Nik Payton

Another flight, more time to write! On our way to Belo Horizonte now for the last, and biggest part of the festival. The planning in Belo is enormous - we have had a film festival over the past week, showing only films related to jazz, including Anatomy of a Murder and The Cotton Club, amongst [...]

Even so, Gunhild’s style of jazz is not common here so, to be honest, although I knew they would do a great job I didn’t know how great. … I would also like to say that it was a great feeling seeing the audience really enjoying the combination of artists that Leo and I had put together A brief word on Mingus.

Day 12 - Recife
I suppose it’s fitting that the last day off the tour should be the biggest balls up. We were all told to be ready for an 11 a.m. pick-up for the airport. Our flight was at 1.15 and we had a TV broadcast to do before the gig (actually they booked it [...]

Day 10 - Belo Horizonte (again)
I didn’t think there was enough traveling going on during this tour, so I decided to go home in between gigs! Actually, it was my wedding anniversary, so I popped home on the day off. It’s actually between Rio and Aracaju, so it kind of made sense. I needed an [...]

Saturday, Day 7 - Belo Horizonte

Another day off, so I invited the band over for lunch. Excellent day, we played some 2-on-1 basketball downstairs and hung out by the pool before sitting down for a long and relaxing lunch. All was going well until we went to the theatre to see the evenings shows. I’ve [...]

I was almost lulled into a false sense of tranquility with a few days in Sao Paulo. NOW the tour has started! The past few days have been, as was expected, somewhat chaotic. My promise of writing a post everyday after the gig was foolishly hopeful. Of course, when we’re really on the road, then [...]

Overall, great day. Played some tennis with Judy and Dave this morning. We had a rehearsal booked for late morning but couldn’t confirm because the guy that books the studio wasn’t there. Then it was moved to after lunch. Then it was canceled because it was too expensive. Then a deal was set up where [...]

The idea is simply to try and give you a brief insight into what it’s like being on the road - and the various obstacles that frequently pop up to make our life just that little bit easier. … In fact, the ONLY reason that we’re all here 2 days earlier than need be (the first show of the tour is Tuesday night) is for the TV show.

If, as quite often happens, the flights are delayed or the theatre has screwed up the sound check and we end up waiting around for hours on end or there is no food available ANYWHERE after the gig - well, then the posts might not be entirely suitable for younger readers!! … I can’t begin to describe the frustration of having to work SO hard just to get back to a reasonable level of proficiency, let alone anywhere close to level I was in June.