We had a nice dinner cruise last night, leaving from the Chelsea piers and heading down around the lower tip of Manhattan and into the East River, under the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges on a beautiful spring evening. The entertainment on board the Spirit of New Jersey was completely over the top in its enthusiasm and lack of quality, but I spent almost the entire cruise outside on deck enjoying the views and chatting with colleagues.
After the cruise Bob Morgan, Tony Chang, and I went to Birdland to catch Geri Allen’s 11 pm set with her quintet. It was really a treat to get to hear the almost eighty-year-old Jimmy Cobb on drums along with the young Rashaan Carter on bass, along with both Javon Jackson and Antoine Roney on tenors. I was particularly taken with her take on the ballads Lush Life (which opened the set) and Coltrane’s Naima, which had really nice bass playing from Carter.
Boy, you sure don’t hear 11 pm sets like this in clubs in Seattle on a Wednesday night. But it sure made for a hazy early morning today.
Technorati Tags: CSG-Spring-2007, jazz, music
