“There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask ‘What if I fall?’ Oh but my darling, What if you fly?”

The message on the pillow in Susan’s AirBnB was so pertinent to her life! What a great trip and a great opportunity!

Visit to NYC icon for Just a Touch of Jazz

Visit to NYC table set at Mimi's Italian Restaurant

Visit to NYC larger view of dining room at Mimi's Italian Restaurant

Visit to NYC sitting at table at Mimi's Italian Restaurant Susan and friend Jeb

visit to NYC Matt Dorland and Jeb Caldwell at Mimi's Italian restaurant

Piano keys at Mimi's waiting for Matt to play

View of Mimi's from the perspective of the performers

Matt and Susan from a hill in Central Park, announcing the winners of the mug contest

A view of the hill they climbed to make the mug announcement in Central Park

Susan singing in Central Park with the jazz combo

Susan and bass player from jazz combo performing in Central park

Matt and Susan outside of Gallagher's restaurant

Matt took this pic of Susan at Washington Square Park, NYC

During a break in his performance, Susan got a pic with Johnny O'Neal at Arthur's Tavern

Susan with the Empire State Building behind her

Matt snaps a shot with Susan in the golden mirror at Melody's Piano Bar

Susan's big yawn waiting to go home at LaGuardia about 4 am.

Picture of Manhattan from the plane, Susan going back to Minneapolis

Susan visits NYC!

Performing with Matt

These pictures tell the story of Susan’s visit to NYC pretty well! After landing at LaGuardia from Minneapolis, Susan took a Lyft to her AirBnB on the Upper East Side, walked up the five floors—suitcase in hand—and so began a great week in Manhattan! The next day, Matt had reserved a practice room in the Times Square area. Susan and Matt rehearsed the songs to perform at Mimi’s Italian Restaurant.

That night, they grabbed supper at Mimi’s and met Susan’s friend Jeb, who came out to hear the performance. Lots of good vibes and response for original songs. And when the next day, Matt and Susan went over to Central Park, they climbed the highest hill with the Manhattan skyline in the background to announce the winner of our mug contest. The specially designed mug for the contest—our “Big-Apple. Mini-apple mug”—is for sale in our shop ($16 with free shipping).

Performing in Central Park

Afterwards, in the afternoon, Susan strolled through Central Park by herself and sat down to watch a jazz combo busking. When they took a break, she interacted with the bass player who asked why she was in NYC. At that point, the conversation turned to jazz singing and performance. The bass player chatted with the rest of the band and they decided to invite her to sing with them.

So, fun! Dream come true–performing jazz with a combo in Central Park! And the smiles on the band members faces and those of the people in the crowd told Susan that it went very well. Plus, it just so happened that a retired professional photographer was out shooting in the park that day, so he caught some great pics of the band, asked for Susan’s email, and sent her links to download the pics. More fun! Never expected that this visit of Susan’s to NYC would include a performance in Central Park.

Susan’s great visit to NYC

Lots of good food, great coffee, wine, rides on subways, music, and tens of thousands of steps on her Fitbit! Took in a show of Johnny O’Neal at Arthur’s Tavern. Steaks at Gallaghers. Pretended to be able to afford Ralph Lauren! Lots of fun! The last thing that Susan did on her visit to NYC was to watch Matt perform his sets at Melody’s Piano Bar. That’s where you can catch his weekly performance at Melody’s 1020 Lexington Ave. Easy to get to and great craft cocktails, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and a nice atmosphere. If you are in town, be sure to find out when Matt is performing and when you do, let Matt know you are there and that you learned about it here!