My tour with the quartet went well this month!  We had a great time playing and hanging out together, and it was really nice to get to many different cities to play for loads of lovely people who’d never heard us before.  We were promoting the upcoming release of our new album “While We Still Can”.

In the middle of the tour I had two days of recording with Nat Birchall for his new album, and an afternoon demo-ing some tunes for Kyran Matthews Quartet, with Paul Baxter and David Austin Grey.  I’ve heard them both, and they’re sounding great!  I’m excited to see what happens with them.

Just after the quartet tour finished, I was down in London to play a lovely gig at Jazz in the Round, the Cockpit, with Nat’s Quintet.  There was also a quality set from Leafcutter John and another from Andreas Schaerer!  Whilst I was in London, I also managed to get to see some of Jazz festival; a double bill of Charles Lloyd (with Eric Harland!), and Dave Douglas/Joe Lovano group (with Joey Baron!  And Linda Oh!).

I spent so long organising the tour and getting my new quartet album finished, and it has gotten close to Christmas, that it now feels like I’m done for the year, although I’ve still got some nice gigs coming up (with Engine Room Favourites on 27 Nov, Mark Hanslip on 30 Nov, and Fragments on 18 Dec) and I’ll be recording with Fragments, Marley Chingus and Misha Gray’s quintet in December, so still lots going on.