Reuben's Blog

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Europe Jul.06

Hey everyone....long time since i've sat down to write a
little......of course i promised myself i'd do it more.....and i
didn't!!!
Aaron Goldberg's tour feat. saxophonist Chris Potter was amazing a
couple weeks ago.
Chris has such a fabulous sound and great imagination on his
instrument.......definitely one of the masters of our time.
Always good playing with my old buddies A and Hutch! That's a given!
We were just in Italy for that tour!!! I must say....the Italians
know how to eat!!!!! Every night was a spectacular meal!!!

I've been out with Dianne and crew these past couple weeks doing our
yearly summer european tour.
For those of you that don't know......Europe has an abundance of
Music festivals going on in the month of Jul. every year.
I have no idea exactly how many.....but it seems i've been to atleast
60 different ones over the past 10 years!!!
Of course there are the big ones like North sea Jazz fest,Vienne Jazz
fest, Montreaux Jazz fest, Kongsberg jazz fest......
But it's the not so known ones in the small towns that i like the
most.......the whole town as well as whole neighboring towns come out
to enjoy the music in LARGE numbers.
As a matter of fact we went to a small country of 2 million called
Riga, Latvia. My first time there...... The people were so nice!!!
Europeans have such a great appreciation and respect for Jazz music.
(so do the Japanese)
I wish we had a little more of this in the states!!! :(

I'm in another fabulous city today....Copenhagen!!! Such a vibrant
place!!! Things close to early though!!! Ughhhh! :)

Okay Okay......my prediction of Dallas winning it all was off! I'm
really glad for Miami though!! Especially Alonzo Mourning and Gary
Payton.....they can retire with class now!!!!

While we're on sports........the world cup has been going on the
whole time i've been over here......i actually was in Italy and
France for each countries respectful big games to make it to the Finals.
Unbelievable how much these folks love soccer!!!!!!!
Tonight is the final match to decide the cup........Italy against
France.
My $$ on France!!!!! :)