@WeComeinThrees

I couldn’t tell you the difference between a blow and a bird’s eye (how a jazz singer holds a note, apparently) or the difference between the blues and chamber jazz.  But I still managed to convince my equally jazz illiterate aunty to join me at the Carnivore Grounds on a cold, wet Thursday night to watch Kunle Ayo and friends perform as part of the Safaricom International Jazz Festival.

  Kunle Ayo – Safaricom International Jazz Festival 2014

  Kunle Ayo is a famed, award-winning Nigerian guitarist likened to jazz legends George Benson and Earl Klugh. If you know who they are, props to you! As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’d be lying if I said I knew their music. Not that I actively avoid it, my friend Njeri loves jazz and we’ve done the whole smokey jazz lounge thing, it’s just not a genre I’ve had much exposure to. But at the end of the day, music is music, and live music is always an experience. And after listening to the most incredible “jazzy” rendition of our national anthem I’ve ever heard, I figured the night could only get better.

  This picture is from some other concert. My pictures came out terrible.

  Music at its heart is about storytelling, and jazz is one of its most intimate voices. Where else would you find a husband and wife duo paint a picture of how they first met through song and conversation with the audience? Or, more accurately, Kavutha Asiyo’s cheeky rendition of how she wished Jacob would tell their story, which the audience loved. Where else would comedian Eric Omondi leave us in stitches, debuting his own version of African Jazz (pronounced Njazz :D) with his take on Lingala ya Yesu, Kigosho ya Yesu.

  Jazz may have an elitist reputation, but the experience of live performance completely shatters that notion. When it was time for Kunle Ayo to perform, he wound his way through the crowd, stopping to dance with people along the way, before he made it up to the stage. Despite having lost his voice, his music and rhythm spoke loud and clear. And when Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore dunked a bucket of ice on Jacob Asiyo on stage as part of the Ice Bucket Challenge, it was as a reminder to all of us that the proceeds from our tickets were going to help a child in need through the Art of Music Foundation.

It was a glorious 16 mile trip: gliding down Manhattan Riverside Park, a harrowing ride across Brooklyn Bridge (the only divider between cyclists and pedestrians is a painted line… and there are a lot of tourist pedestrians who, unbeknownst to laws of the urban jungle, dare to step in the way of speeding cyclists), venturing across Downtown Brooklyn to Prospect Park, and cruising from Ave A-Z via Ocean Parkway right into the Atlantic Ocean.

Fourteen miles into it, I was ravenous, having consumed my peach at the stoplight by the Jewish high school. I stopped at a desi deli, promising pizza, fried shrimp, burgers, tuna salad, and knishes for $3 and was intrigued by said burger. I was asked if I wanted halal meat.

I had the chance to visit Sky 100, a 360-degree viewing deck located on the 100th floor of the ICC, the tallest building in Hong Kong:

Hong Kong is a really amazingly condensed place, and it really shows when you are from above:

  When you are looking down at birds eye view, everything becomes so tiny.

  Like little bricks and lego and model cars and ships moving around.

Look at the swimmers in this roof-top pool: