Jazz Standard

On Sunday, I checked out the Jacky Terrasson Trio with Burniss Travis (bass) and Justin Faulkner (drums) at the Jazz Standard.  With their nuanced and adventurous playing exploring the full range of dynamics, the trio breathed new life into old standards.  I was reminded that the piano trio is the perfect combination, requiring no more and no less.

My cousin, who just arrived that morning on vacation from Korea, really dug it and asked if I get to listen to this kind of music everyday.  Yeah, I guess I do—I hadn’t thought of it that way, having grown accustomed to the overflowing music scene here with many options for the jazz genre alone within a five-mile radius.  Things I take for granted are often notable looking from the outside in.

I was relieved that we were able to make it for the late set after an extended afternoon of shopping in Chelsea and on Bleecker Street.  My cousin absolutely insisted that she buy me clothes but whether my money or not, I couldn’t justify buying a dress that was essentially a couple pieces of lace sewed together for more than my entire month’s spending budget.  I didn’t resist too hard because I realized that this is her way of showing me love, not to mention that I really liked an outfit she picked out for me.

I had never been to that part of Bleecker Street, even though it is just a few blocks away from where all the jazz clubs are in Greenwich Village.  Although I initially distinguished New York from Los Angeles by its mixing bowl nature of diverse peoples converging in public spaces, I’m sensing more and more that it is deeply segregated in its own way.  An educator friend told me about her work with kids growing up in Harlem who practically never go outside of the immediate neighborhood.  Their experience of New York must be vastly different from the foreigner here for an internship, the workaholic who makes more money than he has time to spend, and the kid who attends an Upper East Side school.

Being a tourist in the city with my cousin so far has made for a different experience, from her offer to surgically widen my eyes so that I don’t keep closing them in her photos to shopping in boutiques without looking at the price tag in true Gangnam style.

Behind an entrance framed by grand red curtains, the Jazz Standard restrooms are excellent.  Though the ceiling is on the lower side in the women’s room, the three stalls are wide and the staff seemed scrupulous about cleanliness.  Both times I was in there, a hostess was wiping down water that kept collecting and dripping down from the edge of the sink.

They had a separate wheelchair accessible restroom, which I hadn’t noticed in a previous visit.  I wasn’t sure how one gets down the flight of stairs to access the restroom but it has been brought to my attention that the Jazz Standard has an elevator somewhere for patrons in wheelchairs.

Aza from Kyrgyzstan tells us how to say, “Where’s the restroom?” in Kyrgyz –

Daaratkana kaida?