Really, this post should probably be spelled “dessinner,” but “dizzinner” looks cooler.

AEJ and I had just about the best night tonight. Well, let me back track…
The day started this morning with the Composer Forum at USC. I had a good time with the students who had smart and interesting questions. That was followed by lunch with Dr. Donald Crocket, a composer on USC’s faculty. Post lunch, I was off to the wind ensemble’s dress rehearsal. If it was any indication, the concert on Sunday is going to rock.

AEJ picked me up “from school,” and we came back to the hotel to drop off my scores. Then we walked a block to a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which seems to be the good coffee chain here in LA. There are plenty of Starbucks, but personally, I prefer Coffee Bean. AEJ and I got mocha Ice Blended Drinks, and took them back to our hotel and drank them while sitting by the pool.

LA is growing on me.

We decided to head to dinner, but we weren’t famished yet, so AEJ suggested going to a famous old hotel called the Chateau Marmont and having a drink. We drove down the Sunset strip on the way, and that was fun to see. We finally found the Marmont and were given a cozy table outside. It was a beautiful night, with a perfectly clear sky and temperatures in the low 70s, and the wine was excellent. Like I said, LA is growing on me.

And then we had dinner.

Like, the best dinner ever. Where? Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N’ Waffles. I’m totally serious.

My friend Robert Battle recommended this place to us. Robert and I enjoy soul food, and we often get lunch up in Harlem, and he never steers me wrong. Wow, this time he gave us quite a gift.

If you’ve never had fried chicken and waffles at the same time, you must. It really is like having dinner and dessert simultaneously — thus, “dizzinner.” The chicken at Roscoe’s was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside without being the slightest bit greasy. They serve it with two waffles, fluffy and eggy on the inside, which are covered with butter and syrup. The fried chicken is absolutely delicious and loaded with salt without being “salty.” The side of mac & cheese was perfect. The lemonade was sweet and refreshing. And the whole meal for two (including beverages and side dishes) cost less than our two glasses of wine at the Chateau Marmont. (That’s probably not surprising.)

So, you take the weather here in LA, add in the amazing musicians at USC, Bob Reynolds’ phenomenal conducting of Redline Tango, the views from The Getty Center, and now, the best chicken & waffles ever, and… Don’t get me wrong. I love New York City, and I love living there. But these waffles… And that chicken…

Greetings from downlown Los Angeles. AEJ and I arrived yesterday morning after a long but relatively stress-free flight from JFK.
Because we got to the airport so early, we managed to catch an earlier flight than we expected. Arriving in LA an hour early, we had time to check in at the hotel and head out on our search for lunch at — you guessed it — In-N-Out Burger.
I immediately learned that driving anywhere in LA takes a long time. It was noon, but traffic was crazy. In-N-Out was probably 8 miles from our hotel, but it took about 40 minutes to get there. When we did find it, it was mobbed. It seems that we weren’t the only people in LA who wanted a tasty burger for lunch.
After wolfing down our lunch, we rushed to USC for their rehearsal. Running up to the building with only about a minute to spare, I caught my breath as Sharon Lavery, the wind ensemble’s fantastic resident conductor (and the group’s unsung heroine), finished rehearsing. Bob Reynolds took the podium, briefly introduced me to the group, and explained that he’d do the piece in small segments, get my comments, move on, then run it all once through at the end of the hour.

So they started playing. And they sounded fantastic.

I had high hopes, having heard the group at Carnegie Hall in February. This was largely a different set of personnel, though, as players rotate through various groups at USC. As AEJ said, it seems that USC has an awfully deep bench.
The contrabassoon player, for example, is the best I’ve heard anywhere. Great, big, full sound. He nailed every note. You know — the kind of player a composer dreams about. So, take that guy, and multiply him by 60, and you get the USC Wind Ensemble.
Dr. Reynolds stopped every couple of minutes to get my comments, and I was left with basically nothing to say. “Um, the trombones sound unbelievable.” “The soprano sax solo is pretty much perfect.” “I can’t believe how good the contrabassoon player is.” I had nothin’.
The nice thing was that because I had so little to change other than “louder here” or “a little faster there,” we had a lot of extra time in that one-hour rehearsal. This gave me a chance to talk a little with the group. This has never happened before in a large ensemble rehearsal. I usually come to the rehearsal, make my requests, time runs out, and rehearsal ends. Since Dr. Reynolds saw that we had 20 minutes left, I’d given all of my notes, and it was only going to take 9 minutes to run the piece, he took 10 minutes to really introduce me.

He did the coolest thing. He basically interviewed me in front of the whole wind ensemble. He asked me how I started composing, where I went to school, how I got the commission for the original orchestra version, and lots of other great questions. He took questions from the players themselves — things like, how did I come to write a wind version of the piece? It was great. After 10 minutes of chatting with the group, they ran Redline Tango straight through. And it was damn near perfect. It may have been the best I’ve ever heard it. And they still have another rehearsal tomorrow!
After rehearsal, I took a 10 minute nap before AEJ and I met Bob Reynolds for dinner. The food was great (who doesn’t love pecan pie for dessert?!), and the company even better. AEJ and I had a wonderful evening, and our thanks to Bob for a perfect dinner.

Today was Tourist Day. We started by sleeping late, grabbing coffee at the hotel, showering, and heading out to lunch. We drove through Bel Air, and ate lunch in Brentwood. (We even drove down the street where Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered by a still at large killer.) After lunch, we spent a few hours at The Getty Center. I’m not a huge fan of the art in the collection — I prefer more modern works — but the architecture and the gardens were breathtaking. Check it out.
After the Getty, we spent ages stuck in traffic, and finally made our way back to the hotel. After a short nap, we went out for dinner at a great Mexican restaurant called Alegria. (Thanks to my buddy Teddy for recommending that one.) Although we were stuffed, AEJ and I stopped off and picked up some sweet treats on the way back to the hotel, and enjoyed Twinkies while we watched “Survivor” here at the hotel.
Can I just say what a difference it makes traveling with AEJ? If I were here in LA alone, it would be awfully sad and lonely. With AEJ here, though, even when I’m working, it feels like vacation.

Tomorrow, I’m speaking with the Composers’ Forum at USC, followed by a dress rehearsal with the wind ensemble. After that — anything goes! Any recommendations on how AEJ and I should spend our Friday night in LA?

I just learned that Andrew Litton is going to perform “Redline Tango” with the Minnesota Orchestra this summer. (That’s the original version, of course, not the band version.) Woo hoo!

Litton’s performances of the piece with the Dallas Symphony last summer were unbelievable. He told me then that if I made the piece look a little simpler on paper — just clarifying notation, not changing the actual music — for example, changing 12/16 bars to 3/4 — that he’d do the piece again. I ended up taking the changes I made when I wrote the wind version and transcribed those back into the orchestra version. So, now the orchestra version is a transcription of the band version which is a transcription of the original orchestra version. It’s like playing that game Telephone. Pretty soon, the piece will sound completely different. (Maybe it’ll end up sounding like this if I’m not careful.) Anyway, the changes made enough of a difference, it seems, as he’s stuck by his word!

More details to come — as soon as I get ’em! All I know now is that the performance will be at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, sometime in late July. (Will it still be snowing then in Minneapolis?)