BACK IN NEW YORK / A CURE FOR SPIRITUAL JET-LAG

I arrived back in New York late last night. With no offense to my fellow urbanites and suburbanites, the word that would describe my return is RELUCTANTLY. Unfortunately, I couldn’t muster up the good cheer of this Hero as imagined in a beautiful drawing by Thomas B. Allen:

Even in enhanced stereo (!) Louis looks young and healthy.

But it will take a while for me to look close to that. The Beloved is 3000 miles away. My apartment has serious water damage . . . precious objects became damp, musty — some can’t be repaired. I feel as if spiritual mildew is creeping up on me, which is not something that responds to ordinary curative methods. While I was slumping around the apartment, wondering what else had been ruined and whether I could ever find everything, I knew I needed serious help of a medical kind.

I called on my own medical group and they rushed to my aid. They are Doctors Warren, Dubin, Caparone, Barnhart, Barrett, Shaw, Cavera, Reynolds, and Reynolds:

I apologize for the swooping camerawork but I was trying to create closeups without a tripod, and I think I was so happy that my hand possibly couldn’t remain steady. Somewhere, Fats Waller and Bing Crosby smile approvingly, too.

This always makes me feel better, and I will now play it again while I do other domestic chores.

May your happiness increase!

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BACK IN NEW YORK (Volume One): MATT MUNISTERI, DANNY TOBIAS, PETE MARTINEZ, JARED ENGEL — The EarRegulars — at THE EAR INN (Sept. 2, 2012)

I don’t mean to suggest that my return to New York after a California summer is as momentous as that of Louis — but the phrase brought to mind this beloved vinyl issue — cover drawing by Thomas B. Allen, I think, and eloquent commentary by Dan Morgenstern.

Being “back in New York” could be defined in a thousand ways . . . but joy for me is being back at The Ear Inn (326 Spring Street, Soho) on a Sunday night from 8-11 for a session with the EarRegulars.  No fake stereo there, just genuine swinging creativity.

Sunday, September 2, found Matt Munisteri (guitar), Danny Tobias (cornet), Pete Martinez (clarinet), and Jared Engel (string bass) having themselves a time and sharing their pleasure with us.  You’ll hear four sweetly intense conversationalists who majored in empathy and telepathy in graduate school.  No one steps on anyone else’s line, but it’s clear they all know The Path.  And that Path winds around through 1938 Basie, the Keynote sessions, 1929 Ellington, but the EarRegulars are never imprisoned by the past.  This music is splendidly vibrant, shining in the twenty-first century.

You’ve never been to The Ear Inn on a Sunday night?  You, too, can be BACK IN NEW YORK if you put your mind to it . . . .

MY HONEY’s LOVIN’ ARMS (for Bing and Cutty Cutshall):

CREOLE LOVE CALL (for Barney Bigard and Wellman Braud):

BLUES MY NAUGHTY SWEETIE GIVES TO ME (alas):

I MAY BE WRONG (for Joe Thomas and Pete Brown, among others):

AT THE JAZZ BAND BALL (for Bix and Eddie):

The American Decca Jazz Heritage series started off promisingly, but several reissue projects never got to their second volume.  No such worries about The EarRegulars at The Ear Inn . . . many more glorious Sunday sessions to come!

May your happiness increase.