to say.  But I don’t.  So…. See you next year. 

2021 - Didn't we do this already? Rinse and repeat...

So another year goes by and we're still in the covid stranglehold.  Swell.

There were a few bright spots.  Once vaccines got rolled out it felt like things might get back to normal for a minute, but - nah!  I was able to get in some gigs while things were going ok, and even thought my playing was better.  Many thanks to Vince and Mike for calling me so often.  And the Stone House.  And of course to the CBQ - Concord Blues Quartet.  That's a nice new thing that has promise.  Getting to play the kind of music I love maybe most of all.  

Got to do some online teaching which has been a blast.  Film Music over the Summer, and Fun Classical Music in the Fall.  Looking forward to Jazz in the Spring.    

Did a fair amount of musical house-keeping.  Put together the "Real Stinky Book" - all my jazz tunes worth playing again.  Sorted through ALL my jazz tunes - 300 or so.  Also got to copy out and edit some stuff that had been hanging around, but more to do. 

Managed to get 2 records out.  

 

 

Finishing the Symphony was an accomplishment. 

Music had some serious losses this year, most notable to me being Chick Corea and Pat Martino.  

Listening - the Shostakovich/BSO/Nelsons recordings are amazing.  The Mercury Living Presence/Dorati/Bartok recordings made me get back into that in a big way.  Picked up some scores - Liszt, Stravinsky (Symph in C, Symph of Psalms), Elgar's Enigma, Rimsky Scheherazade.  Leonard Rosenman film music. 

Reading - finished all 40 Spenser novels for the 2nd time, starting 3rd time through as year ends.    

Had a few losses close to home.  Our wonderful Breakfast.

And of course, Billy

You will be missed, buddy.  Love you. 

 

How am I ending the year, you ask?  Positive. 

 And in quarantine.  So really, this year can't be gone soon enough.  Here's to 2022.  I guess. 

Year end 2020 – well, that f%$&ing sucked, huh?

First up, I want to clarify – no one in my immediate family has gotten sick, or suffered undue financial (or mostly any other kind of) stress.  So in a lot of ways I consider myself lucky at this point.  But enough people close to me have suffered and are suffering, so that the pain is quite real.  I also consider it fortunate that my temperament is such that I’m fine with staying locked up in the house, alone much of the time, and I don’t mind it.  More time to read, and listen to music, and practice.  Trying not to get too squirrelly, so that when we can “play outside” again, I’m not totally anti-social.  At least, no more than I was. 

The big news of the year personally is that after 20+ years at my latest, I was able to leave my IT job.  Working from home may have hastened it – I really did not enjoy the experience.  Staying home was ok, working from home?  Not so much.  Maybe because I actually tried to work?  Anyway, I’m already feeling the benefits of being rid of that job.

I got a fair amount accomplished – released 5 records.  4 that were recorded last year and finally mixed this year.  One – String Quartet #3 – that was written this year. 

Reading - Spenser, Spenser, and more Spenser.  Re-read a lot – jazz bios, Asimov Robot series. 

Listening - Cannonball, Sonny Rollins, Haydn symphonies, Mendelssohn Overtures, Weather Report studio records, singers – June Christy and Anita O’Day, Bill (William O.) Smith.

Watching – too much news, Law & Order (regular and SVU). 

Got to see La Boheme at the Met before the world stopped turning.  Odd to think that that could be the last big event I go to.  Very few gigs – a cool live-stream, but nothing going on. 

Losses – Neil Peart.   Wow, the impact of that is still heavy.  Peter Green, Lyle Mays, Pete Way, EVH, Paul Chapman, Leslie West, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Cobb, Vic Juris, Bucky Pizzarelli, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Heath.  Shit.

Can only hope the New Year brings about much needed relief.  It would be nice for the world to return to normal.  The biggest thing I miss is walking around a book store, or record store.  Getting coffee.  It was nice getting to spend time outside – always seemed to have hawks fly overhead to say hello (this even happened yesterday!).  So, when we can, it’ll be time to “attack the day like birds of prey”.  

2019 - #ECUS

So – I guess the big thing from this year is that I started teaching again.  Being the jazz guitar instructor is kind of fulfilling a long-standing ambition of mine, and I’m enjoying it as much as I’d ever imagined. 

I did manage to carry out my plan for a marathon recording where I cleared all my back-catalog of tunes that hadn’t gotten their due.  Should get the tetralogy of records released shortly, once everything is mixed.  The fellas – Keith, Andy, Jerrold and Henry – did some amazing work. 

We lost Bob K. and Ralph – at least managed to help send Ralph off properly with re-working a Dreamers demo into a hymn of hope and love. 

Adopted hawks as my spirit animal. 

Listening – Gary Burton.  Julian Lage.  Lots of Hard Bop.  Dio Sabbath.  More Charlie Byrd.  More opera – Strauss in particular, going beyond Salome and Elektra.  And Verdi – especially conducted by Abbado. 

Reading – the Gary Burton autobiography, a lot of Spenser novels to end the year and start the new one.

Gigs – I started saying yes to almost everything, what with wanting to focus on my guitar playing more than composing this year.  Busiest year in a long, long time.  Still feel lousy about my playing, but what’s new?

Concerts – only 2, but both of note.  UFO at the St. George on Halloween night with Vinny and Marshall.  Their 50th anniversary tour.  A UFO sighting on Staten Island!  My 16 year-old self was thrilled.  And John Scofield and Dave Holland at the Blue Note with Lance.  Better gtr/bass duo than the Jim Hall/Red Mitchell record. 

Things have been falling into place pretty well, hence the hashtag.  “Everything’s Coming Up Stinky”.  #ECUS.  Here’s looking forward to the new year continuing the trend.

Picture of the year from Chrispy’s 1st birthday party.  Who you calling a loser?

2018

Not a lot to recount, feels like it was a mostly quiet year.  Managed to get 2 records released – “All Systems Are Incomplete” and “Short Stories, Vol. 1” – both of which I’m pretty proud of.  Feel like I took some steps forward compositionally.

Spent more time listening to tone poems this year – Strauss, Liszt.  Added some Berlioz.  Lots of Delius.  Got into a Weather Report groove, along with some funky 70’s Herbie Hancock.  Of course Korngold was the biggest obsession.  His orchestral and chamber works along with movie scores and operas.  He’s really become probably top 3 for me along with Sibelius and Mahler.  Other movie scores – Honegger, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Rosza, Steiner.  Ending the year with some Puccini. 

Reading was a lot of Aeneas stuff.  And more Sherlock stuff.  The Cambridge music books and BBC Guides are constant companions.  The Asimov robot novels and closing the year out. 

Gigs were few, but year ended with some good things with the Foot Stomperz!  Been playing a bunch of piano to try to get to an "adequate struggle" level.  Since most of the year was tied up in composition, I feel like I want to spend the coming year playing more guitar.  This may be the year I finally “clear the decks” and do a marathon recording of all the jazz tunes I have hanging around. 

This was a year where there was a significant loss, 

but also a significant addition.

Holding this very new human, all you want to do is let him know "I'll do my best to keep you safe.  Always."  There's a tribal connection, some deeply sensed familial bond that you hope gets understood in a primal way.  Those connections are everything.  I couldn't imagine a better way to cap off the year.

Year End 2017 - The Year of Sherlock

So, one good thing about 2017 is that it saw the beginning of my fascination with all things Sherlockian.  It started when I was looking for a new show, now that "Castle" is off the air, and I remembered that I always enjoyed "Elementary" when I caught it.  That led me to the Conan Doyle originals.  Then on to some pastiches (some great, some ok, some awful).  Then it was BBC's "Sherlock".  I'm hooked.  Can't get enough.  221B all the way!

Let's do a quick recap before the serious stuff.

Reading:

As mentioned, lots of Sherlock Holmes (and Mycroft, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

A bunch of Ursula LeGuin, probably my favorite author at the moment

Pete Way’s autobiography – yikes!

As I dug through the stack of back issues of Analog and Asimov's that I have, one story stuck out.

http://www.asimovs.com/assets/1/6/AllThatRobot-RichLarson.pdf

"All That Robot ..." by Rich Larson.  This story is everything that I love about sci-fi and short stories in particular.  In a few paragraphs the author creates and immerses you in a fantastic yet believable world.  To create something so novel, and so complete in such a short space - remarkable.  It really stayed with me.  I don't know why that pdf version is there, but if anyone comes across this and has interest in it, do yourself a favor and check it out. 

Watching:

Again, as mentioned, "Elementary" and "Sherlock".  Love them both so much, different as they are.

The Last Jedi

Ragnarok/Wonder Woman/Logan

Listening:

Vaughan Williams - So I more fully came around on Vaughan Williams.  I'm kind of convinced that I'm not a big Leonard Slatkin fan, however.  I had a set of symphonies with him conducting, and gradually supplemented it with another complete set by different conductors who I found more convincing in pretty much every instance.  He coaxes a wonderful sound from the orchestra, but there's something missing in terms of direction that doesn't convey the narrative of the music as it should.

Elgar - this may be because of my Holmes obsession, but decided to dig a little more deeply because it seemed to fit with the whole Victorian era my head was swimming in.  Again, had Slatkin conducting the symphonies, but got a set by Haitink and found them much more compelling.

William Walton - second string quartet, some film music, in addition to the more well known orchestral works.

George Benson - dug hard on this, the old organ group stuff.  Nobody better.

Herb Ellis - as my tastes mellow, I find I'm more appreciative of his "swing" era sensibilities.

Charlie Byrd - continued to make amends for having dissed him all those years.  Got a bunch fo really excellent later recordings.

Kenny Burrell - by himself and with Jimmy Smith – started me on my organ trio kick.  KB was always one of my favorites, and I really missed him.  Replaced some of my favs that I had never gotten on CD and was really reminded how important he is to me.

Oliver Nelson – "Straight Ahead" is an unknown masterpiece, almost as good as "Blues and the Abstract Truth" (and much better than its sequel).

T-Bone Walker – "Too Lazy to Work, Too Nervous to Steal" - this song is my spirit animal!

As for other stuff - work was terrible but finished 2 big projects (web site and music lab upgrade).

Recorded and released "Kitsch and Sync". 

Wrote “All Systems Are Incomplete” (again, in super short time frame)– will be on next record.  

Wrote a bunch of blues, hopefully for organ trio record of my own.

Thought it was a light year, gig-wise, but looking through the calendar it was actually pretty full.  Autumn/Winter was light, but overall better than I thought.  First gig of the year was at Marie’s and last gig of the year was at Marie’s, so nice bookending.  Been practicing a bunch, so feel pretty good about my playing.

Took some time to explore the Hudson Valley.  Always with a mind towards escaping.

Now for the serious stuff - the boys.

We lost 2 of our cats this year, Dinner and Lunch (their sister Breakfast has to handle all cat business in the house alone now).  These 2 geniuses were so connected throughout their lives, it's a wonder they could bear to be apart the 7 months that separated their leaving us.  The gift that these cats were to us cannot be overstated.  I loved them both so much, and I know I was loved by them.  Having Dinner herd me into bed, or Bunchie do brush-face or give me the "look of Bunch" - the brudders were my special buddies, and I can feel good knowing that I really appreciated them while they were with us. 

Dinner - Din-dins - Rin-din-din - Fluffy-Wan Kenobi - Fluffy Fluffin Fluffer

 

Lunch - Bunchie - Bun-Chi

 

Brudders - The Geniuses

 Trying not to put too much pressure on the little girl, but she's stepping up big time.

Year End 2016

First up, let me add my voice to the choir.  Fuck you, 2016.  

David Bowie
Prince
Glenn Frey
Maurice White
Keith Emerson AND Greg Lake
George Michael
Bob Cranshaw
Paul Bley
Claus Ogerman
Rudy Van Gelder
Toots Thielemans
George Martin
Jeremy Steig
Bernie Worrell
Scotty Moore
Muhammad Ali
Ron Glass
Gene Wilder
Debbie Reynolds
and of course Carrie Fisher

This is nowhere near exhaustive, but somehow indicative of what this year took from us.  It's not just "oh how sad, this famous person died".  These were people who provided more than art or entertainment, they said important things, they opened doors, showed possibilities, proved individuality could thrive.  And in far too many cases, left us too soon.  So, yeah, fuck you 2016. 

Now, about my year.  

I've always felt like I was a pretty stable person emotionally.  Not too many highs or lows.  Always pretty even keel.  Of course, every once in a while "Red Victor" would show up, but not often.  And every so often I'll be reduced to a blubbering mess, but again, not often.  It seems, however, that I'm becoming much more manic.  I could blame work (and largely do).  I'm usually so spent, and have had the life sucked out of me so thoroughly that I've little left to give to things that matter to me.  Sure, that's my story for why I can barely manage things most nights.  But there are rare bursts - of energy, of creativity, of positivity - that result in me actually getting some work done.  Like when I wrote a string quartet in 4 days over Memorial Day Weekend (ok, so I had the basic theme to the Lullaby movement before that, but it was severely re-harmonized during that 4 day stretch, so I'm sticking with my "I wrote it in 4 days" version).  Or when I re-orchestrated a bunch of pieces around July 4.  Seems like I did all my best work over about an eight day stretch.  The rest of the year feels like a bust.  I'd like to find a way to get back to a more even keel, level out the highs and lows so that I can be somewhat productive all the time.  We'll see how that goes. 

My one real accomplishment was "Merely Clever", the new recording.  The good thing is it feels like an improvement over previous efforts.  But I've just been kind of stuck since I finished it.  Did the usual round of gigs - Exit 12, Monks' Monks, some cool pickup jazz gigs.  Did a little recording with the Monks.  Scored a bargain on a guitar.

$260 shipped, with a case.  Thought it would be a "beater" type guitar, but used it on a couple of jazz gigs and it turns out it's a real keeper.  Long scale (25.5) semi, which is a cool variation.  Even though the coming year marks 40 years with my Ibanez Strat and I want to use that as much as possible, I have a feeling this one will find it's way to a bunch of gigs as well.

Listening?  I did do a lot of symphony listening, as I had hoped.  Built up quite a library in the process.  Dvorak, Berwald, Liszt, Borodin, Glazunov.  I'm starting to come around on Vaughan Williams, and actually dug more Holst, in contradiction to what I wrote at the end of last year.  Also discovered Hal McKusick - my new 6th favorite alto player (Bird, Ornette, Desmond, Hodges, Keith Gurland, Hal, Cannonball - probably Phil Woods).  Dug into more Blakey and Cannonball as my tastes continue to coalesce around very mainstream, swinging types of things.  Sam Jones and Louis Hayes - maybe my favorite rhythm section.  The Gerry Mulligan Concert Band was also a revelation this year (as I was digging through more and more Mulligan).  Also finally found the good Charlie Byrd.  I feel bad I ever had harsh things to say about him.  Hearing his earlier recordings I understood that he struggled with tone as years went by through no fault of his own, but dealing with drummers and equipment.  I would assume the same for certain harmonic tendencies - his early recordings a really great.  At least I finally came around.  

Reading?  I feel like I was always reading something, but somehow nothing jumps out.  Star Trek Legacies series started out really good, ended up just ok.  Read the first volume of "Women of Wonder" which I really enjoyed.  Second volume is staring at me.  I'll get to it, I promise.  I feel like trying to get through my "Columbia History of the World" again.  Of course, I still haven't made it all the way through "Brahms and the Principal of Developing Variation".  I think this is the third time I've started it.  Made it farther this time.  Maybe I can push through it.  

Watching?  Last season of Castle, which I'll do my best to forget.  Rogue One.  Rush's "Time Stand Still" documentary left me in tears.

We did get to spend a fair amount of time out doors.  Found some nice parks nearby in NJ.  Had some great walks on SI, though, especially in Blue Heron Park.  

Nice vacation in New Paltz, where we experienced 3 seasons in 3 days.

Of course, the "kids" are all great. 

I'm just glad to be rid of this year.  It feels hard to look forward to what's ahead, but you know, these folks (and not always just the characters they portrayed) can offer words of wisdom.

 
What do they give us?  

Hope.