Jazz in the Bronx

Woke up a little later (12:30 pm) and headed to New School. sat online for a while when karl called and asked me to have lunch with him and adele in china town (the same place i got my bus to Boston to visit berklee)

so i go off with karl....adele was going to meet us there later. we arrive at the Vietnamese joint in 20 odd minutes......karl calls adele up and finds out she hast yet left from wherever she was supposed to. but she told us to wait for her for 30 odd minutes and not to eat without her.....so being the gentle men that we are, karl and me decided to just get some shopping done.

a friend of mine named savio who does tattoos in Bombay wanted some tattoo equipment....so karl and me wander the streets looking for it. china town is a lot like Bombay...really crowded, stalls line the streets, smells of different food waft through the air and mingle with the sound of people screaming at each other on the top of their lungs....well the only difference is they are all Chinese!!

we pass Italian restaurants and countless jewelery stores (even more than Bombay...shame on us) and stores selling shirts and hats and other such trinkets....we finally find the shop.....we need to climb a shady set of stairs...as soon as we open the door there is a huge space with trinkets just like the ones in the shops downstairs...i wonder whether we are at the right place, but we walk to the back of the shop and there are rows and rows of everything you need to tattoo....so we quickly buy our stuff...cause karl gets a call that adele has reached the restaurant.

we head back...meet up with adele and have some scrumptious authentic Vietnamese food....we head out later stuffed but cant resist going into a cool Chinese bakery and picking up loads of different buns to take home. we sit in the bakery a while and drink coffee..as it is raining outside....it stops raining in 15-20 odd minutes and we decide to postpone the rest of the shopping as we don't wanna get drenched (china town is even more similar to Bombay after the rain...go figure :))

its around 5 when we get home and karl decides he needs a nap...so goan he is....we are all so proud of him!!

he wakes up around 7:30 and decides to take me to a killer jazz joint in the Bronx (around one hour away) called St. Nicks (apparently miles davis once played there and malcom X used to visit there)...well this is a really different jazz joint as it is right in the middle of the Bronx...where black people and the poorer section of society (by their standards) live.

we go in and get a table right in front....the band playing first is a killer funk groove thing going....they sing songs about love and peace and loving oneself....i thought that was good message stuff...after their set, which ended at 10:30 pm...i got to talk with a cool guy named Floyd who was the lead singer of the band...he was one of the most tripped out guys i have ever met...really nice and down to earth...he wanted to see the pics i clicked of the band and was just going "ooohh man that so goood" and "yeah yeah that's looks awesome"....very encouraging fellow.

in the meantime the second band came up....they were all old people...i mean with really white hair..walking slow and stuff....i wondered what they would do....and surprise surprise they turned out to be one kick ass crazy time hardcore blues band...mind blowing....all of them....especially the pianist who was just plain crazy with his phrasing and speed....in spite of his age!!!

we left there around 1 am cause it was a looong ride back,.....i needed to pee and was glad the train driver was in as much a hurry to get home as i was.