I met Rufus Reid while in a jazz summer camp circa 1980. Starting with that time at Ramapo College, I’ve been a fan of his music. He also served for two decades as William Paterson University’s Director of Jazz Studies in my hometown of Wayne, New Jersey. Kirk and I caught a smoking show at Blues Alley, featuring Steve Allee, piano, Tim Horner, drums, and Antonio Hart, saxes. Antonio brought particular fire to his solos. One standout moment was the close of Chelsea Bridge, with Rufus and Antonio playing the melody together and Rufus bowing the bass. Beautiful! ...

On a night with a wintery bite, the Bill Frisell Trio brought the perfect cozy warmth to Blues Alley. Cousin David kindly arrived first and landed a third row table; we had an hour to catch up. The house quickly filled with the sold out crowd, anticipating an artist who could easily fill an auditorium 5x this size. The trio began with the Monk tune “Misterioso,” which set the mood for the evening playful, reflective, intimate yet taking musical risks. The melody alternates high and low eighth notes an octave apart. Guitarist Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan deconstructed the tune so that each took alternating notes. This set the stage for the lyrical intertwining of bass and guitar through much of the show. When drummer Rudy Royston took a first solo, he let the club know he was here: the intensity jumped upwards, and while his solo was melodic, he was not afraid to let everyone know he was here to play the drums. ...

“Indiscipline” brought the crowd to its feet at the close of the second set of Beat–a revival of 1980s King Crimson. The virtuoso band included Tony Levin, Andrian Belew, Steve Vai and Danny Carry. The lyrics for Indiscipline like this: I do remember one thing It took hours and hours By the time I was done with it I was so involved, I didn’t know what to think I carried it around with me for days and days Playing little games Like not looking at it for a whole day And then, looking at it to see if I still liked it I did! ...

I hopped on an electric bike for a 20 minute ride to the historical Frank Lloyd Wright Unitarian Universalist meeting house in Madison. The guided tour was wonderful and the best story was about how it was built. Frank LLoyd Wright was a member of the church so they could afford the architect but not his plans. The church members had to carry the stones from the quarry to the church by themselves, working every weekend for six months. At the time the church membership was 35 families. ...

On a beautiful fall Saturday, my colleague David from the University joined me for one of Wisconsin’s classic hikes: Devil’s Lake. This state park is about an hour’s drive from Madison. David drove us in his new plug-in Prius and it was a crisp, sunny October day. We did not climb up the hard way, as shown in the picture below. But it was a steep climb up nicely placed rock “stairs” held together with concrete. The bluffs rise about 500 feet from the level of the lake. ...