Notorious

Whut whut, Notorious!

Friday night was another random gem of a night. My professor told me about Notorious several weeks ago, and one of Matías's friends, Juan-chi had also mentioned the place, so we were aware of the reputation of the place, and were casually looking for an opportunity to go. Friday night presented itself with hardly any options, so we looked up Notorious, and set up a reservation for the night.

Notorious functions as a cafe, a music store, and a little live stage all in one. The tables are equipped with touch screen computers that have all the music available in the store uploaded onto them. Cafe patrons can listen to whatever they like with one of the several headphones available at each station (a nice touch, for social listening). In the back of the store is a little cafe/theater where they serve coffees, liquors, and desserts while a live show is being performed.

Matías, Juan-chi and I had no idea what we were going into, other than the fact that the show had something to do with Jazz. It turned out that it was a female duo - voice and piano - doing American Jazz numbers of which I probably knew about half. Talk about amazing luck! I mentioned to the boys that this particular kind of show was especially interesting to me because I was able to appreciate both the singing and the piano because I actually know something about both.

The singing was good - the woman was from Chicago... a homegrown american... It was absolutely enchanting listening to her horrible spanish in between numbers and being able to catch mistakes here and there... but she was understandable, so that's all that matters. However, the incredible part of the show was the unbelievable pianist. During the first number, when she broke out her improv skills and started just going at it on the piano, I actually, quite literally, had to pick my jaw up off the floor once I realized I had been staring open mouthed and drooling at her hands. The girl couldn't have been more than 25 years old, was absolutely adorable, and could play jazz piano like it was the only thing that mattered in the world. There were times when, while playing her little super-speed improv sections, when she'd just close her eyes and play and play. UGH I was so JEALOUS! Juan-chi, after a few songs, leaned over and told me he'd fallen in love. I didn't blame him.... I practically had too.