Happy New Year!

I've been getting into learning figured notation, and incorporating that into how to write chord symbols; as a way of describing harmonies, it's really efficient, especially as a lot of the musicians I work with think in terms of intervals anyway... in a sense it highlights one of the low points of learning things yourself; I suspect I may have known about this if I'd actually studied music. But still, having fun with it!

I'm also having an enjoyable time reading Robin D. G. Kelley's Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, as well as Jackie Kay's Red Dust Road.

Having a long, hard stare at Lilypond + JEdit [which equals LilypondTool] to do customised notations. It's powerful, but my goodness the learning curve is steep!

Morning! Today's a day of organising house things... another Epiphany, another potential move across the city.

The nice thing about living in Derby is its thoroughly residential nature; it gives the opportunity to hear the sounds of people just living and doing from day to day. It's not exactly the "mean streets" here either, so listening to the city is never an unpleasant experience. You just hear people living. I am very lucky in that regard.

Working through charts! Lots of things to unlearn for Heralds...

The quartet is coming back tonight! We're playing at Sugar Shack, so it's me, George Grignon, John Morris and Paul Lawley. Then... Tuesday... Heralds!!

I've been profiled on the award-winning Jazz Reloaded blog!

Derby. I salute you. We had a great crowd of people out for the first Heralds gig... provoked loads of discussion in the band: I have heaps more writing to do! Feeling determined and energised by the process. Thanks for coming down if you did!

Off to Leeds for the next Heralds installment!

Newcastle was wonderful. AGAIN. Heralds really went somwhere else, and I have to find a way of sustaining it...

This is what running about with a heavy instrument does to you—my back has decided to rebel! But I am resting and doing light stretches, so with luck I'll be up to speed again soon.

A sad, sad day. The composer John Barry has died. He had the classic British sound of the Sixties and was a formative listen, having grown up with Bond movies. He's in everyone's psyche, in some way.