I had a blast in New York City these last few days. Maria Schneider's orchestra was phenomenal and I had great seats at Birdland. Afterward, we headed to Mezzrow and saw pianist Wilfie Williams. Mezzrow is a tiny club. I don't know how they make any money in that place as it looks like it has about 35 seats. But at the same time - what a great club! The acoustics are really good and the band is right there, a few feet from us.
Friday night at Smoke with One For All & George Coleman was also a fun time. Again, I had great seats. The club came out of Covid as a "dinner club", which turned out to be a good, albeit expensive thing, as it allowed us to meet the band members before the show. What a great bunch of guys. After the Smoke show (), we again headed down to Mezzrow for Roberta Picket. Unfortunately, this time we got there too late to get seats so we stood in the back, outside the listening room. Acoustics were (obviously) not as good. But what we heard was some great playing, especially by bassist Andy McKee.