Jazz Gallery (Hudson St)

Last Saturday, I went to see the debut of pianist Myra Melford’s new ensemble, Snowy Egret, at the Jazz Gallery.  The entrance tends to take me by surprise because it seems to come out of nowhere, sandwiched between miscellaneous buildings and lots.  And the entrance to the club is unusual in that it has stairs that lead upwards to a second floor, instead of stairs that go down, like many other jazz venues.

The Jazz Gallery has two unisex bathrooms that are completely different.  From the performance area, walk all the way down the hall and turn left to find the restrooms to your left.  The first one you’ll approach is a quaint old restroom with an interior door between the little washroom and the toilet (see photos below).  The one farther down the hall is a more modern and spacious one with gray tiles (picture to your left) and has railings by the toilet, presumably for people with disabilities needing additional assistance.

In visiting various clubs, I’ve wondered how people in wheelchairs can expect to use any of the restrooms I’ve visited thus far.  Actually, never mind the restroom problem; most places don’t even seem to have a ramp or elevator to even get down or up their narrow flights of stairs to the club itself.  New York is not an accessible city, with all of its cramped spaces, difficult for even able-bodied people to maneuver.

Myra’s group consisted of Ron Miles (trumpet), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Stomu Takeishi (electric bass), Tyshawn Sorey (drums) and Oguri (dancer).  I had seen Oguri dance with Myra before but his dancing featured more prominently in my mind this time, with relatively frenetic movements compared to the excruciatingly slow movements I peripherally observed at their last show in Los Angeles.  Because the Jazz Gallery has a pretty confined and narrow performance area, Oguri danced directly in front of the band for the most part.  I thought to myself that there are three ways to look at this: He is blocking the musicians.  He is wallpaper.  He is a part of the ensemble and enhancing my experience of hearing the music.  Then I wondered if the same could apply to the thoughts running through my head, while listening to a musical performance.  I often see the thoughts as distracting me from really listening to the music or acting as a constant white noise, but I could also accept them as enhancing the music, since they may have been aroused by the music anyway.

Seeing Myra play here was a welcome sprinkling of Berkeley granola on my New York City apple; it brought back treasured memories of my undergraduate years at UC Berkeley, sitting in Myra’s sunny office full of tea, CD’s & ethnic artifacts, and chatting in car rides home after her multi-disciplinary seminar in improvisation.  She has taught me so much.  I know that my music would have been drastically different (and possibly non-existent) without her mentoring and guidance.

I hear that the Gallery is being pushed out in the coming months to build new condos, so visit soon if you want to see the bathrooms!  I also overheard that night that Myra and her bassist, Stomu, are birthday twins.  And I just remembered that I forgot to take a toilet paper sample.  Here’s a clip of Stomu saying, “Where’s the restroom?” in Japanese —

Toire doko?