The last few days....

These Four Walls - The rest of the season went well as far as the audiences went. Each night more people came. The show itself deteriorated over the three nights I felt. We drilled it so hard leading up till opening night, then took our feet off the gas and the next two shows were both wobbly, especially in the chorus work. No doubt my dissappointment after the last show was exacerbated by my high expectations. A good lesson there. And over all still a very rewarding experience.

Jack Dejohnette Workshop - so great to see Jack play again and hear about his ideas around music as a healing force through the power of the intent behind it. He played some nice solos and used a mic to pick up the lower frequencies of the cymbals - the soul of the cymbals he said.

Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters supported Roxy Music on Sunday at Villa Maria. WE had our last practice on Saturday afternoon and it was a goodun. The gig on Sunday was a ripper. We played great. There were thousands of people in the audience, the sound system was fantastic and apparently we towered like gods above the audience on two huge screens that flanked the stage. After our set there was a huge line of folks waiting to buy CD's off Don and get them signed. It was great to see Don so excited about that!

Storehouse at the Festival Garden Bar - 11 till midnight on Saturday I played w Store House and it rained and the good people danced anyway! Very hard not to dance when Tom Rodwell is stomping his box.

So that brings me up to Monday:

Rehearsed with Age Pryor this morning for our gig on Thursday eve at the Festival Garden Bar. Another couple of nice pieces improvised into the looping universe of Ableton Live.

Took a music class at Auckland Uni with Combo 8. They're a very studious group, thankfully. We played an original, as well as Spain, and a John Scofield tune. Twas a good session.

Poor Boy rehearsal in the evening. things making progress there. Completely abandoned the drum kit now. Going for a percussive set up with lots of sound effects. Its bound to change again before opening night next week!!

Frank Gibson got on my case about the bebop drummer Pete La Roca. I ran into Frank at the Jack DeJohnette workshop. SO tonight I downloaded Sonny Rollins live at the Vanguard. It features both Pete and Elvin. Thanks for the tip off Frank its a great record!