Jon Anderson’s angelic, timeless voice filled the historic Warner Theater in downtown Washington, DC, defying his 80 years of age. Indeed, his spiritual energy and genuine warmth throughout two sets lasting about two and a half hours was amazing. Although many of the songs were recorded by Yes in 1970s, they sounded perfect today. The set began, in classic Yes tradition, by playing Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite through the speakers as the Band Geeks took the stage. Recently, Anderson has been touring and recording with this mob from Long Island. The Band Geeks were a bit bored during the pandemic and started challenging themselves with homemade recording of the super-challenging Yes classics. Their covers were posted on YouTube, where I and many others found them to be wonderful. Jon Anderson found them too and asked them to play with him. ...
Without question, Bob James stole the show at the 2025 Capital Jazz Festival. He took the stage with his own quartet and at 85 years old, he probably had more years than the drummer, bass, and sax player combined. But his sound was still spritely and he didn’t miss a note. Bob is a composer often featured at your favorite “smooth jazz” setting of the radio dial, with a nack for writing tunes with memorable hooks. He played many of his classic compositions and a few covers. His band featured a talented young drummer and energetic bass player. And the Ukrainian sax player Andrey Chmut played several powerful solos, too. ...
My camera and I went to pay tribute to Matthew Brady, the famous photographer of the Civil War. He died in 1896, and these days can best be found in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. Sure enough, he was hanging out with his pals, Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass (although they are buried elsewhere). The cemetery has many former members of Congress, soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War and Civil War and more. It also has a lot of dogs. You see, those congresspeople didn’t allocate funding for the upkeep of their graves. So the Cemetery hit upon an unusual funding strategy: for $15 you can let your dog roam free in the cemetery. And let me tell you: the dogs think this is the greatest thing ever! Rather few seemed to be concerned with paying their respects to Duffy, however. ...
On Memorial Day weekend, Karen and Kayla came to visit us in Washington. The weather o Sunday morning was gorgeous with cool, dry air and blue skies. We drove about 40 minutes to see Glenstone, an indoor and outdoor museum outside of DC. Split Rocker The most memorable sculpture is a flower-and-plant-covered wireframe of a rocking horse, which sits on top of a hill. You can see it from every direction. The artist is Jeff Koons. ...
On opening night for Porgy and Bess at the Kennedy Center, Audrey, Karen, Kayla and I had perfect seats about a half dozen rows behind the orchestra pit. Close enough to see the beads of sweat on Porgy after his climatic fight with Crown. Audrey made me swear not to sing along to “Summertime” and anyway, as an amazing soprano was in the lead, I didn’t even dare try. Before the show, we toured the Kennedy Center, checking out the museum exhibit about Kennedy and the arts as well as the great view from the fourth floor terrace. There was also an extensive museum exhibit about Porgy and Bess. ...