Hi gang. Hope everyone is healthy and feeling inspired. I have to say that I feel more inspired than I have in a long time. For the first time in my life I have had the opportunity to play every night for a month in a row. Man, there is no better way to get one's chops and connection with the instrument together than to do this. We left June 31st for Tbilisi in ex-Soviet Georgia (Phil Markowitz, Jay Anderson, and John Riley). Our reception there was overwhelming! People were such great listeners, and appreciated the music so much. Givi, the big band leader of the Tbilisi Concert Jazz Orchestra transcribed 10 of my big band arrangements (with all the right notes!!) and even made some very hip alterations of the arrangements. What an honor! I was almost in tears. We played two concerts with quartet there and joined the big band as well.

Next we were off to Berne, Switzerland, and did a residency at George Robert's jazz school. It was a very inspiring event for students and teachers alike to have the input of a whole quartet, especially guys like Jay, John, and Phil. I learned an awful lot! We played a nice concert in Geneva with the quartet at the end of the week.

After this I met the Yellowjackets in Spain and did 2 1/2 weeks of touring. The band got really tight, and we went to some places I had never been before. In Moscow we went to see Lenin at Red Square. He looked pretty cool for being dead for 80 years. Our soundman asked "Is that really him?". Haslip said "yeah", and the guard said "shhhh!!".

After all this my family and I wound up in Zeillern, Austria, where I attended a jazz workshop that was a real gas. The other teachers were great, and the students were extremely dedicated. A very nice workshop indeed!

We spent a day in Vienna before proceeding to the Italian Alps for some R & R. What struck me as really weird was the fact that everywhere you turned in Vienna there were guys dressed up like Mozart selling tickets to chamber music concerts. In the souvenir shops you could buy Mozart candies and busts of the composer. This is a town where Mozart could barely get a gig when he was alive! It just goes to show you that if your not as busy as you would like when you are alive it doesnt mean that your music is not good. Its just the wacky music scene, which hasn't changed much in the last several hundred years.

If you are trying to be a musician keep working on the music! The rewards are many. They generally dont come for a long while, but when they do it makes all the scuffling and self-doubt well worth it. It has taken me 50 years of living to start to get to where I want to be as a working musician. I'm not there yet, but Im very grateful for the opportunities I have had along the way.

Keep the faith!