(Also congratulations to Ms. Spalding for her Grammy win…)

Canada was a blast – Montreal Jazz Fest was amazing. We hung out with the Nextbop.com guys (i nicked the photo from them – the sound engineer is showing me how to use a bass amp – i’ve never done it before…), played in The Trane Studios in Toronto to a select audience but had a great gig. Had a toughie at Ottowa Jazz Fest but got a great write-up – HERE – and watched Joshua Redman with Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Ari Hoenig, then flew to Vancouver Jazz Fest and had the most amazing gig, complete with standing ovation…HALF WAY THROUGH!!

It’s been an amazing 2 months since the Ronnie Scott gigs –

…now back to Eugene Levinson and the School of Agility…

im going to see roy haynes on thursday in london – i’m glad i get to see a few of the greats before it’s too late. i saw gerry mulligan in london a while before he died. i found out ronnie ross lived two streets away from me in balham…the same week his obituary was in the papers…i didn’t go and see ron carter last time he was over…

…so anyway, today is for listening to the piano genius that was hank jones…and sorting out my mobile phone…and doing laundry/practice/shopping…

so, the first 4 gigs have passed! the jazz fm blog is still there – this really is what we do on the road! there are plenty of clips of us playing so i reckon it’s nice to see the other side of it. toni’s car has taken us to leeds, manchester, liverpool and southampton incredibly without using any diesel at all…not a drop!

southampton was amazing – turner sims did us proud. there was foyer music from a slimmed down  Vita and an opening set from our friends The Swiss. the sound was great, the audience were amazing and the workshop the next day was terrific too…help, i’m gushing!

a review of the gig at the liverpool phil is here. my bass was ‘humming…’ apparently – i’ll get that seen to…

brighton on thursday at ‘the old fruit market’ – i can see lots of jokes in that. (speaking of which i’ve been told off about never using capital letters. i was quoted the old – “helping my Uncle Jack off a horse” one…!)

today is sunshine but cold and yes, i’m enjoying keith jarrett and charlie hadens new album – ‘jasmine’. haden’s bass playing is so beautifully appropriate…!

here you go – jazz fm video blog

it suggest that the 50′s was the swap over time for jazz bass, where it maybe came out of the shadows and joined the front line due to improvements in bass set-up, string choice and players technique. it has a little resumee of the ‘important players’ then has a suggested listening section for each player. THIS BLOODY BOOK IS BANKRUPTING ME!!!! i have bought louis armstrong albums to hear arville shaw, billy eckstine cd’s to hear eddie safranski, hank jones for oscar pettiford, coleman hawkins for milt hinton, eric dolphy for george duvivier, duke ellington for jimmy blanton, jimmy woode & joe benjamin, hampton hawes for red mitchell, bleedin’ everybody for ray brown and the amazing thing is that it’s all dead on! they are the best recordings i’ve heard of each of these players. the two mingus albums i’ve got hold of have mingus making perfect sense – beautiful walking lines, immaculate melodic solos – think of the money i could have saved if i’d bought this book 10 years ago!

so, tonight is a mingus night, fuelled by Fullers ESB…must have dinner, must eat…later…

i always love doing anything BBC – once past the overly obstructive reception it’s like stepping back through time. in studio 4 there was an orchestra rehearsing. we walked into studio 3 – a huge room – the plaque on the wall stating ‘bing crosby made his last recording here’ – and set up on a huge square of carpet laid out on the inlaid wooden floor. the length of the studio was 22 yards which we stared at in amazement and wonder and imagined how bowlers can hurl a tiny cricket ball accurately that distance over and over…

the recordings went well – good fun too. can’t wait for the gigs proper to start – friday in belfast…bring it on!!

now, how to ignore the sunshine and do some work…?