I had the best of intentions of blogging about the remainder of my stay in L.A., but I was having such a great time there that the blog took a momentary back seat. There’s way too much to write about my experiences there, but some of the highlights were:
The Blue Whale: Such an amazing jazz venue, with such a friendly staff that is incredibly supportive of the music. We played an excellent show there and it will be the future location of the Travis Sullivan Quartet CD West Coast CD release party when the time comes.
The Foundry: I had a lot of fun at this bar restaurant that has jazz on Friday/Saturday nights.
Wine tasting at Malibu Wines: Nick Mancini’s next door neighbor owns this beautiful vineyard in Malibu, and he treated us to all three wine tasting flights. A great way to spend a day in California!
Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles: Need I say more? 🙂
Alvas Showroom: My quartet performed at this lovely venue in San Pedro. We didn’t have a lot of people there, but this place is run by a very friendly, dedicated staff and it’s a beautiful room. I hope to play there again someday.
Now I’m in Toronto to perform with the Rana Farhan group at the Toronto Opera House, feeling like the touring musician I’ve always wanted to be. I need to relish this though because after this I’ll be in NYC until December. Last night drummer Joe Hertenstein and I were invited to perform at a free improvisation concert by our old friend from the Banff Jazz Workshop, cellist Cheryl O. (I forget her full last name!). It was this cool and funky semi-outdoor space, and we performed with Cheryl and two “electronics guys,” one on electronic percussion and another on laptop. It was a lot of fun and it reminded me that I need to do this sort of free improvising a whole lot more. After the show we went back to The Rex Hotel, where our band is staying, which is very cool because it is also a jazz club. Pat LaBarbara was doing a Coltrane tribute, and so we drank some beers, listened to some amazing jazz, and then went upstairs to go to sleep!
Today has been a relaxing day thus far. Rana, Steve, and I explored for a while this morning, and this afternoon for lunch we all went to Banu, an amazing Persian restaurant that treated us to a fantastic meal the first time we were in Toronto this past March. The owner, Sally, is an extremely gracious and generous person and it was great to see a familiar face in a slightly unfamiliar city. I wish I were a better writer, because I can’t even put into words how awesome the food was this afternoon. I highly recommend this place if you’re ever visiting Toronto!
OK…I’m free of some guilt now that I’ve blogged. 🙂