A little late in the day, perhaps, but still in time to wish Clark Terry a very happy 91st birthday!

I had the tremendous honour, through my day job, of rebuilding Clark’s website, a few months ago. It’s so gratifying to see the communication from friends and fans, which is now possible due to the Guestbook and commenting features I intoduced. Clark has been such an inspiration to me for many years, and it’s wonderful that the thousands of others who share that artistic debt can now have a simple way to express it to him.

A quick reminder that I’m playing this coming Saturday, 27th August in Bethlehem, PA with the fabulous “Mr Ho’s Orchestrotica”. This 22 piece big band is dedicated to reviving the remarkable music of Juan Garcia Esquivel; considered by many to be Mexico’s answer to Duke Ellington! It’s a great band with a great book and I always have tremendous fun trying to play the ludicrous things written in the Lead Trumpet charts!

Details are as follows:
Musikfest Cafe @ ArtsQuest Center
101 Founders Way.
Bethlehem, PA
United States
7:30pm show.

Tickets are $42 & $32 and are available from the ArtsQuest Center website.

Hope to see you there!

Update: This event has been cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. The plan is to reschedule – details will be posted when we have them.

I’ve uploaded a few more of the tracks from the recent gig at Grimsby Jazz. They’re in a set on SoundCloud, which should be embedded below. Enjoy…

I had a great trip to the UK last week – it was long overdue to get back and visit family and friends! While I was there, I played a very fun gig with the “Quarter To Four” band at Grimsby Jazz. Named for the time at which this last minute replacement group was finalised before our last gig almost three years ago, we were invited to play again when the organisers at Grimsby Jazz heard I was coming over. It’s a fun sextet comprising some good friends of mine who also happen to be tremendous players!

I recorded the gig, for my own reference, and thought you might enjoy hearing a song from it – either because you weren’t there or were and (hopefully) enjoyed it! Here’s “Alone Together” by Dietz & Schwartz.

The musicians are:

Pat McCarthy – guitar
Piero Tucci – piano
Ken Marley – double bass
John Perry – drums
Bryan Davis – trumpet

The sixth member of the group is Tony Burkill on tenor sax, who chose not to play on this tune. I’ll upload one that he is featured on another time!

I was reminded, the other day, of this hilarious video featuring Mnozil Brass in an excerpt from their current “Magic Moments” show. If you’re not familiar with the group, it’s well worth spending some time checking them out on YouTube. Then go and see them live. It is a show not to be missed!