Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 2

Listened to more classic Sonny Rollins today. This time some earlier albums from the 1950's in my collection. This set went on for about three hours.

I was a tenor sax player in my teens and Sonny Rollins was an early influence. I had some friends that played sax with me in the Uptown Mummers String Band who were older than me and liked playing music for me because I was always interested in hearing something new... like Sonny Rollins.

• Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, 1953
• Moving Out, 1954
• Rollins Plays For Bird, 1956
• Tenor Madness, 1956

Crook Manifesto - A Novel

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead, 2023. This is the second book of the Harlem Trilogy. Looking forward to the 3rd volume in the trilogy to be published later this year. 

I enjoyed this book very much although it was a very intense trashy view of NYC and particularly Harlem life in the early 1970's. I was also reading this novel the same time I was reading Ibram X. Kendi's Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age, 2026. Another very intense book.

This is the fifth Colson Whitehead book that I've read so I really should add a posting for him in my Authors List series.

Sonny Rollins - Kitchen Listening 1

This is the first of several sets of Sonny Rollins albums from my collection that I'm listening to following hearing of his passing yesterday. I have about a dozen of his albums including a box set that I will be playing over the next few days.

This set ran about three hours.

• The Bridge, 1962 
• Sonny Meets Hawk!, 1963 
• Sonny Rollins on Impulse!, 1965
• There Will Never Be Another You, 1965

Sonny Rollins RIP

We woke up this morning to discover that Sonny Rollins had passed away yesterday at the age of 95. Wow, actually I didn't know he was still around. Haven't heard anything about him in a long time. When Becky and I saw him in the early 90's we thought we were being lucky to see an old classic sax player. I also saw him in 1986 at the Tralfamadore Cafe in downtown Buffalo. 

He was one of my favorite tenor saxophone players. I played tenor sax as a teenager. 

Another Buffalo Marathon

Today another Buffalo Marathon sent runners down our street in front of our house. It's been happening every year that we've lived here on Crescent Avenue. Not a nice day but it could be worse. At least it's not raining on the runners. Cloudy and cool in the 50's but that is probably good for the runners. Not very many people on the block outside watching the race.

Well, except for the one house of neighbors who set up a table, screamed at the runners, played bongo drums and shook noise makers. Yep, same folks every year but this year they didn't last very long... about an hour. Maybe their voices gave out.

I took a couple of pictures from the upstairs bedroom of the race.

The people in the pic watching the race can be very obnoxious and that has been a long tradition from that house going back to Peter who liked to shout at the runners often mocking them if they slowed down or started walking. He thought his comments were funny but he was an embarrassment to the block and the neighborhood. Him and his family also backed on all kinds of pots and pans, drums, etc. He's been gone for a few years now but his family keeps his tradition going... well except the mocking runners thing.

Glass of Beer - Cape May Gold

I had a busy day. Our first day back home. Mowed the front lawn. Did three large loads of laundry. Carrying suitcases around the house. I needed to sit down this evening and have a glass of beer.

While at Katie's house in Mt Airy we stopped by the Brewers Outlet again. We try to do it every time we are in town. I've written about it before and described the store here and our history with it. This time I bought a 12 pack of Cape May Brewing variety pack which was a little different than the last time I got their beer there.

And today I had their American Golden Ale... Cape May Gold. It is very delicious.

Looking forward to checking out some of the other beers in this variety and I have had a couple of them before which I loved.

Cheesesteak Sauce and Onions

I had been wanting to get a Philly cheesesteak sauce and onions during our nearly a week long visit to Katie's. I finally got one on the last night before leaving when Katie ordered some cheesesteaks from Lorenzo's Pizza Steaks & Hoagies in Manayunk delivered to her house. She ordered several versions of their steaks and cut them up for everyone to try but for me she got their classic sauce and onions one which I loved.

Grandkid Selfie

We've been having a wonderful time with our grandchildren on this trip and one of the first things we did together was take our regular selfie photo yesterday on Friday the day we arrived.

Joe Ide - Authors List

Joe Ide - Authors List. 5 books read from this noir crime fiction novelist. I enjoyed reading his books very much. The five books I've read were all part of the Isaiah "IQ" Quintabe series about a private detective who solves crimes the LAPD cannot or will not in a high crime neighborhood. An awesome collection of novels. There is another one in the series that came out in 2023 that I need to read. He also wrote a Philip Marlowe novel in 2022 that should be on my list.

Joe Ide books I've read:

• IQ, 2016 - Oct 2018
• Righteous, 2017 - Nov 2018
• Wrecked, 2018 - Dec 2018
• Hi Five, 2020 - Mar 2021
• Smoke, 2021 - Nov 2021

Nick Drake - Kitchen Listening

Nick Drake - Kitchen Listening. We listened to a set of Nick Drake albums from my collection today. It was very special hearing all of these albums together in one afternoon. They sounded great. He was such a wonderful singer/songwriter.

I first became aware of Nick Drake in the mid to late 70's from a friend who was very much into British folk music from the 60's and early 70's. He turned me on to a lot of incredible music including this artist although by that time he was already dead from a suicide overdose of antidepressants in 1974 at 26. One of the sad things about his life was his depression and stage fright. He only played a few live concerts and his albums were commercial failures at the time. They did become popular starting in the mid to late 1980's.

I learned a lot more about him a few years ago after reading Joe Boyd's memoir White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960's which was published in 2006. I read it in 2022. He was Drake's album producer and mentor for the first two records.

The last album in the set is a  collection of outtakes and alternative versions of songs from the three albums he recorded in his lifetime.

• Five Leaves Left, 1969
• Bryter Layter, 1971
• Pink Moon, 1972
• Time of No Reply, 1987