The summer is over and the craziness soon begins. My new album comes out worldwide at the end of September, just as a four week tour of the UK begins. Following the UK tour, my band and I head for Germany and finish up in late November in Paris. Here we go… But before that starts, let me update you on the end of the summer season: On August 22nd, I returned from Dublin, Ireland, where I took part in a lovely concert at the National Concert Hall with actor/singer Mark McGann, British jazz singer Claire Martin, Conductor-extraordinaire ... Read more »
I’m on a tour bus hurtling down the German Autobahn, headed from Wiesbaden to Fredrichshafen to play another show with my band. We’re on a short tour of outdoor festivals here and then we fly to Heathrow to do one show at the Snapes Maltings concert hall in Aldeburgh, a small village on the east coast of England. The Aldeburgh festival is primarily a classical music festival, but they’re slumming it with a Curtis Stigers concert this weekend. It’s a lovely place, a lovely hall. We played a classical festival last night in Wiesbaden, too: ... Read more »
Sitting in my hotel room in wonderful wonderful Copenhagen recuperating after three great nights at the Copenhagen Jazz House with my band. Over the three nights we played/previewed all the songs from my upcoming new release, which will be titled (you heard it here first!) "Lost In Dreams," and it felt great to go out on a limb and play a bunch of new material. The audiences responded very enthusiastically to it all, which is a relief and very exciting. We're here in Copenhagen for the jazz festival, which I can highly recommend if you ever get the chance to ... Read more »
I'm ironing. It's Saturday morning, I'm home in Boise, Idaho and I'm ironing a few shirts to wear for a photo session I'm doing this afternoon with my friend Andy Lawless (he snapped the photo below), in hopes that we'll come up with a good image or two for my new album cover and package. We're shooting today at Pengilly's Saloon, a great old watering hole and music venue downtown on Main Street that I just happened to co-own for a year and a half, not long ago. My main contribution during my short tenure as bar ... Read more »
It's 1:00am I'm sitting in the vocal booth at Brooklyn Recording in NYC, after three long and deeply rewarding days of recording with my band and our friend and recording engineer Josiah Gluck. We recorded 13 tunes in three days. It's hard to say whether they'll all make it to my new record, but I'd be hard-pressed to choose which one(s) to lose at this moment. The boys in the band (Drummer Keith Hall, Pianist Matthew Fries, Bassist Cliff Schmitt and Trumpeter/Arranger/co-Producer John Sneider) played with fire and subtlety, and without fear, and the songs all came ... Read more »
The ski season is over and I’m ready to re-enter the real world. Between trips up and down the snowy mountains I’ve been writing songs and coming up with ideas for great tunes to cover, and I’m preparing to head into the studio with my band at the end April. My new album will likely be recorded, mixed and mastered by the end of May and ready for the the shops by September (are there any record shops left out there?). I’m not ready to tell you exactly what will be on the album, but for those ... Read more »
I had quite a year on the road in 2008. My band (Matt Fries, Keith Hall, Cliff Schmitt and John Sneider) and I performed at Hampton Court Palace (Henry the VIII's summer palace) with British jazz royalty: Dame Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth. We did two concert hall and festival tours of Germany. We also played in Paris, Vienna, Norway, Denmark and Northern Ireland. We returned to three legendary jazz clubs: London's Ronnie Scott's, The Copenhagen Jazz House, and The Blue Note in New York City. In the US we played Annapolis, Boston, Boise, Hartford, Vail, Denver and several dates ... Read more »
I’m sitting in Sea-Tac airport on a five hour layover on my way to Copenhagen, so I thought I’d get caught up with y’all… …it’s been an interesting winter so far. I’ve spent a fair bit of time at home with my family, doing some skiing and relaxing. The trio and I did spend a week performing in London at the “new improved” Pizza on the Park. It seemed a lot like the old one, but we had some lovely audiences and it was interesting spending some time in Knightsbridge, rather than Soho (where the other jazz club ... Read more »
OK, I'm finally going to start this thing up... I've been meaning to do it for ages but the rigors of being on the road, managing a career and being a dad has kept me busy. Excuses excuses... So begins Notes From The Road... Well... I'm in Denmark. With my band. The band: pianist Matthew Fries, drummer Keith Hall and bassist Phil Palombi. We've been playing together for a long time, a few years at least, and Denmark rates up there pretty high in our esteem and admiration. We had a terrific show at Musikhuset in Arhus on Saturday (Nov 12). We ... Read more »