Smalls

I went to Smalls last Saturday, to hear both saxophonist Adam Larson’s group in the afternoon and pianist Mark Soskin’s quartet at night.  The club is an underground hole in the wall that’s got a New York charm about it.  I really liked this space.

I stood in line for the women’s bathroom, with the person in front of me fretting that whoever is in there has been taking a long time.  The bathroom was spacious enough, as New York city bathrooms go, with a sink and toilet.  It smelled of weed, so I guess that explains why that other woman was taking so long.

It may be worth noting that the toilet paper at Smalls is marginally thicker than the paper at the Vanguard.  I am now in possession of toilet paper samples from three different venues so it’s officially a collection!  This may seem silly, but I began thinking that we are all pretty silly, obsessed with collecting stuff like accolades and trophies, none of which will matter in the long run.  But still, I admit that I would rather win an award than a roll of toilet paper.  As a side note, if you’ve ever played games at a Korean church gathering, you know that toilet paper (and other necessities, such as toothpaste and tissue) is the award for winning.  My family is still going through a Costco box of Irish Spring soap from a picnic some years ago.

Adam Larson is one of my favorite sax players at Manhattan School of Music and it was nice to hear him in his Smalls debut with Nils Weinhold (guitar), Gerald Clayton (piano), Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass) and Jason Burger (drums).  I remember hearing Gerald play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with our high school orchestra as a senior, back when I was a freshmen at LACHSA and thinking … oh, so is this jazz?

Mark Soskin happens to be my piano teacher and I felt bad about ditching his class the past week so I made sure to go (and not just that, but because I wanted to support and hear his music—if you’re reading this, Mark!).  I enjoyed his feel-good sets of standards and other songs, with Joel Frahm (sax), Jay Anderson (bass) and Tim Horner (drums), despite having to stand near the door in an extremely cramped, standing-room only situation.

Though our men’s room correspondent, Kevin Mac, was present, he looked so miserable and tired by the end of the night, that I didn’t want to bother him to go take photos.  So I include only a picture of the dimly lit ladies room for this post.  Smalls seems like a good room to hang, with its kitschy, cozy vibe.

Below is an audio clip of “Where is the restroom?” in German, spoken by Adam’s guitarist, Nils —

Wo ist die toilette?