Jazz breakfasts

In which musicians and other jazz industry types share with you their favourite breakfast, or the best breakfast they’ve ever eaten, or maybe even a recipe…. Watch this (alphabetically ordered) space for new contributions, and get those juices flowing.

I am indisputably a man of Oueffs Benedict.  Though not with ham.  Smoked salmon, every time, no question.  Atop a lightly toasted muffin, and with the perfect poached egg riding regally above it, poised to explode and seductively ooze at the gentlest of provocations. The Hollandaise should be thick and there there should be not a great deal of it. A stereo formation is advisable. Also on a par: pancakes in the Canadian style with maple syrup, fried eggs and bacon (I was surprised too), but I still remember a breakfast in Montreal around seven years ago which was precisely that. And a great espresso of course.  With some well-frothed milk. And/or a fresh juice.  And birchersmüsli.  And good company or at least a good paper.  I could go on all day.

“There was a time when I would wake up and go straight to work without eating anything; thriving on the energy of hunger. But after some years I realised that I could not sustain that method. These days I always start the day with muesli, milk (soya or cow depending how green I’m feeling), and just recently I’ve rediscovered honey as a sweetner: I think while there are still bees left in this world I should enjoy the fruits of their labour. A cup of Assam tea is essential (Clipper is a good one). When I was in Loose Tubes, trumpeter Dave Defries brought along a piece called Hermeto’s Giant Breakfast. It was a Hermeto Pascoal-inspired variation on Coltrane’s Giant Steps, with references to a band called the Breakfast Band. It’s hard to say what has been my most memorable breakfast. Last week I was playing at Sarajevo Jazz Festival. At the hotel breakfast, in the space of five minutes, Jason Rebello, Tore Brunborg and Mathias Eick had joined the table. Brad Mehldau’s Trio were at the next table. Oh, and for some reason it was a revolving restaurant. I hadn’t seen any of those people for several years so it was a great way to start the day even though the tea was not worthy of the company!”

“Breakfast for me falls into two distinct camps: at home and on tour. At home is, I’m afraid to say, bran flakes (‘brown flakes’, as my son calls them) with bananas chopped up and laid on top. This is, though doubtless a good breakfast in terms of my physiology, a mundane meal with which to start the day. The pursual of an alternative (Crunchy Nut, for example) is a battle with my wife that I have fought at great length, and with no success. I can’t help feeling, as my daughter tucks into her boiled egg and then her croissant, that somewhere along the line I was cheated. On tour is a completely different proposition, however, and can be summed up thus: as much food as I can possibly fit onto the plate.”

Sara Colman, singer, pianist and songwriter:

“I was going out with a Glaswegian and one Sunday morning after a particularly typical Glaswegian boozy night out (we split up – I couldn’t keep up!) he took me to a fabulous little deli/cafe in the West End. He insisted I try the dish the café was famous for – French toast with bacon and maple syrup – a huge plate of it. It was absolutely delicious, perfect, and it cured the hangover! I now restrict myself to one boiled egg with a little pepper each morning but as you can probably tell, I have very fond and wistful memories of that particular experience! Coming a close second is my mum’s scrambled egg on toast.”

Malcolm Creese, double bassist and leader of Acoustic Triangle:

“For some reason, when I’m at home my stomach can only manage a cup of good real coffee and sometimes a small piece of toast and marmalade. But when I’m staying in a hotel I usually manage to eat a full meal in the morning. Most of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve enjoyed have been abroad, although Britain is gradually improving. Germany, France and Switzerland have come high on the list, as have Japan and the Middle East. But I think my favourite was on the beach in Negril, Jamaica – fresh mangoes, coconuts and plantain alongside eggs and bacon and toasted hard-dough bread, followed by Blue Mountain coffee. If I have guests at home, I like to cook scrambled eggs (organic, free-range) on toast (home-made bread) with capers and shaved parmesan cheese (organic Reggiano).”

Tony Dudley-Evans, artistic director of Birmingham Jazz and the Cheltenham International Jazz Festival:

“I try to be fairly healthy during the week with cereal, toast and coffee while I read the Guardian.  Even though I now work from home, I always get up at 7.50 and start work at 9.05 having caught the 9am up the stairs. But I have to admit to loving a fry-up on a Saturday and even a Sunday morning with pork and leek sausages and bacon, both from Browns in Lonsdale Road, Harborne, Birmingham. Most memorable breakfasts were in Mexico with huevos rancheros, eggs fried in a spicy sauce on a tortilla.”

John Etheridge, guitarist:

“As it happens I am a man of inflexible morning habits when at home! So… My morning consists of: Get up a bit before Burlington Bertie (10.30 in his case). I have a bowl of luxury muesli with added fruits and then immediately go out (absolutely no phone, no computer, etc). I walk 1.5 miles uphill to Kenwood House on Hampstead  Heath, where I consume a green tea and talk politics, etc, with the local intelligentsia. After an hour of this I walk home and start the day -usually with guitar practice. If it’s raining I may curtail my perambulations and have tomatoes on toast in my local cafe – and talk to the intelligentsia there. Or… I  fall out of bed at noon, drink half bottle of whisky, pop some pills, get on the computer, abuse my friends and then fall over. You decide!”

Tord Gustavsen, pianist and composer:

“My favourite is an espresso macchiato, then I play with my son for a little while, or work for a little while, then it’s a different story: I have rye bread and really good honey and jam made from wild berries. But the main Norwegian thing for breakfast is plain sandwiches – plain, boring sandwiches…”

Billy Jenkins, bluesman, preacher, the maverick’s maverick:

“This is an essential ritual… On waking – Redbush Tea. Half hour later – home made muesli with tinned fruit and bio yogurt. One hour after that – espresso coffee with thin layer of milk foam (machiato), two toast, Dairylea cheese slices, bit of ham with ripped fresh basil. OH YEAH!!! But I also love a ‘Traditional English’ in a hotel when I’m travelling…”

Kerstan Mackness, jazz PR-meister and one third of Riotsquad Publicity:

“No recipes I am afraid – I am a strictly low-fi, omellete or scrambled eggs man, both cooked in a frying pan with olive oil and chunks of Tuscan bread on the side, fresh coffee from a moka, hot milk and juice if available but not essential, but my favourite jazz breakfast is coffee and a croissant with Tim Berne at the wonderful, small and very cool Cafe Regular at 11th and 4th avenue in Brooklyn… which is home to a wonderfully dry Irish owner/barista and the best cappucino outside of Italy… plus  free papers, no wi-fi and lots of locals, worth moving to NY for… no doubt about it… while my favourite breakfast dish has to be huevos rancheros, basically scrambled eggs tex-mex style and best served with fresh juice and extra chillies…

Liam Noble, pianist, composer and band leader:

“After first practising the three Boulez Piano Sonatas in all keys for a couple of hours, I like nothing more than a bowl of muesli and some toast… I agree with Tom Cawley’s post though, on the road it’s as much cholesterol, fat and sugar as a person can get into a mouth in the alloted time.  I should really think about meal times more.  I might also try something like Ring ‘o’ Ring ‘o’ Roses for practice, can’t beat a good tune.”

Bobby Previte, drummer and bandleader:

“My favorite breakfast is also Nabokov’s: there is nothing in the world like fresh, preferably organic, perfectly timed soft-boiled eggs. Heat water in a small pot to a slight rolling boil, gently drop the eggs (which you have taken out of the fridge earlier) in, then 5 1/2 minutes later, out they come. Run cool water over them for 10 seconds (it helps if you have an egg pricker to make a little hole in the eggs – this way you avoid cracks – which make the eggs inedible). In a proper egg cup, strike the side about a half-inch down from the top with a butter knife, then kind of saw the rest off.  Consume with a good, light, buttery croissant only from a French bakery, some fine English jam, an Italian coffee (sorry, no substitutions) and, last but not at all least, with someone cool, sitting on some terrace with a balmy wind, overlooking some placid sea. Kind of an impossible breakfast, but hey, we can dream.”

Maria Schneider, composer, arranger, bandleader:

“I love mornings!  And my favorite meal of the day is without any doubt breakfast!  Now that we’re approaching winter, most days begin when I lightly brown some whole grain buckwheat and basmati brown rice in a pan and just breathe in that incredible aroma. Then I grind the grain in my little hand-crank grinder, that begs for more sniffing.  Then I make a porridge with it, just adding a little sea salt and of course water.  I cut up a pear or an apple, add some seeds or anything creative, and douse it all with almond milk.  Oh, the wonder of it all!  In summer, it’s blueberries for me!  Big bowls of blueberries!  Blueberries with raspberries, with strawberries, with nectarines … a multitude of partners.  And in between all of this, eggs!  An egg should be appreciated in as many designs as can be imagined.  I like them with mushrooms, spinach… there are thousands of choices.  And I like them in the company of some toast dipped in strong olive oil, alongside some of my favorite herring or a little smoked black cod.  Oh, I can’t wait for another day to begin just for a chance to reinvent breakfast.  Most of all, breakfast should be a little bit different every time.”

Hedge Seel, jazz and world PR at Air Media:

“Eggs Benedict!! With a glass of blood orange juice and a ‘proper coffee’. That’s my choice!”

“PORRIDGE!!! (with a bit of honey in it) and two cups of tea. Or in a good hotel, Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Or if on an AM session (Phil Robson will agree with this) a ‘must have’ is a Bacon and Tomato sandwich on Brown bread.”

“Mushrooms, tomatoes, cooked in a little oil with chopped garlic and fresh basil, on some wholemeal brown toast. Shared with my wife, Sarah, sat at the end of my kitchen/diner looking down the garden at the apple tree and general garden animal antics. No music, no TV, no radio, just quiet before the day’s ‘madness’ commences. Kippers are good as well!”

Paul Towndrow, saxophonist and composer:

“Although I generally keep myself pretty healthy, I’ve always been terrible at remembering to eat breakfast. Coffee is a must though, and there’s a great little take-away place called Little Italy in the west end of Glasgow that sells a great cup of coffee and real Italian food. I find myself in there most mornings. I was on tour about a year ago and we stayed in a strange little B&B upstairs from a Chinese restaurant, where all but our baritone player got up for breakfast. Later on we told him, apropos of nothing, that they’d served us up pheasant. We thought nothing of it until the end of the tour when his parting words to us were: ‘I still can’t believe you had pheasant for breakfast!’ This soon became a working title for one of my compositions for the band.”

Steve Tromans, pianist, composer and world traveller:

“Vodka. Neat. One of the numerous dirt-cheap Mongolian brands like “Kharaa”, which actually means “vision” in Mongolian! Mongolians drink vodka at almost every conceivable occasion, and I have happy (though blurry) memories of celebrating my birthday back in 2007 at the Melody Jazz Club with a day of jazz, khoomei singing, feasting, good company and – what else? – vodka.”

Ken Vandermark, saxophonist:

“Best: 4 shot espresso, Fresh squeezed orange juice, Mexican scamble with 3 eggs, chorizo, tortillas, jalapenos, sharp cheddar, and salsa verde. And a good artist biography to read. Good: Decent, strong coffee, 2 eggs over medium, 3 rashers of crisp bacon, Rye toast. And the International Herald Tribune to read. Typical: 5am pickup to the airport and a flight to the next gig for breakfast.”

Mary Wakelam, saxophonist and leader of the band Maylight:

“To be honest (and unhealthy) my favourite breakfast is a Cinnamon Swirl Danish on the way to the office. This is munched whilst listening to a podcast varying from Alyn Shipton’s Jazz Library to Broken, Hip Hop & Jazz podcasts from City Soul Radio, Milkaudio, etc,  to wake up my ears for the day! However, my favourite breakfast to date was in June this year in New York whilst there for Vision Festival. I couldn’t resist going to the same restaurant each day for their delicious walnut and banana waffles and maple syrup. The whole experience of watching New York life roll by before exploring the city for a day of jazz was a perfect start!”

Tim Whitehead, saxophonist:

“One of my favourites is one slice of Vogel’s sesame and mixed grain toast with garlic rubbed in and butter with sliced tomato on top, and another with butter marmite and avocado on top.
Failing that, a full English.”