A day of rest, free of concerts (or so we thought). Out, and along Euston Road to Pret for breakfast.
St Pancras in the distance:
The British Library:
Out, and a long, slow perambulation down to the Strand:
and eventually into Trafalgar Square. The view down Whitehall:
Dodgy looking geezer ("Psst - wanna buy an art gallery - going cheap"...):
Into Soho and to the Old Compton Street branch of Herman ze German:
Bratwurst and fries:
Bratwurst, fries, crispy fried onions, mustard and ketchup:
Over lunch we debated the merits of squeezing in another concert that evening. New York pianist Emmet Cohen was playing at the Soho Pizza Express jazz club that night, and on the basis of the one CD of his that I had so far managed to acquire, this was a gig I was likely to enjoy. On the other hand, at this late hour for booking the seats were unlikely to be prime, and it was supposed to be a rest day...
I called the venue; yes, they confirmed, there were tables available, but they were right at the back or side of the room. I thanked them and hung up. More discussion. "Stuff it", I said, "I really want to see this guy - are you up for it?".
I called back and made the booking.
Back out into Soho and down to Charing Cross Road for a visit to Foyles.
X marks the spot; if ever we can't find each other in the shop, this is our agreed meeting spot:
Back to the hotel for a rest and freshen up, and then to the Pizza Express.
As already indicated, our table was right at the back and on the side. We sat and surveyed the room, and I realised that the table behind me would offer much better views. I went back to the maître d and asked if we could swap; he checked his clipboard and agreed that we could.
As I started to turn away I noticed a small pile of Cohen CDs on the table beside him; one of them was an album that I had long been trying to purchase, but which seemed to be out of print in this country and prohibitively expensive to import. "Are those for sale?", I asked, somewhat redundantly. "I'll take one - I loved the first one in the series and have been trying to get this one for ages". "Bless you", said a voice beside me, and I realised that Cohen had been standing beside the maître d' all along...
CD acquired, we moved to our new table, with which we were well pleased:
Views of the room:
Every one of these tables was eventually occupied to capacity:
The announcer reminded everyone to switch mobiles, etc to silent and to keep all unnecessary noise to a minimum, noting that this was a concert and not "dinner with background music"; the band took to the stage and the concert started:
Mid-way through the first number two young women arrived, caused enormous disruption to everyone around them while they squeezed into their seats, ordered a bottle of wine... ...and then proceeded to discuss their respective days in voices that increased in volume the louder the band played...
The two young men on the table adjacent to them looked uncomfortable but said nothing. I lasted about three minutes and then leaned over to gently admonish them: "Could you please shut the hell up - you're ruining it for everyone else". They did (and at the end of the evening one of them had the good grace to come over and apologise). It's all in a day's work for "Extraneous Concert Noise Monitor"...
Emmet between numbers:
Bassist Yasushi Nakamura:
On drums and occasional vocals, Bryan Carter:
Guesting on trumpet for a couple of numbers, British trumpeter Mark Kavuma:
The band take their leave; this being the London Jazz Festival the curfew had not been observed too precisely, and it was well past 23.00:
Out, and up to Oxford Street:
where we eventually hailed a cab back to the hotel.
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