Happy New Year everyone!! Welcome to 2011, going to be a good one.  I’m currently in New York at the APAP convention.  This is a convention filled with lots of business people in the arts and artists.  My band did a couple showcases yesterday and Phil Woods came by to play a song as well.  It’s very fascinating to meet all these new people in the music business. It really is a completely different world.

  I’m super excited because the new CD "Man with the Hat” featuring Phil Woods, Monty Alexander, Bill Goodwin and Evan Gregor arrived a couple weeks ago.  The CD looks fantastic!  I am so happy with all the pictures, the amazing liner notes by Dan Morgenstern and the music.  The CD is officially released Jan 25^th.  We kick off the tour on Jan 21^st for the first concert at Scullers Jazz Club!  Jan 25^th I am super excited to be at the Jazz Standard (one of my favorite clubs in NY) with my quintet.  Then we are off to Europe for a few weeks playing in Norway, Barcelona, Austria and Germany along with a few other places.

I know I haven’t blogged in a little bit, I apologize its been so busy.  This has been my break off school (we have a 4 week break) and then the whole thing starts up again in a week.  It was a great semester for me, filled with lots of touring and school when I was in town.  I’m really thankful to have had great teachers who were very flexible with my schedule and were happy to work with me off class hours.  

Over break I’ve been keeping myself very busy.  I have been working on a new project that is very different from anything I’ve been doing.  This new project is a” hymn” CD filled with my favorite hymns and great suggestions from friends and fans.  I got this idea last May when I played a convention for 2000 ministers in Nashville Tennessee.  I was invited to play by the coordinator of the whole convention who had seen me perform earlier that year.  That was my first time playing any type of spiritual music so it was a very new experience.  It was incredibly inspiring for me and after I had so many people come up to me (after the performance) and say, "you really should really record this as a CD!”  So that’s exactly what we’re doing.  This CD features the great George Russell Jr. on piano, Peter Clemente on guitar and myself.  A lot of the tracks are duo with George, one duo with peter and there are a couple tracks of just myself multi-tracked with both Saxes and voice.  

I am planning to do another CD filled with my favorite” inspirational songs” (bridge over troubled water, you’ve got a friend) whatever it may be (I’m still not sure) later this year.  I would absolutely love to get your favorite inspirational songs and recommendations to pick from.  Send me an email about it; let the ideas begin to flow!  

I have to boogie for now but I will be back real soon updating you on the latest.  Asher (my pup) says hi!!  He was 2 years old on Jan 7th!  

By the way, for any of you who want to make sure you get a copy of the new CD as fast as possible, Pre-order now!!  Go to my shop on the website and click the preorder button. There is even an option for me to sign it to you.  All right everyone, take care and talk to you soon.