My subject heading is from Jung. Today we went to our usual Saturday breakfast diner. Our favorite table by the window was being vacated, a young guy still sitting there. Nancy brought to my attention that the book in front of him was Music Downtown. This had never happened to me, and I couldn’t resist: “Is that a good book?,” I asked, ready to slink away quietly if he replied “Not really.” “Yeah, it’s really good!” “I wrote it,” I replied. “Really?” He looked like I had to be joking. His breakfast partner, who turned out to be his uncle and a record producer, returned, and said he had just given the book to his nephew. His nephew was a student percussionist in Pittsburgh, where I had been last weekend, and we commiserated about the awful weather. The nephew grew up in Dallas, as I did. We quickly ascertained that his parents live in the same small North Texas city as my mother, and that they go every week to the same breakfast place where my mother and brother go. After that I was afraid to press for further details.
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
