Cats Are Grey

For some reason Sarah and I were seated in the very back of the club when we went to see David Murray which didn’t seem like a big deal since Birdland is a small club and has good sight lines. Before the show started we passed notes back and forth wondering if the man and woman in front of us were a couple or father and daughter. He seemed to be in his sixties and looked pretty haggard. She was in her late thirties at most and reasonably attractive. He ordered her dinner for her. We decided they were father and daughter.

Then the music started. David Murray plays tenor saxophone and is one of my favorite living jazz musicians. Actually, he’s one of my favorite all time jazz musicians. He’s able to bridge traditional jazz melodies with screeching, complex avant-garde flights in a way that makes the avant-garde accessible and adds excitement and surprise to the traditional.

But that’s not good enough for some people. Once David Murray started playing in the upper register the girl in front of us started complaining. And loudly! And with a terrible voice! But instead of telling her to keep her voice down, the old man with her just smiled like she was the cutest thing and then…started erotically stroking her arm!

Meanwhile, the couple in front of them were using their camera phone to take video of each other dancing in their seats and the table of twelve behind me were screaming from one end of their table to the other.

But it was the couple in front of us who really took the cake. She kept complaining, saying things like “I’ve heard better music in my LIVING ROOM,” and putting the salt and pepper shakers in her ears. Then between songs, while the audience applauded, she’d scream “What’s wrong with these people?” Then she made loud screeching noises during the music. All of which her decrepit lover found adorable. So they played footsie. But she kept missing his foot and kicking Sarah.

Finally they asked for the check and left. But just to leave a hideous image in my head they stood in the aisle and made out for a little bit before taking off. Ew!

What was really upsetting is that the staff didn’t seem to care that people were talking during the set. Birdland seems to be more interested in making money off Times Square tourists than creating a good place to see music. Which is sadly true of a lot of jazz clubs these days (Iridium and Blue Note especially).

I heard that before he moved to France, David Murray played every week at the Knitting Factory. I wish I could have seen those shows. When people talk there they get told to shut the fuck up. Literally. John Zorn told Madeline Albright to shut the fuck up for talking while he played. True story.

Anyhow, click below to hear David Murray play John Coltrane’s song Equinox.