It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.
In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.
Kris Bowers is a Julliard grad twice over (undergradate plus a master’s degree in jazz performance with a concentration in film composition), winner of Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition (2011) and has performed at both the NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony at Lincoln Center (2012) and on Watch the Throne (2011) by Kanye West and Jay-Z.
He’s also just released his first record, Heroes + Misfits. It features him at the head of a sextet that includes alto saxophonist Casey Benjamin, tenor saxophonist Kenneth Whalum III, guitarist Adam Agati, bassist Burniss Earl Travis II, and drummer Jamire Williams.
This is Forget-Er, featuring Julia Easterlin, one of four guest vocalists who appear on the record:
As a bonus, here he is with his version of Kendrick Lamar’s Rigamortis:
After I listened to his songs, I wanted to get to know him better. So here he is now, to tell us about one of his favorite books, records and drinks:
Photo by Janette Beckman
A Good Read:
It’s funny. Ever since high school, I’ve been drawn mostly to non-fiction books. At some point, I decided it was a waste to spend time reading something, and not “learn” anything in the process. Needless to say, that was among many of my assured lifestyle declarations as a naïve young adult. But, one of the most influential works I read during that time was a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson essays, specifically one called Self Reliance.
In it, he essentially talks about the importance of being an individual, and not killing that search for your individuality because of your adoration and imitation of idols. It was really eye-opening at that point in my life, especially as a young jazz musician. It seems like, at times, you’re taught to aspire to be just like the greats, although you’ll never be “as good as them.” So it just made them all more human to me. As a matter of fact, my only tattoo is from that book: “imitation is suicide.”
A Good Listen:
Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsys. It’s of course hard to pick just one album, but that’s what I’m feeling right now. It’s easily one of my favorite albums of all time. Actually, once, when I was on a flight with some really bad turbulence, I turned on this album and thought “I’d be totally fine if this were to be the last album I ever heard.” Maybe a little dramatic…but I forgot about the turbulence.
http://youtu.be/VtJSWIv91eE?t=2m
A Good Drink:
I’m a whiskey man. Scotch, Bourbon, Irish, Japanese…my preference really varies based on how I feel that particular day. But for now, since it’s SO cold in NYC right now, I’ll say Booker’s because that’ll warm you up in no time.
A glass of good whiskey (neat or with one ice cube at the most), a good book and a good album, sounds like the perfect evening for me. Sometimes I feel like I’m really a 65-year-old man caught in a 24-year-old’s body haha.
