September 2nd, 2010

Another backyard cellphone pic.


-September 2nd, 2010:

Pretty tired today, but a stout cup of "Highland Grogg" coffee before leaving the house, brought me to life at 6 AM. I started waking earlier, so as not to be in such an insane rush in the mornings. It was a good day overall, but I was a bit cranky and my veteran students expressed their discontent.

The 1936 "King Zephyr" Tenor sax arrived today! It is an early model "Zephyr", which is basically a rebadged "King Voll True", which is a great jazz horn, but with serious high end intonation issues and a few hard to reach keys, However, The horn is absolutely beautiful! The Art Deco engravings surrounding the "KING ZEPHYR" logo is a site to behold. Most sax engraving is a bit flowery, but the early Zephyrs were pure, in your face, Art Deco. The Saxophone equivilent of the Chrysler building! I love the looks of these horns. I went to the local horn shoppe and bought a used mouthpiece, ligature, and reeds. The owner gave me the lig and mouthpiece for free, since I promised to bring the sax in for a tune-up. I also told him about my series 3 "Zephyr" alto, which needs a complete repad, and he will get that business as well.

I got home, looked and my tenor, which is as beautiful as a Mercedes S-500 and more beautiful than any women I know, and put her components together, being careful to get the reed good and wet before attempting to play. A few of the pads leak a bit, and some of the action is a bit slow, but once I started up and down two octaves of the "C Major" scale, I could tell I have a winner. The Zephyrs were the best sounding Jazz saxes that were ever made. They can scream loudly, then whisper softly to where they can barely be heard. This is the best sounding Tenor I have ever played. Couldn't make much noise in my apartment, so I headed to the school at 7 PM, in order to play in my classroom. Once there, I downloaded, some jazz warmup scales, and a Coletrane song "Giant Steps", which I plan to work on this weekend, up in the mountains where no one will laugh at me. I still play pretty good after 30 years out of high school, and my understanding of how to play is much more evolved than when I only played marching tunes. Despite the intonation issues, I bought a world class professional, beautiful jazz horn for only $500. A series 3 Zephyr tenor (1942) would be worth over 3 grand in the same condition. And the series one's (1936) models have much more interesting engraving in my opinion. Once tuned up, it will be worth well over $1200 but I will not sell her, unless I get good enough to require a more perfect sounding instrument. Even if that should happen, I will mount her on the wall for she is genuinely a fine example of American Art at its best.

I also downloaded Bachs' "Tocatta and Fugue", and Beethovens "Moonlight Sonata", for the organ. I know I can play the latter, but I will have fun attempting the former, which is 20 pages long. I will try to play the intro first, and if thats as far as I get, that will be fine with me. Just need some scary sounding Halloween organ music to impress my neighbors with. Under no circumstances will I attempt to impress anyone with my sax playing for at least 5 or 6 months!

Came back to the house around 8:30, drank my only beer of the day and watched the glorious sunset over the tall, steep, Wellsville range (the "Wellies" as Logan calls them), from the fire escape (AKA: My back yard). Afterwards, I returned to the apartmentand in order to study the Art of making "Bhindi Marsala", also known as Okra and Tomatoes Hindu style.

"Bhindi Masala for one"

1/2 lb chopped frozen okra

one small/medium tomato

four green onions or one small/medium round onion

a couple cloves of Garlic (I didn't do this but missed out)

1/8 cup olive oil or canola (if you use olive oil, be mindful of the low burning temps)

1/4 tsp or less of salt (sorry mom, this dish needs some)

2 tablespoons of hot curry powder

1 tablespoon of marsala powder

(some recipes add a tsp of baking soda to counter-act the acidity of the tomatoes, I wish I had done that too)

put oil in good heavy bottomed sauce pan.

Fry onions and garlic until translucent

Lower temp to medium

Add curry powder and other spices

stir till the gravy thicksns (two minutes at the most)

add okra, stir gently so as not to smash it and make it more slimy

once its bubble for a couple minutes, turn heat to low, and cover for 20 minutes, or until you think your okra is tender but not too squishy.

Serve with rice or naan bread. I somtimes substitute a tortilla but its not the same. Much cheaper though. I didn't make rice tonight, but used some frozen Naan that was kickin around the fridge. Rice would have been better, since this dish is quite acidic and pungeant!

Overall, it was pretty good for a first timer. Not as good as in the restaurant across the street, but close. Next time it shall be better with the inclusion of garlic and soda. I suggest you research different recipes, especially regarding the spice mix.

Next time I plan to make my own Marsala and Curry powders using my mortar and pestle. Packaged curry is just not the same.

Cheers,

Allen