I'd spent last Sunday running from one gig to the next: the first was at Rich Mix for the Edge08 Festival, organised by Orphy. Walt and I had gone down as the Derby contingent, although Walt wasn't feeling too well at all! We got there, and Orphy was just setting up his vibes and rushing about, getting things sorted. He'd put in a lot of work!
I thought it going to be a huge session with lots of us improvising together, but instead it was organised into smaller groups; I went on first with the drummer Steve Noble [with whom I did my first ever gig!], Claude Deppa on trumpet, Shabaka Hutchings on clarinet, a pianist called Leon Michener, a guitarist called Otto Fischer and a bassist whose name escapes me. And everyone was really good, but I think it took quite some time to gel. Although it may also be that my head isn't there anymore: I haven't done improvising for improvising's sake for quite a while. But there were some really lovely moments and the crowd were appreciative. I hope I'll seeing some of those guys again.
Not that I had much time to chat [which was annoying: there were heaps of people there. I hadn't seen Orphy for ages, Walt wasn't feeling well, Shabaka was about and Jon Samsworth from the Ensemble.] as I had to get to the Purcell Room for Arun's gig. A system-wide tube failure ensured that I properly warmed-up for the gig by walking from near Old Street to Embankment [45 minutes it took! Not bad going]. Got in and demolished the food backstage while Dr Das, Pat Illingworth and Rasko Rasic openly mocked me. It was all good.
No one else was really expecting me; Arun had brought me in as a surprise, but luckily he'd told the technical staff so there was a vibraphone waiting for me there, a small Premier. When it came to the gig I really went to town on it. Arun and the others were all on form and we played like demons to a sold-out and enthusiastic crowd, who then asked for more even though we'd run over time!
I started to head back to Rich Mix when I got a call from Walt saying it was all winding down there, so I stayed and caught Vijay Iyer's set. There was some lovely playing there, particularly from Vijay. We then hung out until some stupid time, laughing lots...
But here's the thing: I really wanted to go home. I wanted to go and do the gigs and had been looking forward to them: but when I got home on Monday I was so relieved. Everything's such a rush down there. I cannot believe I'd forgotten.