On Thursday evening I travelled to Oxford to play at the Spin. The club is run very well, by Pete Oxley who is also a great guitarist.  I highly recommend you check out this man's playing!

Pete Oxley 

Raph Mizraki played upright and electric bass with equall aplomb. Raph really dug in on his solo's making sure each solo spoke to the audience. Again, it's worth going to the Spin just to check out his playing. 

Mark Doffman co-runs the club with Pete. He is the drummer for the house group. Mark played some beautiful solo's, really adding the swing to our standards.

The club is a great example of a well run UK Jazz venue. The Spin has a great website where you can book tickets. The atmopshere in the club is relaxed and open minded to all the different styles of Jazz. I had a great night. My next gig is this Thursday 10th May, the details are below.

We found some contemporary groove last night in Tunbridge Wells. I love the way jazz can take you in so many directions. Some gigs are more swing based, such as my gig at the Old Barge last month. Some require a different tip all together. I really enjoyed playing with the fabulous Arden Hart . He has mainly been working with Massive Attack over the last decade. However  he was free to come down and play last night and it was real treat. The evening consisted of some of my tunes alongside jazz written by Eddie Harris, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock

Martin Johnson played kit and added a great hip-hop feel to a funk orientated set. I enjoy Martin 's playing because he's always listening to your every move. Not an easything to do when your concentrating on your own playing to lock in with the bass and keyboards but he always pulls it off with style.

Orefo played bass and was 'very naughty'! Along with Arden he found some areas in the tracks where we could really push the harmony to some dark areas.  He and I have done quite a bit of recording together in the past. He played on 4 of my tracks from my album Butterfly . We also worked on some tracks which were written by him and were a different style altogether. You may get to hear them if we ever finish them! Orefo has been working with the Sugar Babes for quite a few years now but he is always writing and performing in many other areas. If you want to check these guys out we are playing again in two weeks time at the Spice Of Life on Thursday 10th May.

I have just received 2 cd's in the post from one of the supporters of the Jazz night at The Old Barge in Hertford. I played the venue on the 8th March and had a excellent night. The jazz night is run by John Williams and is very well supported. I was astonished when I recieved the cd's, such a thoughtful gesture to send them. I don't mind people recording or taking VT as long as they ask first. I loved the gig as the band really stretched out which in turn pushed my playing. You can hear 3 of the live tracks by clciking on the arrows under the titles. They are

All The Things You Are

Stella By Starlight

Time Remembered

The gig was definatly leaning towards a swing gig so I booked

Tim Lapthorn on piano

Henrick Jnsen on Double Bass

Marc Parnell on drums

Many people having been asking me who's designed my new site so I have included a picture of the designer Maciek Hrybowicz . If you wish to get in touch with Maciek regarding a website build click here . Maciek is also a serious guitarist, you can come down and check his playing along with mine at Macbeth Pub on Wednesday 14th March. We will both playing in John Bennet's Band . John writes all his own music for a Big Band line up.

       John's material is very different to most big band's. His music includes theme's with numbers allocated to them. These can be called at any point of his choosing within each piece. In between the themes he allows soloist's to really go wherever they want with a solo. John also fills the band with very different and interesting styles of musician's, but then I'm bound to say that! Here's a picture of his last album cover.