SLOWING DOWN ON THE BLOG FRONT...BUT I CAN EXPLAIN...

I am pleased that you have been following my travels and I wanted to post a quick update. I will be in Korea for the next 4 days, return to Japan for two and then go to Edinburgh for about 4 or 5 days. It's hectic, but fun and I am looking forward to each gig. If you are in any of these places, please come up and say hi, and mention that you read about the gig on this blog to receive...well, nothing, but tell me anyway.

I have been a little slow writing this blog for the last week because my computer is once again in working order and I am in the process of re-writing my book--the practice book for singers that was lost in my recent hard drive crash. I have been making good progress and I am almost done with the first draft again. Then, there is the re-writing process and adding the musical examples. I hope to have it all finished by mid September and about 2 months later (maybe) it will be available, December is probably a little more likely, January at the latest. 

In the meantime, I have been enjoying playing in Shingo Okudaira's band the last weeks here in Tokyo. It's been a great summer for playing--I am feeling very connected to the piano after all of these (3 set!) trio gigs. Also, I got to play with a couple of members of another generation of Japanese jazz musicians (a few years older than me, anyway, always a treat, that): Mabumi Yamaguchi (a tenor player with a little bit of a Wayne Shorter like approach who led a band with Shunzo Ono years ago here) and bassist Ben Okada (again there is a connection to Shunzo Ono who introduced me to him). Both of these musicians have a certain open kind of sound that seems to have been something that was in the air for Japanese Jazz musicians coming up in the 70s.

Anyway, that's all I have time for right now. I promise to get back to some steadier (and hopefully more entertaining) blogging once the book is finished. Until then, see you!