Entre Les Murs

SonicBloom

Our friends A&M came to visit and made sure that for once we spent the weekend exploring our adopted city.  Our evil bosses conspired to prevent us, yet again, so that we both spent most of Saturday in the office while our guests roamed around by themselves, but nonetheless we escaped long enough to pass two memorable evenings.

On Friday evening we went for dinner in the oaky antique elegance of the Gramercy Tavern.  It was selected by our guests, committed foodies, and not only was the food surpassingly wonderful, the service was quite perfect.  Coming into the air-conditioning, Janet found it too cold so at a word the restaurant furnished her with a shawl.  The four of us chose two excellent wines, relying on our French travels for the white and our friends' Italian expertise for the red.  There was an amuse bouche at the beginning and a second they called the amuse déssert.  We left with a little raspberry coffee cake each for the morning.

On Saturday evening, we went to the Blue Note to see Hiromi Uehara with her band, SonicBloom.  Our friends are both pianists and jazz officianados, so this was in fact the reason for the trip.  We were seated disastrously, in the wings of the room and behind the drummer.  We had to strain to see Hiromi peaking above the piano on the far side of the stage, but there was nothing wrong with the acoustics.  Most of the show was her own compositions, but her rendition of Gerswhin's "I've Got Rhythm" was particularly amazing, managing to give it a hopped up "flight of the bumblebee" spin without losing the original song.

After the show we walked down Bleecker Street, then took a cab to the Lower East Side for a couple more drinks.  But we're all fortyish and working too hard, so were home by midnight.

posted 27.7.08