I know, I know.. been a while since I updated my blog.. so I'm putting a brief one, before writing up full ones, yeah? Been really, really busy la.. it's a busy month of April, and it's going to be a busy one in May. More on that later..
And now..
April 18 (Monday) - went to do a rehearsal for the Mingus Big Band workshop with the RTM Combo. Not much of a rehearsal, really, a bit of a waste of time. Just briefly ran thru some charts.. not very seriously, unfortunately.
Went to see Mingus Big Band at Petronas Phil Hall... awesome band.. mind-blowing music. Very deep stuff, too. It's still jazz, but it's more involved compositionally. It was a one, long 90 min set. I wonder if most of the audience members followed them all the way, or not? I am not familiar with Charles Mingus material, but I was totally engrossed.
April 19 (Tuesday) - Went to the DFP again, for the workshop. That was really fun.. the RTM combo was crap, but I didn't mind, it was an upclose learning experience for me and Chee Meng, at least. Oh yeah, Eddie (my trumpet player) and Bruce (another trumpet player from Canada, very good) were playing too.
Saw the band again that night... SUPER happening. Craig Handy, tenor sax and musical director, did a killer sax solo on Goodbye Porkpie Hat. Met Damon Brown, a Brit trumpeter but based in Paris, and Greg's friend. He was due to play at Alexis that weekend. Hung out and talked a lot that night
April 20 (Wed) - did a rehearsal with my Happy People band, and played at Senja Restaurant, at Hyatt Subang later that evening.
April 22 (Friday) - went to Avanti's to soundcheck. Rushed over from Sunway to Mandarin Oriental KL to check out the Boh Cameronian Arts Awards.. or at least to see my colleagues there la. On the way there, it was freakin' jammed, and it was raining beasts and trolls! Took me a bloody whole hour or so to get there. Anyway, just before the ceremonies started I had to leave back for Sunway. Took a quick shower and did the Happy People Quintet gig.
Anyway, the gig went fairly okay, but in all honesty, I played like the absolute shit! Either I was tired, or the fact that I wasn't practicing as much as I should might come into play. But I played like shit, with bad form mistakes in some of the songs and stuff.
Read about it here (courtesy of sMack).
By the way, we (the I Have Dreamed with Sean Ghazi team) got TWO awards: Best Production and Audience Choice Awards... Hurrahhh!!!
April 23 (Sat) - Went to watch Damon Brown and Greg Lyons band... Damon was awesome!!! He's such a soulful trumpet player... very forward moving musician, but very rooted in the jazz tradition. Plus Greg, already a power player and composer in his own right, both of them smoked the house!!! Woo hoo.. can't wait to catch them in Singapore the following weekend.
April 26 (Tues) - Caught an early morning bus to Singapore, with Bruce and Eddie. Reached Singapore at around 1-something, met up with our agent that's bringing us to Shanghai. Dropped our luggage, and shopped for the afternoon. Came back at around 9pm, and later took a taxi to Changi Airport to take a China Eastern Airlines flight to Pudong Airport, Shanghai at 1am.
April 27 - 30 (Wed - Sat) - China gig trip.. it was for the BMW Asian Open Tour as well as the special launching of the BMW New 7 Series. Will write more about that trip later.
April 30 (Sat) - Came back to Singapore, with some mis-adventures (more on that on the same story later). Dropped my stuff at my aunt's place and headed straight to Jazz @ Southbridge at Boat Quay to check out Damon and Greg's show again.
May 1 (Sun) - Went to send Eddie off early in the morning to the bus terminal (he left for KL at 7.30am). Went to sleep for a couple of hours, then went shopping. Went to THREE clubs for jazz jam sessions (more on that later, too!), went back home at 6am.
May 2 (Mon) - Met up with Greg and got a lift back home to KL by his car.
So much for now... I'll be writing full stories with pictures later la, when I have time. Till then, more updates coming soon.
Got quite a number of shows this month.. very exciting for me. Stay tuned.
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