jazz bear

Tickets were sold out as we arrived at Village Vanguard.
With a disappointed mood, we walked back to West 4th and West 10th. Yes, these two streets do cross each other in Manhattan. It sounds unlikely, but it is true. When you are in the village, no matter the east or west village, the checker-board map of the city is not valid. You will be either surprised at the next corner or felt very lost in the next block.

We walked back to West 4th and West 10th. Back because that was the restaurant we'd just had dinner. We walked back there because Smalls is there.

I was hesitating. Last time when I went to Smalls, I did not quite enjoy the jazz performers that night.
But we did need to kill the time, and I hated to send Nat home after she'd spent 90 minutes on subway from deep down Brooklyn to the West Village. And I didn't feel like doing anything else.
The entrance fee to Smalls was twenty, which was thirteen more than Village Vanguard, which has much a better reputation than Smalls. I was like WTF let's do it because I need jazz tonight.
So we went in.
It was not totally packed, and we got three seats together, very close to the stage.

The 9pm band was horribly unendurable, reminding me of my marching band in high school.
I was a tenor and baritone saxophone player. I was not a musician then, and I am not and will not be one. But at least I learned how to appreciate good saxophone performance or performances of other instruments.
The 9pm band was led by a saxophone player, who did not understand that he was not making any jazz sense at all. No wonder three front vacant seats waited for us.
Besides the saxophone, the drum, guitar, and cello players' performance were like their young appearance: unexperienced. The lady next to Nat were seriously protecting her own ears with her hands.

Somehow I was not very mean, perhaps it was because I just had a good walk with an awfully romantic dance by the lake in the Park. Anyway, I didn't say let's just leave and pretend we had a super expensive meal. Rather, I said let's wait for the next set.
I am glad we waited. Twenty dollars were totally worth it for the following band: Teddy Charles Tentet.

Exactly ten but actually eleven. Perhaps twelve right after we left the club (because I had to get back to South Orange... oh I need to move to the city!). Smalls was so packed, and even more so when the tuba arrived at 11:50pm.

That is, Teddy Charles' tentet, eleventet, and twelvetet.
Ten plus one or two musicians were playing on stage.
The club is pretty small, bearing the name Smalls. I did not believe they could fit ten chairs, music instruments, and musicians in front of us. But they did.
I did not believe ten instruments would not break my ear drums or blow off the roof. But they did not. They did not overload my hearing system like the saxophone at 9pm. By them, I mean one piano, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, baritone, trumpet, drums, cello, guitar, and vibraphone. This is ten. The eleventh was a trombone! The twelfth was a tuba!!
Can you imagine all of them fit in Smalls and deliver the legendary jazz notes?
I could not until I witnessed it with my own eyes and ears.

Teddy Charles is a short round old man. He looked extremely harmless and cute, like a teddy bear. He stood in front of the vibraphone, picked up the sticks slowly, and suddenly his hands went like fire. Fast and smooth and breathtaking. With a seriously focusing look.
I was like wow. His musician heart never ages.

now

then

Look at the picture when he was young, I could not believe that was the same person I saw in Smalls two nights ago. He is 80 years old now. Last time when he performed with ten or more musicians was 1957, according Chris Byars, the alto sax player. Why ten or more? Because that was how the music was written, how the pieces were played, how the spirit of those pieces could be expressed fully. So Teddy Charles came back playing in the old fashion.

Can you believe how many times I have used the word "believe" in this entry?

Trying to find more about his music, I came across to his website: teddy-charles.com
I realized how lucky we were to listen to him and his band last weekend because that was his last scheduled performance in the States this year! If you missed it, go to his MySpace page, and his music will immediately make every cell of your body smile.

I shaked my head a lot recently.
Things have come up unexpectedly. When things come up unexpectedly, I shake my head.
My luck has not been very good for the past one year, and I can't believe things just come up.

Spider, one of the Anansi Boys, said "Things come up. That's what things do."
Well, easy for him to say so. He is a god.
I am a human who does not quite appreciate surprises. But I have to say I am quite happy about my recent luck. Like the encounter with the jazz bear (I hope Teddy Charles doesn't mind this nickname). Like the dance by the lake. Like the messages in the fortune cookies.