San Francisco, CA – The Last Week (2/9 – 2/15)
When I showed up in San Francisco it was beautiful, the dreamy California weather that the movies show. The start of my second week shattered that pristine movie facade and it would decide to rain the moment I made a move to step outside. Without fail.
So, instead of fighting it I occupied myself with other matters. Writing, playing Rock Band on Manu’s amazing drum kit, catching up on T.V. shows and helping Manu hack his iPhone and newly acquired AppleTV. XBMC and Boxee are such great extensions of hardware like the AppleTV and XBox that it is disappointing of hardware creators how much disdain they show for people who just want to be able to do with their hardware what they want to without restriction once they’ve purchased it.
Wednesday I went out to Cat’s Corner, a dance held at the Savanna Jazz Club with a live band. I used to work for Cat’s Corner in Montreal so it was nice to see its sister venue in San Francisco. The venue reminded me of Swing 46 in NYC but less Broadway dinner establishment. It had a gritty dark edge to it, a bar worn from thousands of patrons, and signed photos of various musicians who had performed there scattered on the walls. The band was middling. Not particularly good but with the occasional tune that swung decently.
Thursday I made my way down to the Presidio to hangout with Erin, a friend from Detroit who had moved up from LA to San Francisco recently. She works at Starbucks and totally rocked my Starbucks experience with a triple soy latté on the house. When she finished her shift we wandered over to a small sushi restaurant nearby.
I’ve been meeting so many people lately who are going through large transitional states in their life. Learning to forge our own path in life rather than affixing ourselves to a path laid out for us or that so many others follow is a challenge for all of us. Erin and I talked about this for a while and how in the past year or two we’ve both been through a lot of large changes in our lives and that the coming time is still a liminal state. We’re on the threshold of a scary new part of our lives.
We hopped the bus back to her apartment and relaxed with the Big Lebowski till the 9:20 Special later that evening. Marty Klempner was in town teaching as part of the Frankie Manning weekend that was upcoming and he was spinning tunes for the first half of the night. Unlike my prior evening at the 9:20 I really enjoyed the music, lots of Fats Waller.
Friday I had a private to teach in Berkeley so I hopped the BART out of the city and arrived to meet Brian in downtown Berkeley. We drove over to a friends place and worked on solo jazz movement for a while. We broke down the shim sham and cleaned up the various motions and I showed him some stylistic variations that he could incorporate into his solo dance.
We grabbed food at Smart Alec’s, a local eatery that students frequent, and when I ordered a smoothie the girl behind the counter looked at me like I was crazy since it was apparently too cold outside to order an iced beverage. Then headed over to the ____ to watch Manu interview Frankie as part of the weekend.
Frankie Manning is celebrating his 95th birthday this coming May and over a thousand attendees are celebrating in New York City for a week thanks to the wonderful organization of so many people, yet there will be over a thousand attendees. There is no way anyone is going to get a few minutes of Frankie’s time to answer a question. That was one of the best things about the Frankie weekend in San Francisco. I sat ten feet from Frankie and got to ask him a question which her answered. Hearing his stories is always enchanting and it’s been since Lindyfest ‘08 that I saw him last. It was spectacular to have that interaction with the father of the dance I love so much.
After the interview Frankie retired to a back room and Lavay Smith and the Skillet Lickers played the dance. Well, they played eventually. It took over an hour for the chairs to get put away, the band to get setup, the sound checks and everything complete. Really poorly organized. As for the music itself the songs were patently long, we determined an average of eight minutes per tune, with each of the musicians taking extended solos without much consideration for the dancers.
I would say I’ve been spoiled with bands like the Cangelosi Cards and the Boilermakers who love to play for dancers and understand the dynamic of the room but I shouldn’t feel spoiled. That should be the standard. If you hire a band to play a dance, they should be good enough to know the room, to know the audience, even if you have to explain it to them.
Saturday I went out for lunch with Manu and Karen to Pacific Catch, a little galley restaurant, only a few blocks from the Starbucks where Erin works. With an asian and mexican mixed menu, I chose a wasabi rice bowl with Ahi Tuna. Exceptionally fresh and seared, the tuna was exactly what I craved, and the wasabi had a nice kick. I’m going to mention once again Manu’s exceptional generosity throughout my stay, taking me out for lunch on this occasion as well as others.
I swung by and gave Erin a hug on my way back to the car, thankful I did since we didn’t get to meet up again later.
That night was the Shiny Stockings Ball out in Oakland. Held in a large ballroom with a full big band orchestra and many of the attendees dressed up it was a true Saturday night dance. The band had that nice full sound that only an orchestra can have with a smoother feel that you might hear in later Count Basie, less hot jazz and more swing jazz. We had a shim sham with Frankie to celebrate him, a trend that is sweeping across the globe with communities filming their shim shams and posting them for all to see.
My favorite part of the night was near the end as people wrapped up Bromley and I had an impromptu tap off. Trading steps and trying to one up each other with high flying steps or tight rhythms. I’ve got more practicing to do but I held my own even though his rhythms were far tighter and clean than mine. Next time Gadget! Next time!
