11th July - End :) Boston - Toronto - UK
Well, we've finally come to the end of the road. We have one final gig tonight and then it's off home, back to normal life (doing own laundry and washing up spring to mind) and back to friends and family. It's been an amazing time for all of us and I want to thank all of you for coming to the shows and supporting us all the way. I hope this blog has been fun for all of you to read. Keep your eyes peeled on my website for news of other tours and an album sometime in the future. Thanks again to all of you who have been reading my blog. All the best to you all.
8th - 10th July NY - Boston
We left NY and took a long train ride to Boston. Unfortunately, as it's the summer, the music colleges are all on holiday we have had little luck in finding late night jam sessions here. Last night, we did our last arena show. We have two sheds and an outdoor if memory serves me correctly. It's a shame becuase this show really works best when indoors and in the dark. The outdoor ones often start whilst it's still light which detracts from some of the various effects that occur in the eariler part of the show. On the upside though, I actually love playing outdoors, when the weather is great and you can see the sun going down behind the audience it's a great feeling.
4th - 7th July NY
Richelle and I have had a wonderful few days off in the Hamptons. We've been sitting by the pool and playing cards and tennis. We've seen two very enjoyable films Die Hard and Transformers. I hate Michael Bay, his films are rubbish, but Transformers is absolutely brilliant. Schmaltz kept to a minimum and action throughout. We returned to the city this evening to perform at The Live Earth gig at Giants Stadium to raise awareness of global warming. We did a very short set of around twenty minutes which literally flew by. It was good to be a part of something so important.
1st - 3rd July Minneapolis - Wisconsin - NY
We've been ticking along as we do our last few gigs. I was contacted by Isis Television who do shows about and interviews with primarily rock and heavy metal bands. They wanted to interview me to find out how the tour has been going and I happily obliged. You can find the interview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bB4mZqFzx0
27th - 30th June Edmonton - Minneapolis
My computer has been on the fritz for the last few days but I've finally got it repaired. We've been in Minneapolis for the last few days, I've been doing very little here. I had to sort out my computer which took me out into the sticks along the Mississipi river. The Mississipi is the 14th longest river in the world for those of you that are interested, the longest is the Nile. We've done a couple of gigs since being here which have been fine.The spaceman has crashed a few times, something to do with the altitude and lack of air pressure I believe.
I did an interview for Isis Television, which is a show primarily about Heavy Metal. I will post the link as soon as it is available and you can find out which jazz and metal I like best !
26th June Edmonton
I played more tennis today which was once again, a lot of fun. I got two bastard big blisters on my hand about half an hour before we finished playing. The most painful one was right on the heel of my palm, which is just about the worst place you could get a blister during tennis. Every serve and forehand shot was an act of masochism after that. I could feel the layer of skin squelching around against the new skin.
Anyway, this evening Ian and I headed back to Yardbird Suite for a jam session. The band, rather rudely, played for over an hour before starting the jam and then preceded to play for large portions of it. I used to host a jam in East London, where we would play for around 20 - 30 mins max before starting the jam, and then allowing others to play, without getting up unless it was required. Also there were a lot of very poor rhythm sections there tonight so it was really quite a strain to get something grooving. I think Ian and I did ok in the face of adversity.
24th - 25th June Edmonton
We've done a gig and now have a couple of days off here. Today I played some tennis with the old man which was fantastic fun. We were both surprised at the fact that we played for two hours without passing out, given that we are both relatively unfit. We played three sets of very enjoyable tennis. This evening Ian and I headed to Yardbird Suite, a jazz club, to see a quartet from New York. You never quite know what you are going to get when you go and see a quartet without any description. All we knew was that it was part of the Edmonton jazz festival and that they were from New York, all good we thought.
After about three of the longest and most annoying songs I've EVER heard we left in disgust. It was free jazz at its absolute worst. NO groove whatsoever in ANY part of any of the songs. It was a real shame because the piano player was quite obviously incredible, it would have been great to hear them play some swing or be-bop. What amazed and amused both of us immensely was the fact that the nonsense that they were playing which sounded wholy untogether with absolutely no sense of structure at all was actually being played from SHEET MUSIC !! They couldn't even blame it on a lack of good improvising. I would have loved to have seen those sheets.
20th June - 23rd June Vancouver - Calgary - Edmonton
We've had a couple of days off in Vancouver which has been nice. I managed to find some people playing chess on the street which I hung around for and watched a few games. The standard was high and I saw some great stuff going on. I went with Ian to O'Douls Restaurant to see a fantastic piano player called Lisa Miller. She was just playing solo, as background music for the people eating dinner. We listened with great pleasure as she played a number of great tunes, Nardis, Joy Spring and Well You Needn't to name but a few.
We headed back there the next night to play at a jam session that was going on as part of the local jazz festival. We had a lot of fun playing Stella By Starlight and Alone Together. I received some very good compliments from someone who had listened to my quartet recordings and bought us both drinks ! Who says jazz music doesn't pay...........
16th June - 19th June San Francisco - Oakland - Vancouver
I've had a great time off with Richelle. We've done very little really, just lounged around and taken it easy. We had plans to go to Alcatraz which I did when I was really young but didn't get round to it. We managed to make it down to Pier 39 which was full of tourists and not actually that much fun, although we did pay a visit to the Houdini Magic shop which was great. Full of crazy old tricks like the rings and boxes with disembodied heads in.
We had the band/crew dinner in a great Mexican restaurant which was very laid back. There were a couple of Pinatas on hand in the shape of small pigs, which were demolished by Wixy and other members of the crew. Richelle left the next day and I took it upon myself to go and see The Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer, which was actually not too bad. After the steaming pile of shit that was the first one, I had very low expectations, which could well have helped my enjoyment of this one.
For those of you that don't know, I am a comic nerd, I have a rather large collection of marvel comics, Spiderman, X-Men and Silver Surfer mainly. I pretty much love all Stan Lee's work. The surfer actually looked pretty good, especially when he loses his board and along with it his silver skin. Spoiler ahead for those of you that are going to see it, Galactus (who is arguably the most powerful and dangerous of ALL the supervillains) is simply a big clowd of dust rather than the humanoid with purple horns that we all know and love. This was a disappointment, but the clowd of dust was really not too bad at all, especially when it starts to eat the earth.
15th June LA - San Francisco
Richelle and I have had a lovely relaxing time on the beach since we've been in LA. We had a great gig at the Hollywood Bowl, my old school mate came along whom I haven't seen for about ten years, so was really good to see him. We are now in the slightly colder climes of San Francisco where we headed down to Haight Ashbury to wander around the shops. Well, actually just one shop, Amoeba, which is a huge record and DVD shop where you can get almost anything that you can think of.
I bought a three disc DVD set of The Old Grey Whistle Test, which I can highly recommend to anyone who is into good music. For those of you that don't know, it was a music show on BBC 2 in England during the 70's. It introduced a load of the best American music to the UK around at that time, Bill Withers, Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, Edgar Winter, Lynrd Skynrd and my two absolute favourite performances on the DVD(and possibly two of my favourite artists/groups of all time) Little Feat and Randy Newman, performing Rock n Roll Doctor and Political Science.
11th - 14th June LA
We've had a very relaxing time here in LA, we've been staying on the beach. Seeing as how I've been ill and Richelle has been working herself to the point of exhaustion, we've just been lounging around doing very little. We headed down to 3rd st promenade for a spot of lunch and shopping, we've watched some movies (Clerks 2 amongst others, I love Kevin Smith) and basically just relaxed. Last night was the gig at Hollywood Bowl which was very enjoyable. It's nice to play outside once in a while. I managed to play table tennis for about half an hour without feeling like I was going to pass out so think I'm finally on the mend.
10th June LA
We have a few days off now in LA, during which time I shall be rollerblading and hanging out with Richelle. Seeing as there are no gigs for a little while I may well not update my blog daily. I'll be back with news next time we do a gig.
9th June Chicago
Having felt great all day I attempted a strenuous session of table tennis which was to be my undoing. After about half an hour of play I felt very dizzy and like I was going to pass out, I think I'm not quite as well as I thought I was. It turns out that Graham is also feeling the same way, unluckily for him he has to hit the drums all night and try not to fall off his chair...........
8th June Chicago
I've had a very quiet day today, I headed over to Boarders to eat some lunch whilst browsing magazines, then came back to the hotel to practice on the basement grand piano for a few hours. This was marred only by the constant movement of various staff and other hotel guests every few minutes. Practice of scales and such is something that I find almost impossible to do in public, it's a very solitary passtime and can drive those around you crazy, as my long suffering girlfriend knows only too well. Still and practice is better than none so I'm thankful for it.
I spent the rest of day in my room and then ventured to the hotel restaurant with Dave and Carol for an early dinner. Looking forward to heading to LA where Richelle will come and meet me and we will go roller blading.
7th June Ottowa - Montreal
A rather long and boring day today, we travelled from Ottowa to Montreal and headed straight to the gig. I got car sick sitting in the back of the van on the way to the gig so spent my pre-gig time feeling a little sorry for myself and playing Supreme Commander on my PC. We're on our way to Chicago so will be looking for some good jazzing opportunities whilst there.
6th June Ottowa
We flew today to Ottowa, where I attempted to play table tennis for the first time since I've been feeling ill. It was great to get some excercise again and I feel better for it. We spent a while discussing the merits of 300, the Zack Snyder film, which has some incredible and long battle scenes. Andy, Dave and I loved the film except for the hilariously homo-erotic scene where Leonidas stands with his naked arse to the camera in the blue moonlight surveying his kingdom. Gratuitous and unecessary, but funny none the less. Zack Snyders first film, a remake of George Romeros Dawn of the Dead was great, he's definitely a director I'll be looking out for from now on.
5th June Quebec
I'm feeling a lot better today thank goodness. I decided to wander out around the city this morning which was very quaint. It's very similar in appearence to a scandinavian city, possible Bergen. It doesn't look anything like France which surprised me.
Later on, Ian and I managed to find a huge ballroom with a theatre at one end with a grand piano in it. This was a perfect opportunity to get some serious practice done out of the way of the other guests of the hotel (this theatre is shut under normal circumstances). We took it in turns suggesting scale patterns to practice which we would play at increasing speeds, and then move through as many keys as we could handle. It was actually a lot of fun, normally one does this sort of pratice alone, and it can get dull at times, but doing it this way means you always have someone to bounce off and also shows up your weaker points better than if you were practicing alone.
4th June Quebec - Canada
We left Philadelphia today for Quebec. I've always had a great time in Canada, so I'm looking forward to spending some time there. I still feel pretty bad but I think I'm on the mend, the gig was a little easier to get through but I'm still not 100%. I've been playing no table tennis since I've been ill which is driving me crazy. I really miss the excercise when I don't play. We ran through our abridged set which we will be performing at the Live Earth show in The Giants Stadium. It's a good set, pretty punchy. I'm sure it will whizz by in no time being that it's less than half an hour in total.
2nd - 3rd June Philadelphia
Unfortunately for me, I have come down with a nasty bug. I have a killer sore throat and feel very light headed indeed. The gig last night was really tough, I just wanted to be in bed, which is where I spent the day today. Ian has gone off to a jam tonight which I'm sadly going to have to miss. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery............
29th May - 1st June New York - Philadelphia
Well, the last few days have been a real blast. I've been spending time with Richelle before she heads back to England and playing as much jazz as I can cram in before we leave the city. In fact I sit here now, in my Philadelphia hotel room with a killer sore throat and definitely coming down with something, due to staying up late at night and not getting enough rest. Our last night in the city was fantastic, Andrew Zweck (tour manager) invited a few of us on his cousins sails boat, which we took down the Hudson River and around the statue of liberty. I've never sailed a boat before and being at the helm is most definitely a great deal of fun. It was incredibly exciting when the boat tips almost 90 degrees and nearly dips it's sail in the water.
That night I headed off to Sweet Rhythm, a jazz club on 7th Avenue, where a jam was taking place. There were some good players there and I got a good go on the bandstand, playing Alone Together, Out of Nowhere and another tune that I can't remember the name of !
26th - 28th May New York
The last couple of days have been a lot of fun. I've seen some great music and also some not so great music. I went to the Village Vanguard for the first time last night which was really exciting for two reasons, one is that it's one of the most reknowned jazz venues on the planet and also becuase the music was a guitar trio playing Bill Evans tunes. For those of you that don't know, Bill Evans is one of the greatest musicians ever to have lived and quite possibly my favourited piano player of all time. I had listened to the music of the trio we were about to see from their website and found a great version of Waltz for Debbie, one of Evans' greatest tunes. Expecting the music to be like it was on the site I was really disappointed when they interpreted the music totally differently. There was no swing whatsoever and a few needlessly long rambling groove based improvisations that just left me cold.
We then headed over to Small club and saw a set of music by a quintet of vibes, piano and tenor, which was far more enjoyable. The house band then switched for another band who hosted a jam. By the time I got to the stand I was almost falling asleep and played a rhythm changes rather poorly. A scathing look from the bass player during his solo was enough for me to decide to cut my losses and head home for much needed sleep.
Today, I went to the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim and walked through the park. MOMA had an exhibition of pieces inspired by comic book art. Being a comic book fan myself I really enjoyed some of the pieces, one of which you can see below, by a japanese artist called Takashi Murakami.
25th May New York
I had a great night last night. Ian and I wandered around from jazz club to jazz club all night looking for good music and jamming opportunities. We started off in a club called Smalls where we saw a great quarter comprising guitar, double bass, drums and tenor. It's rare that I really enjoy a jazz band without a piano but this band were SMOKING. They handled all the crazy time signature changes and rhythmic displacement with absolute ease and just made us laugh at how good they were. We then stayed to watch the next band who were a tenor sax trio with drums and double bass who were ok but not up to the quality of the last band.
We left Smalls and headed to Fat Cat where we had been the night before. What a crazy and excellent place. It's full of chess and table tennis tables and has TWO grand pianos. If I die and go to heaven, this would be where I would hang out. We caught the end of a set comprising organ, brass section, and rhythm. The next band were a guitar combo who hosted the jam so we got good playing opportunities. We played Doxy, Red Cross and a couple of other tunes the names of which I can't remember. We rolled home around four am, happy and tired with our evening's adventure. Looking forward to doing the same again tomorrow.............
22nd - 24th May New York
I had a really nice evening in Atlanta as my sisters god mother whom I haven't seen for twenty one years came to the show. We had a good chat about life and what we've been up to for the passed two decades. I played a great deal of table tennis that evening, we normally play winner stays on, which was great as I was on good form that evening and got to play for a good couple of hours or so.
Since arriving in New York, where my lovely girlfriend was waiting for me, we have been out and about checking out our local surroundings. We wandered around and ended up in Washington Square Park where we saw a great trad jazz band playing. There were dancers as well for the full experience. I have asked them if I can link them so will do so if and when they reply ! I finally bought an external sound card that will enable me to practice with my Barry Harris DVD's during the long hours off in my hotel room. Scales aplenty for me.
21st May West Palm Beach - Florida
An old school friend of mine happens to be studying for his PHD a few miles south of the hotel. He managed to track me down through my web page and get in touch. We spent the afternoon drinking (coffee for me, beer for him) and talking about many interesting things. We discussed old friends, good movies and TV shows, brain science (his PHD) breezed over some politics and philosphy (we seem to share fairly similar views) and religion, which is always a favourite of mine.
I bought a four octave midi controller so as to be able to practice my scales whilst on tour, and have spent the better part of the last two days trying to get my stupid sound card to work without the 20ms or so of latency that make practice impossible. Well, I've since found out that it's impossible. The wavetable card that's in my laptop has a base latency of around 50ms, which is way worse than the 6ms or less that you need, to be imperceptible to the human ear. I'm just going to have to wait til I get to NY and buy myself a cheap piano module. Fed up not being able to practice :(
20th May Tampa - Florida
Still slightly jetlagged, I got up early and went for a swim in the ocean. It was colder than it was yesterday but only slightly, a perfect temperature for a refreshing morning dip. We flew this afternoon to Tampa, an hour away by plane, to do one of the five shed gigs that we are doing on this leg. As gigs go it was not the best. A few errors, not the least of which was the pig which was grabbed by the audience during sheep and pulled it down to the ground. It then lost air and got stuck in the rafters where it remained until the end of the show !
We are now looking forward to a couple of days off here. Not quite sure what I'm going to do here, it's certainly not a walking/exploring friendly town. It's surrounded by interstate highways and you need a car to get anywhere. Well maybe a walk down the beach then.............
19th May West Palm Beach - Florida
Well, welcome back to all you faithfull readers who have been keeping up so far. I have had a week or so back in my hometown of London which has been amazing. I really miss home when I'm away and love sleeping in my own bed ! After a long day travelling we are in West Palm Beach in Florida, the sun is shining and my hotel room view is of a beautiful beach. I went swimming today in the lovely warm water, something I ONLY do if the water is nice and hot.
Our first gig was in a shed and it went fantastically well. Hopefully an indicator of more good gigs to come. Luckily the rain held off until about the last ten minutes of the show when it started to pour down, poor punters :(