Helsinki, November 2011

The recording we did with Morgan Ågren and Bill Laswell has been released by Cuneiform Records, titled "BLIXT", street date October 11th

I composed a piece for the UMO big band titled "Donkey Hot", and it was premiered on October 27th.

My new band "Ecstasy" is playing its first gig at the Tampere Jazz Happening on NOvember 4th. It features Pauli Lyytinen on saxophones, Jori Huhtala on contrabass and Markku Ounaskari on drums. This band is hot!

Rune grammofon will be releasing a double lp in the beginning of december of the Scorch Trio with Mars Williams. The name of the band will have to be changed to Scorch Quartet, as Mars fit into the band beautifully, and two of our gigs from the tour in May are featured on this double LP.

At the end of November, Raul Mannola has put together the Helsinki Universal Guitar Festival. On the 25th, Enver Izmaylov will perform a solo guitar set, and Raul Mannolas Compania will play a set of flamenco with the dancer Aylin Bayaz. On the 26th, Ralph Towner, Antonio Rey and Raul Mannola will each be playing solo sets, and on the 27th I will premiere new solo material intended for my solo guitar cd, due to be out by next summer.

Keep on the lookout for my new website, which has been under construction and is almost ready to replace this one. The url address will remain the same.

There are many nice excerpts from gigs on youtube, just type in my name and look around. below is a sequence from my gig with William Parker and Hamid Drake at the Saalfelden festival last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qzuSPiE7qk