Dear Friends:

I hope everyone had a good holiday.  I think Thanksgiving should be every day of the year - we should always approach life with an attitude of gratitude and thanks.  I am thankful for the wonderful music I've seen and heard in the last few nights.  Really special shows at Mezzrow thanks to Gerald Clayton and Ben Wendel - the club was packed and you could hear a pin drop.  Meanwhile at Smalls we had Mark Whitfield, who came in with his two sons (Davis on piano and Mark Jr. on drums) for a family affair.  They had the house rocking - what a scene!  Multi-generational musicians performing and hanging.  Yes, I am grateful.

Been reading further from Eddie Condon's "Scrapbook of Jazz" - wonderful anecdotes.  But the best thing is the forward, which was written by none other than John Steinbeck, who it turns out was a good friend of Condon's.  They had a mutual admiration for each other's work.  Condon even tried his hand at some prose "in the style of Steinbeck".  I wanted to quote something from Steinbeck's intro which made me smile:

"I have known musicians - not as you have - but a little.  They are the most confused, childish, vicious, vain people I know.  On the other hand they are the most generous.  Their wills are like those of children.  Their cruelties have no more sadistic background than has a small boy when he pulls the wings off flies.  Their domestic relations are a mixmaster type.  Business confuses them, and so does politics.  They almost seem in themselves to live outside ordinary law and common ethics.  Now, the reason I am saying all of this is that it is also true that I know of no group which has such direction in work.  They aim at excellence and apparently nothing else.  They are hard to buy and if bought they either backslide into honesty or lose the respect of their peers.  And this is a loss that terrifies them. In any other field of American life, great rewards can be used to cover a loss of honesty, but not with jazz players - a slip is known and recognized instantly."

What astute observation from one of America's greatest writers!  I am thankful!

PS - folks have been asking about New Year's eve at Mezzrow.  We have an amazing show (which will include champagne and some food.  CLICK HERE to find out more about it!

I wish everyone the best and hope, sincerely, to see you and meet you at either Smalls or Mezzrow.

Spike