For Andrew Hen, Sundays maintain particular which means. These have been the times when jazz could be etched into his unconscious earlier than dawn — as a 20-something residing in Chicago, he’d nod off to late-night music broadcasts on native radio, listening to greats like Lester Younger and Coleman Hawkins.
Now, 20 years later, Hen’s newest album, “Sunday Morning Put-On” (with Ted Poor on drums and Alan Hampton on bass), pays homage to these early influences.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. folks give us a play-by-play of their very best Sunday round city. Discover concepts and inspiration on the place to go, what to eat and the right way to get pleasure from life on the weekends.
As of late, Sundays look a bit completely different for the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and whistler, however they’re nonetheless a time for decompressing. “I don’t actually have a typical 9-to-5, ‘Thank-God-It’s-Friday’ way of life, however Sunday is the closest factor to that,” stated Hen, who has launched 16 studio albums since his debut in 1996. “It’s the sooner or later I can carve out time for nonwork, inventive issues.”
Hen and his spouse, Katherine Tsina, together with their 13-year-old son, have set down roots in Northeast L.A., which they’ve referred to as house for the final 11 years. Hen is at present on tour and can play two reveals on the Hollywood Bowl in August with Pink Martini.
For Hen, an avid mountain biker, with the ability to be outdoors any day of the yr is without doubt one of the finest issues about residing in L.A. “I like mountains,” he says. “I’m only a lot more healthy right here than I used to be anyplace else.”
This interview has been calmly edited and condensed for size and readability.
8:30 a.m.: Get up with pancakes and jazz
We’ll make breakfast, espresso, placed on a jazz file and take it fairly simple. Typically we’ll make pancakes, like Dutch child pancakes with a number of fruit on high. That’s form of a particular Sunday deal with. Apart from that, eggs and bacon, and plenty of stone fruit berries.
9 a.m.: Seize my bike and hit the paths
If I’ve obtained a mountain biking trip scheduled with another people, we’ll both meet up at Grime Mulholland or JPL (I simply say JPL for all the trails which might be in Altadena through the Arroyo Seco River). That’s my very best spot; it’s about quarter-hour away. I’ll trip up the Gabrielino Path the place there’s horses, hikers, bikers, nevertheless it all depends upon the temperature. If the climate report says 75 to 80 levels, it’s borderline too sizzling. Up above when it’s uncovered, it’s actually extra like 90 levels. I’ve come near having heatstroke up there.
If it’s too sizzling, you keep down on the river mattress, which proper now has numerous water in it so that you get moist going throughout six or seven river crossings in your bike. It’s an nearly jungle-like surroundings. It’s actually like one other world. For those who’re used to Griffith Park, which is simply scrub and piles of unfastened sand and quartz, this feels far more tropical and distant.
11 a.m.: Refuel with recent pasta or sandwiches
After that, not too distant is that this deli that I’ve simply been actually into recently referred to as Ferrazzani’s. It’s a part of Semolina Artisanal Pastas firm and so they make recent pasta proper there. Subsequent door, there’s an Italian market that has cheese and guanciale and recent pasta and so they make like 5 completely different sandwiches. They’re all simply scrumptious. It’s a pleasant spot.
1 p.m.: Have a household sketch session
There was sooner or later when [my family and I] went to the Norton Simon Museum and sketched fashionable artwork and that was a reasonably superior day, I’ve to say. The size of it jogs my memory of a Chicago museum in numerous methods, like a mini Artwork Institute. And I just like the constructing itself, with all of the heath piles on the skin.
My mother was an artist and he or she used to take me and a bunch of my associates right down to the Artwork Institute and we’d deliver sketch pads and sketch no matter we discovered fascinating. I began doing that with my household and I don’t know why extra folks don’t do it. It makes it an entire completely different expertise and also you get to match your sketches with everybody else that’s sketching the identical factor. I’m actually not a visible artist, however that one little custom from childhood is one thing I actually get pleasure from.
4 p.m.: Stroll via Atwater Village
We spend numerous time in Atwater Village on Sundays. They’ve a farmers market and my spouse has a store there, Avion Clothier. That’s been form of a hub for us for the final 9, 10 years it’s been open. It’s only a cool spot.
In Atwater there’s Alias Books, Proof Bakery and huge sidewalks with cafes. It has road life, which is a uncommon factor in L.A., and it’s designed like an previous western city with an excellent huge boulevard that you would have a parade on, huge sidewalks, after which regular commerce versus the beige nook strip-mall stuff that’s throughout Hollywood. For those who construct it, they are going to come. It’s fairly hoppin’ lately.
6 p.m.: Sunday household dinner
Afterward we’ve got Sunday household dinner with my spouse and son and my sister-in-law who lives down the road. We are inclined to make do-it-yourself Bolognese. It’s a joint effort however a lot of the credit score goes to my spouse. I’m a line prepare dinner.
7:15 p.m.: Watch a film or jam with my son
After which the prolonged household comes over and hangs out and we perhaps watch a film all collectively. Typically we form of cut up off and my son and I’ll watch “Rick and Morty” whereas my spouse watches one thing that’s extra her velocity. Or my son and I’ll play pingpong or tennis or one thing like that. He simply turned 13 and he’s a very good guitarist and singer, however he hasn’t proven any want to make that his life’s work for the time being. He obtained actually good on the guitar through the pandemic — he performs finger-picking-style guitar.
It’s form of a difficult dynamic as a result of as an expert musician, each time he says he needs to jam, I’m like, “Oh nice, OK,” and it lasts about 10 or quarter-hour. Then he goes right into a passive resistance mode. So nonetheless making an attempt to determine that out. The secret is to simply form of be very fingers off, nevertheless it’s onerous to repress your pleasure [as a parent]. He has a superb ear and he’s a superb musician. However you then say like, “Hey, are you gonna go for a solo within the choir?” And that’s met with, “Again off.”
9:30 p.m.: Wind down — in mattress or on a tour bus
[Bedtime] depends upon what section of the yr I’m in with touring or what have you ever. However once I’m at house, I usually begin studying at like 9:30 or 10 p.m. and I’m asleep by 11, perhaps. I learn loads at evening. Proper now I’m studying Don Carpenter’s “Arduous Rain Falling.” It’s a ’50s noir, jail, tough-guy type of novel.
If I’m on a bus tour, I’m within the bunk as quickly because the bus begins rolling, by 12:30 or 1 a.m. It’s onerous to explain sleeping with 10 different folks in like 400 sq. ft as “luxurious,” however you could have a day sheet that tells you what your obligations are for that day, the place you need to be, what time. And in any other case you’re form of off the hook. Life could be very easy. So I sleep a lot better on tour.
