Friday in the Big City: Paradiso and Jazz

Northampton is the big city to those of us who live in small towns and in the country. So that's where we always meet, in the big city, and the restaurant that we almost always gravitate to is Pizza Paradiso. Friday night it was cold and windy, and we agreed to meet up with visiting guests.

We met my youngest sister Caroline and her new beau, Peter, and dove into fried calimari, chop chop salads, and a pesto and eggplant pizza. Over Cabin Fever Ale, we got to know Peter, who's visiting here for the first time from Arizona. He's a farmer who raises cut flowers, and he said he wants to move somewhere with a little more water. With a silver mustache and a mischievious smile, he has an easy laugh and a relaxed manner. I can see why my sister likes him.

After dinner, Bill Paul and I walked over to the Basement, where a jazz band was playing a Grover Washington Junior song. A black guy blasted the notes out on a trumpet, and in back the steady throb of the Hammond organ kept up the beat. Only a few of us there actually knew the song, as we did the rest of their set, so we had something to compare the somewhat sloppy riffs to. But the atmosphere was cool, and so was the jazz, and it was nice to hear this old music.

Later on owner Eric Suher popped in and we chatted for a while. Then he took a turn at the piano, playing with the jazz band as the clock turned to midnight.