The bus is home today – much as it has been for the past few days, and will be for the next. For the next 7-8 hours, we will find various ways to entertain ourselves. Before movie time, much of that will involve sleeping or conversation.

It’s fascinating to hear the discussions going on around this mobile room at 8:30am. Music is one topic of conversation, of course, in one corner, but other subjects range from home improvement to classic literature to the basest of humour.

This kind of thoughtful diversity is one of the great things about being in the company of other musicians. It’s hard to know if an audience fully appreciates how communicative an experience it is to play in, and as, an ensemble. The discourse off the bandstand is an extension of that, and is something I always treasure.

Then, as the fervour of recent caffeination subsides, it quietens in here. Time to plug in the headphones, read or take a nap. Or perhaps all three. We have all day…

Here’s wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it. If not, a very happy Saturday!! Isn’t that better than a generic Happy Holidays!?

I arrived back yesterday from a very enjoyable trip to Austria, where I was playing with Gansch & Roses on their CD Presentation Tour. The new CD, entitled ‘Resal’, was released just a day or two before the start of the tour, as I’ve written elsewhere. I now have a copy of the finished product and it sounds great! I had already been enjoying the pre-master mixes that Thomas Gansch gave me a copy of last December when he was visiting New York – the final CD sounds even better!!

We played 5 gigs in Austria, including the Salzburg JazzHerbst (Autumn Jazz) Festival and, of course, the fantastic Porgy & Bess Jazz Club in Vienna. We played to large and appreciative audiences wherever we went – the Austrians really enjoy their music!

There will be more to report about the trip once the fog of jetlag has cleared! For those outside of Europe, I have procured a few copies of the CD to sell through this site – I suspected the €18 + shipping price tag (about $30US in total) may be a little much for some. Details of a more competitive price to follow soon…

Ok… caffeine time…

I recently became a member of the newly created Brass Musician forums and, following a post I made there about practising, I was delighted to be quoted by one of the other forum members, David Roberts, on his blog; The Systematic Approach. You may be interested in the original Brass Musician forum post, or David’s article.

David’s site is a most interesting one. He is a come-back player, who has returned to studying Trumpet after a break of 15 years or so. He is documenting his progress online, as he works his way through Claude Gordon’s excellent Systematic Approach to trumpet playing. His site is full of interesting articles about the challenges he is facing, along with videos of him performing the exercises he has been working on.

Many thanks to David for considering my comments worthy of quoting. I wish him the very best in his studies of this infernal machine!!!

I’m still here, just in case you were wondering. Apologies for the radio silence but, between practicing and working for a living, I’ve been pretty busy!

Not a lot more than that to say right now. Back with more before long…