One of my favourite jazz guitar players, Mike Stern, has a pattern of playing in a club in Greenwich Village (presumably his home neighbourhood) on Mondays in January. I used to see him play in the early 1990s when I would go to New York for the major retail trade show for the year, but haven’t had the occasion since I became a consultant. Since I had a meeting scheduled for a Tuesday morning in Westchester, I flew down into Laguardia in the afternoon, drove up to White Plains, took a nap, and then drove back down to the Village.
(I forgot to take my camera, so this is the image from my Treo 650).
Mike was playing with Chris Minh Doky on bass, and Lionel Cordew on drums. The venue, 55 Bar, bills itself as a “depression era dive”, so it’s an intimate venue (to be kind). Since I arrived just before the set started, I got the last seat in the house, behind the band, with a good view of the servers behind the bar.
This wasn’t jazz as a concert performance, it’s bebop with three of the world’s top musicians, playing at their highest abilities.
I bought a copy of Mike’s newest CD, and he signed it for me. We shook hands, so I was surprised that his skin is so soft!