Meeting Ethan Iverson

One of the joys of running a site like this is that you get to know a lot of great people, united in love of the same books. But you don’t often get to meet them in person; usually just in the comments or via e-mail.

Friday, I had the pleasure of meeting Ethan Iverson, piano player (I like that better than “pianist”) for the jazz trio The Bad Plus, as he was kind enough to invite me out to his show at Austin’s legendary Antone’s. It was a busy night for him, as you can imagine, but we managed to squeeze in a few minutes of conversation about Donald Westlake (who he became friends with late in Don’s life), Darwyn Cooke’s comic books (we’re both big fans), and the upcoming movie (mixed feelings, hoping for the best). It was a delight to both meet him and to watch his band’s lively performance.

I’m happy to say that Austin, the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, lived up to its billing by packing the house with a very enthusiastic audience.

Ethan let me re-post his hilarious parody, “The Da Vinci Code in the Style of Richard Stark,” a couple of years back.

His blog post, “A Storyteller That Got the Details Right,” is an incredibly handy guidebook to the works of DEW.

Would you like a guide to some Ross Thomas? He’s got that for you, too.

Lawrence Block’s blind taste test.

Great to finally meet you, Ethan! Thanks for the ticket!

The Bad Plus’ latest album is Never Stop. Their next one, Made Possible, drops in September.

The Bad Plus – “Never Stop”