Well, it’s been certainly a busy year since I last updated on here. I really need to do this more often.
In any case, the new album Isn’t Life Grand has been doing well with some nice reviews and decent airplay. Sean Harkness and I have been spending a fair amount of time working on our newest project Flights Vol. 2 which we’re hoping to release this fall.
The album was recorded over a few sessions at Reservoire Studios in NYC and we’re very happy with the results. Currently, we’re in the post-production faze. With our combined schedules, the biggest challenge we face is coordinating so that we can get everything done. Having said that, we have also made the conscious decision to take our time with this project… so often, these things get rushed and the evidence is in the finished product. In any case, we’re very excited to share this with you and we’ll make sure you know all about it when the time comes.
I am about to head into playing another show – “Beautiful: The Carol King Story” at the Ed Mirvish Theatre for the summer. I just finished playing “The Bodyguard” in May and have been enjoying a bit of time off… not really time off because I managed to get busy on a bunch of other things but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Between a number of gigs in and around Toronto, I was also kept rather busy in the studio with recording the horns for Jann Arden’s new album, a couple of TV shows, and with my Master’s Thesis… which is coming along nicely.
The past year has been a good one with having finished “Kinky Boots” (Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto) around this time last year, then some jazz festival appearances with the highlight being a version of my quartet (with Sean Harkness, Matt Clohesy, and Mike Melito) playing a couple of concerts at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival which were recorded by PBS for broadcast this spring. That was followed by a wonderful 6 month run on “Matilda” (Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto) with some great run-out gigs to Ottawa to play with the NAC Orchestra, plus a handful of shows in Toronto with my big band.
All in all, I’d have to say that I have a lot to be grateful for and I am constantly thrilled to have so many great opportunities to play good music with terrific musicians. May it continue for a long, long time!
