Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Spirit of Django

The new Spirit of Django CD has now been mixed and mastered.
On October 25th we play on a big chartity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London which will be a sneak preview of the new recording.

The CD will be released in April 2010 and will be followed by the band playing concerts and festivals throughout the year.

This is the best Spirit of Django recording yet. I'm very proud of it and look forward to touring with the band again next year.

The band lineup is: Martin Taylor (gtr), Jack Emblow (acc), Alison Burns (voc), Alan Barnes (clarinet & sop sax), James Taylor (perc), John Goldie (rythm gtr), Terry Gregory (acc bs gtr)

By the way...the photo at the top of this blog isn't the album cover! It was in my dressing room at one of my recent concerts in Germany and I just liked it.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Gypsy Festivals in Germany

I've spent the last 3 weeks chilling out at my house in France.
During that time I also went to Germany to play 3 shows with my old friend the Gypsy pianist Jermaine Landsberger.
The first show was in Landau, then we played at the Birdland Jazz Club in Neuberg.
The last show was in Mannheim at the "Romano Keir", a cultural centre for Sinti and Roma Gypsies.
They also asked me to give a talk about Django Reinhardt, my years working with Stephane Grappelli, and my own British Gypsy family heritage.
Jermaine and I were joined by Davide Pettrocca on bass, and Sebastian de Krom on drums.



Tuesday, September 1, 2009

New Spirit of Django Recording

I've been working on my new Spirit of Django CD for the past month and haven't ventured much outside the studio during that time except to play a few concerts in Norway and Scotland.
The record is now mixed, and will be mastered next month.
The release date is around April/May 2010, but the exact date hasn't been decided yet.
I wrote 8 of the 12 tracks, which meant quite alot more work for me, so I'm relieved it's all finished now and I don't have anymore sleepless nights worrying about things like ideas for resolving middle 8 sections and codas!
I'm delighted with the results and look forward to the album launch and touring with the band again in 2010.