‘Admire a large vineyard, cultivate a small one’ — Virgil

Music

At the Village Gate

Herbie Mann


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By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Jul 1, 2009
Category: Jazz

Cool, this week, was a frozen pomegranate margarita (or three) on the lawn (yes, a lawn) of a Rockefeller Center terrace overlooking the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Later, cool was walking home at sunset, iPod amped high enough to blow out an infant’s ears, music streaming into my Shure E2c Sound Isolating Earphones.

The music: Herbie Mann. Recorded in 1962.

The first song on "At the Village Gate" is “Comin’ Home Baby”. It was an instant hit on the pop charts --- how often does an almost nine-minute jazz tune reach the top 30 singles? --- and then the album was a hit, and then it was elevated to the ranks of classic.

Almost six decades later, here’s how cool "Village Gate" is: It could have been made yesterday. That is, if there were a group around that dared to launch “Comin’ Home Baby” with a solid minute of stand-up bass playing a single note against subtle bop drums. By then, if you’re walking down the street, you can feel yourself starting to strut.

Restrain yourself, for here comes Herbie Mann.Read more »

Short Takes

Pamela Miles: Reiki Master

It’s frustrating to be a friend and client of Pamela Miles and not be able to explain how Reiki works. All we know in our house is that the “magic hand” puts the kid to sleep when nothing else works, sucks the stress from our psyches, and reduces our need for prescriptions and doctors. So it was nice to see a piece on Huffington Post that points readers to this effective if little understood form of self-healing and the practitioner who is its best ambassador. Here’s her book. And here’s her web site.

Reader Review: 'The Tender Bar'

A big thank you for mentioning The Tender Bar. I'm halfway through it and have mixed feelings: I can't wait to get to the next chapter, and I don't want it to end. He adds those wonderful 'hit you in the heart' sentences at the end of many of the segments, and I have to pause and absorb his 'heart speak" before reading more. It's so good to read words from such an honest writer, although I suspect he embroidered a few episodes. Nevertheless, there are times I wish I could give him a hug.

Pablo Thrailkill Castelaz

Sometimes, though there’s no paper in our communication here, you can sense when a message is blotched with tears. So it was yesterday, when a California reader forwarded a link to a site called Get Well Pablo. But Pablo didn’t get well. He died last week, of a rare cancer, just six years and six days old. He was very much loved --- the website is a diary of hope and grief --- and if you can stand it, I encourage you to click here. Weeping? Unavoidable. As are tighter hugs for the kids in your life.

Alice Hoffman: “I'm Sorry"

The novelist has issued an apology: "I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion…Of course, I was dismayed by Roberta Silman's review, which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions, and that's the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn't mean to hurt anyone and I'm truly sorry if I did." In the heat of the moment? She sent two dozen Twitter messages! And her “apology” reads as if it were written with fingers crossed --- or, more probably, by others. But there’s one indisputable piece of good news here: Hoffman has closed her Twitter account.