 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|  |
March 2005
Mr & Mrs America, and all the ships at sea: I started this year off right with a trip to New York City. Spent my first night in the Apple with some friends who live uptown. Waaay uptown. “Pioneers” they are called, in the local parlance. We headed up to 110th St to Miss Mamie’s Spoonbread Too for some serious soul cookin. I had the smothered chicken…nearly stopped my heart dead in its tracks. It was scandalously unhealthy, it was delicious, and I’d do it again! Next stop was the smallest bar in New York, and possibly the coolest bar in the world: Café Del Bar. Once you get about thirty five people in this joint, you’re breaking all kinds of fire laws. Until just recently, they were using a fridge turned on its side as the bar, if you were wondering how small this place is. The place was painted Red from floor to ceiling, and it’s run by two friendly Rastafarian dudes from Algeria who always have the smell of the Ganja around them. Better to feel the vibes, mon. One served up great drinks, and the other manned a DJ booth, spinning only the hippest reggae jams nonstop, all night long. I wasn’t even drinking, and I felt like I had a nice mellow buzz on. I can’t tell you how happy that place made me. After a couple of weekend shows upstate, I was back in New York to showcase with the Bobs at CAMI Hall, which is a lovely classical music concert venue right across the street from Carnegie Hall. You know, when I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, taking piano lessons, I always dreamed that one day I’d play…uh…right across the street from…Carnegie Hall. So near, but yet…so what. Actually, we had a great showcase, the Bobs and I. We did our “Rhapsody in Bob” version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for a house full of talent buyers. After the show, I headed over to the Carnegie Room to smoke a cigar and listen to jazz. This is the kind of class joint you’ll only find in New York. I walked in still beaming sartorial eloquence in full tuxedo garb, and no one spared me a second glance. It was that kind of place. Wrapped up the week at Mike Williams’ always wonderful Soho Picking Party. George Wurzbach was one of the people in the round, and he was brilliant, as usual. When I grow up, I want to be George Wurzbach. I ended up trading fours in a wild solo with Deni Bonet, who when not singing her own songs, plays violin with Cyndi Lauper. We had a violin-accordion solo-off, and it rocked, no matter what you think… The next day, I jetted back to L.A. only to find the place had been worked over by the worst rain ever seen in Southern California. Roads were closed, houses had slid off the sides of hills, everything was flooded. It’s the only time I’ve ever been in New York in January and could say that the weather there was better that the weather in L.A. An hour after landing at Long Beach Airport, I was due to play at a Tsunami benefit show at Kulak’s Woodshed in the valley…an hour later. Weaving through terrible traffic on the 405, navigating myriad detours and flooded streets, I arrived exactly 20 seconds before I was due to go on. I squeezed my way through the packed room, took off my coat, got introduced by a very relieved emcee, sat down at the grand piano, and let ‘em have it. It was a wonderful way to end the trip. Love, Bob
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
