We had a great start to this year’s Rat Pack – Live At The Sands US Tour in the fine city of Atlanta, GA. It was a pleasure to meet and play with all the local musicians, in particular the brass players. My thanks go to ‘Lee’ King and Andy Hagans (trumpets), and Eric, Jason Altieri and Lee Watts (trombones) for making the first week back so easy for me. We had a great time hanging out after the show too!!

One particular thrill for me was the chance to go and help Lee Watts out with coaching the Trumpets at the Wheeler High School band program. Mark Hoskins runs a great program over at Wheeler and we had a great time working with the concert band section. All fine young players whom I look forward to hearing again in the future!

It was also great to have a chance to catch up with some returning Rat Packers. Alonzo Saunders rejoined us for a brief stint as Sammy cover and we even had a visit from Henry Prego; who returned as an emergency Frank cover at the end of the week. Great to see the guys again.

The next leg of the tour took us to St. Louis, MO. More about that shortly…

I’ve just returned from our stint in Munich with Dancing In The Streets. It’s been a lot of fun, despite the gig in the evening! The highlight of Munich for me, despite the beautiful architecture and interesting places to visit, is catching up with all the fine musicians there who I’m proud to call friends. There are a whole gang of great Trumpet players in town who, in particular, always welcome me as part of their community. I had the great pleasure of hanging out with Nemanja Jovanovic, Florian Jechlinger, Rich Laughlin, Thomas Bendzsko, Gabriel Keogh, Omar Kabir and last, but definitely not least, Dusko Goykovich. It’s always really entertaining to hang out with Dusko because he’s really lived the Jazz life and has all the stories to go with it. Having lived in New York in the 1960s he’s met/played with so many of the greats of this music.

Another great pleasure in Munich is always visiting the excellent Jazz Clubs there. My favourite remains the Unterfahrt. Both Sundays during our visit, the DITS band were in full effect at the Jam Session there – the perfect way to unwind after 2 shows! It was great to see the guys cut loose and (really) play following the routine of the show. A particular pleasure for me was the playing of pianist Mike ‘Junior’ Guy – a really fine Australian player who’s settled, at least temporarily, in London. We were also lucky that our Baritone player; Dave Ledingham, chose to document much of these sessions on his video camera. We already have a few clips up on YouTube with more to follow as I have time. Here’s my favourite:

Video embed broken – please visit on YouTube

The UK tour of The Rat Pack – Live In Las Vegas finished, for me, this past Thursday – a day of unforgettable events! We’re on a six week summer break and start again in early September in Liverpool. It seems almost certain that I’ll be doing much the same as last season and fulfilling dates on both sides of the Atlantic.

I was still not quite home from Aberdeen on Friday when the Flying Music office rang to ask if I could recommend anybody to play Trumpet on the imminently forthcoming tour of their other show; Dancing In the Streets. My good friend Steve Parry will, therefore, be doing the show from late August but was unable to play the first few weeks due to other commitments – he’s working with pop starlet Corinne Bailey Rae on her summer festival gigs. So, no sooner am I home than I’m off on the road again! I’ll be playing the DITS dates in Europe in July and August, as well as a couple of ‘muddy field’ events when we get back and then a have week off before heading back out with The Pack. No rest for the wicked!!