Last week.. a recap..

It was a rather filled-up week, full of activities for me! Unfortunately, none of it includes practicing on my horn! Well, I did some, just not enough. I'm working on Charlie Parker's solo on Confirmation and I've got the first chorus down.. after god knows how many weeks! But anyway, as I'm writing, my eyes are tearing up.. not enough sleep. What do you expect???

WORLD CUP FEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah yeah.. I know! For those who know me well, they'll attest that I'm the LAST football fan on this planet. But I only make one exception.. WORLD CUP! Don't ask me why.. I find it puzzling too! I actually enjoy watching two different countries battling it out for this Cup. It's probably the Holy Grail for all we know! But think of it.. it really does bring the whole world together. And I find it a rather touching sentiment... it seems to have some sort of power, so you could say I'm attracted by that. But anyway, other than watching the matches, here's what I did this week, in short (too lazy and sleepy to type out in detail, sorry mates!):

Monday 5 June:

Taught the whole day... 6 students.. ended up back home at almost 12am, my last student at 9pm (but ended up chatting until 11-something). Doesn't take one day to drain my brain..

Tuesday 6 June:

Rehearsal for Sharizan's album launch and Friday Nite Jazz show at Avanti's.

Wednesday 7 June:

Sharizan's new album "Timeless" was launched on this day at Avanti's Restaurant Sunway. You can get them on CD at leading music stores in town. I'm playing in it as well, so you can check it out, too. I didn't think I played particularly good in it, but alas, all the mistakes are there for you to hear! Anyway, in the album the line up consist of Sharizan Borhan on vocals, David Yee on electric bass, Zahid Ahmad on drums, Suflan on piano, and myself on alto saxophone.

The album launch went very well. We played about five songs, and the line-up was the same, except Fly who replaced on the double bass.

Went for a nice run after that.. can read about that here.

Thursday 8 June:

Met up with the ol' IRC chatgroup #gossip gathering, which of course, have evolved into a more personal friendship than just a chatgroup meet-up. So there was me, Yvonne, Jonathan, Alex, and Martin (who we haven't seen for a long time, almost 3 years). It was almost a year since we last met, and ironically enough, it was ALSO at Paddington's Pancakes at The Curve.

It was a rather motley group meet-up, come to think of it, with each of us with TOTALLY different careers: a musician, a graphic designer, a banker, a lawyer, and an IT engineer. What was more ironic was I got introduced to this group through another friend, but somehow just got into this group. Oh well..

It went well. You can read about it with pictures on Yvonne's blog and Jon's blog. Enjoy..

After that, I went to the Laundry Bar (which was literally just around the corner) to do soundcheck and rehearsal for Mia Palencia's show there. The Laundry Bar has a Jazz Nite on each FIRST Thursdays of the month. So Mia is the first act to kick off for the month of June. There was me on saxophone, Fly on bass, John Thomas on drums, and Eric Li on keyboards.. powerhouse group!!

Went to Fitness First next door for a nice but easy workout!

Played the gig at Laundry Bar. Didn't expect to be playing hard at the gig, but looks like we did. We played a mix of jazz standards as well as modern R&B tunes. Turnout was quite good. It was a party-ish vibe though, definitely not a serious joint for jazz.

Went home and straight to bed.. was flat-out.

Friday 9 June:

Went to Avanti's to do Sharizan's show at Avanti's Friday Nite Jazz. It had me, John, Fly and Suflan backing him up.

WORLD CUP FIRST MATCH!! Germany beats Costa Ric 4-2!

Went all da way to meet up Eddie at the Taman Desa mamak restaurant to watch the Ecuador - Poland match, Ecuador won by 2-0. Not bad for a debut game at the WC for Ecuador! Went bac to the hotel at about 5.30am!

Saturday 10 June:

Came home to check my emails only to find this:

From: Artists Collective
Subject: Jackie McLean

Hello Julian, I am Jackie McLean's daughter Melonae'. I am communicating with you from the Artists Collective in Hartford, Connecticut. It is a cultural arts program founded by my dad 35 years ago (for inner city youth).I saw the blog you did on my dad and I loved it. My father would have loved you. When you come to the states please plan on visiting us and talking to thekids in our youth jazz orchestra and the rest of our programs.

Thank you for something we will treasure forever!

Check out our website artistscollective.org

About 2 months ago, I wrote an eulogy to the late Jackie McLean who passed away on 31 March. An awesome sax player, jazz musician, and jazz educator. This was an email from Jackie's daughter Melonae... whom Jackie had written a lot beautiful tunes for!

Thanks Melonae for writing in.. you have no idea how much this means to me!

Went club-hopping at night with Brian from AllDatJazz.Com. We checked out Greg's band at Mezzanotte, Jamie Wilson's Blues Band at No Black Tie, and went to see Farid Ali's Gambus Goes Straightahead at The Top Room. We only managed to catch the first two, by the time we got out of NBT, Farid's show had already finished!

Well, that's all folks.

Now, my bed beckons..