Hey Everybody! Thanks for checking in!
THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE THAT IS CHECKING ON ME. I'M SAFELY OUT OF TOWN (NYC) AND WILL KEEP YOU ALL UP TO DATE ON MY WHEREABOUTS AND THE SITUATION WITH MY HOUSE AND SUCH. YOUR KINDNESS AND CARING IS A BEAUTIFUL THING.
The Seasonal Update:
I’ve been having a great time this summer, doing a lot of traveling and playing and getting to see a lot of old friends and been making some new ones. I had a fantastic month-long run of gigs in Europe. The first hits were some trio stuff in Luxembourg with the wonderful Paul Wiltgen on drums and Boris Schultz on bass - I have some nice pictures that I’ll post soon. Then I spent a week in Prague organized by my good friend Jirka Hala and the Czech Krewe: Milan (who was killing it!), Wimpy the un-wimpy, and Roman, who just keeps sounding better and better. Then off to Germany for a couple of quartet gigs. The town of Annweiler, and the dear Michael Becker, once again delivered a life affirming experience. After that, I headed back to Luxembourg for a serious bout of rehearsals with the Paul Wiltgen Group, and a week long stint at Inoui. This for sure was one of the baddest bands I’ve ever played with (which is saying a lot, because, Lord, I have been blessed!), and I’m really looking forward to our next set of dates in the fall.
Back State-side, I’ve been getting in some good hanging, and playing some fun gigs in New York. I have three recording projects in various stages of underway that I am producing and playing on and mixing, so that is making sure I don’t ever feel bored. Also, wrapped up in all of that, I am doing a few weeks at the National Guitar Workshop, which is always a hoot. They sent me out to San Francisco this year, and it has been really nice seeing life in the satellites, as they call these things, and meeting some new folks, and seeing a couple of others that stopped doing work on the main campus, which is where I usually teach.
That’s most of the big news for now. Look for me in New Orleans towards the end of August, and in Europe in October. I’ll let you all know when any of the records are finished.
A little shout out to drummer extraordinaire Shannon Powell for hooking me up with Dr. Lonnie Smith during Jazz Fest. That was a set I wish you all could have been at. Hopefully there will be more in the future that I can let everyone know about ahead of time
That’s all for now - Peace & Funkiness!
ps: I started an email list thing a while ago, the big plan being to send out my news and my gig list about once a month. So far I’ve sent out exactly one mailing! I swear I will get it together eventually. So, if you want to take the chance that one day you might get something, click these words. If, at some point, you become terminally swamped by electronic correspondences (which at the rate I’m going could never happen!), you can un-sign up too, the convenient and automatic disconnect link comes with every email! Also, you have the option of letting me know where you are, so I won't bother you with gig notices for stuff nowhere near you.
