Post-Solstice Thoughts

Summer has been in full swing for over a month now, and I'm feeling pretty good about how things have turned out in Boston over the last few months. The most stressful details of my upcoming move back to NY are behind me, and I have four more full days in this near empty Brighton apartment before the lease is up. I've been cleaning up the place (not that it was a mess), and have managed to get rid of alot of papers and worn out clothing. It's definitely nice to be leaving with a little less clutter than I came here with.

After a few gigs around July 4th, parade season is effectively over for me, and I'll be driving down to NY with Mark, Jake Rudin, and Will Bridges to play a house concert on 7/6, and drop off my stuff in Queens beforehand. We're planning to leave early, stop in New Haven for lunch, and get to town by 3 or 4. The show is a birthday celebration for Steven Long, who came up to Boston to play at my first house show with his roommate Joanna Mattrey (who is a fellow NEC graduate). We played trio, and we're planning on working as a group regularly as soon as I get back. Aside from Steve's birthday, we've got one other date booked in July, and I'm sure we'll add more. I'm really excited about this project.

Yesterday I recorded a whole bunch of music with Joe Morris and about ten others. Most of us had graduated from NEC recently, and it was a really energetic session. Also present was a cellist from abroad named Miriam Felix, who many of us were meeting for the first time. We were split into several combinations, and recorded about four hours worth of music. I'm looking forward to seeing what the outcome of this is. Joe has been teaching at NEC for 14 years, and is always recording with different folks. We're definitely very grateful that he likes to work with younger generations, and releases a good amount of stuff on his own label (riti records).

Early in June I returned again to VT for the Burlington JazzFest, during which I played about 6 or 7 sets with different people. There were a few really incredible reunions as well as a couple of special first meetings. Despite the gigs I was scheduled to play (or asked to be a part of), there was some confusion that unfolded upon my arrival to my first set. I was asked not to play that night due to my lack of seniority/eldership in the ranks of the ensemble. This initially confounded me (I was always welcome after I left town), but when I started to see who was showing up, and how long they had known the groups leader (most for over 15 years) it made a bit more sense, and a brief inner crisis subsided. I enjoyed listening to them play, but had only played with half of them in the time I'd lived there, and felt some sort of disconnect. It was strange, but I wasn't going to let it put a damper on anything else happening during the festival.

The only other off-putting thing about my time in VT that week was the news of Lee Hyla's death. He was a composer who chaired the NEC program until 2007, and though I only met him once, I've been actively listening to his music much more in the last few years, and was looking forward to the possibility of working with him in the future. Many of my friends and teachers knew him well, and his passing has sent shockwaves through the new music world. There were a few concerts that featured his music at Sick Puppy, which happened at NEC the next week (Lee was scheduled to be SICPP's Composer-in-Residence this summer). As usual those concerts and the people I met there were fantastic.  

For anyone who hasn't yet been to Burlington, I highly recommend it, and if you haven't been to the American Flatbread there, you should go. Now.

They have great pizza, great beer (brewed in-house), and they treat their musicians really, really well. The Psychedelicatessen is a great addition to the scene as well. When I came back to Boston, I immediately started preparing for my move, and I'm just about ready to leave.

When I figured out that I'd be staying here longer than I initially planned (around the end of February), I made a mental list of things I should do before I left for good. Tiny things - mostly having to do with food in the proximity, that I might not get the chance to cross off in the few remaining days I have left here:

Thai North (Oak Square)

Angora Cafe (BU)

Super 88 (Packard's Corner)

one last ride into the Back Bay on the BU Shuttle

...and a stop in Roslindale, which is easy enough to get to from here via the 51 bus.

I've been to all of those places before, but Super 88, Angora, & Thai North are much easier to get to from my current dwelling. Oh well...

Super 88 Market and food court

I did take a walk to my old apartment by Rogers Park a couple of weeks ago, after which I discovered that it had been vacated and sold twice in the last two years. This wasn't a shock, and gave me a strange sense of relief. I'm imagining that my old street will be developed with apartment buildings in the next 15 years or so, and will look similar from where I'm living now. During my last real search for housing in Boston (circa 2011), the realtor was quick to tell us of a housing crisis in Boston due to a larger influx of students. Casey and I landed in Rozzie, and I'm happy to see more of my friends living out there now.

I've also been thinking about things that made me want to move to NY in the first place, and those same things never fail to excite me. Among other things, I listen to Milton Babbitt, Andrew Hill's later recordings, or TILT Brass, and I can't help but feel great about going back - this music is alive, and offers true inspiration for my return.