A quiet day today. I've been asked to script a small feature for Jazz on 3 about jazz and race, so I'm currently doing that. Also doing the listings/posters for One Note Sunday... May will be around soon!

I'm currently listening to some of the first mixes of the trio recording.

Although I'm very good at listening to music, I am not necessarily good at listening to production—but there is such amazing clarity in the sound. Chris Trent is a marvel!

What's striking me is the mood that's created from each piece—for the recording we talked more than we have done in three years of gigs, and though this did in fact make me quite jittery at the time [I felt we were worrying about things outside of the music we create more than the music itself] the music itself is full of emotion and life; which [of course] is the point.

There's still more to come—I think the next month's going to be full of tough decisions..!

Had a really enlightening day yesterday—chatting to Orphy Robinson, Django Bates and Shabaka Hutchings about the music here and dynamics of race, for Jazz on 3. Not sure exactly when it's going out—there's so much to edit! But with luck it will spark some thoughts in the area and prompt reasonable discussions. I certainly learned a hell of a lot.

I've been quoted! Guitarist/label owner Anton Hunter has written a great piece on the boundaries in music and more... I of course couldn't keep my mouth shut and so there are comments from me too. But a good read!

If you get chance, I'm going to be on Radio 3 tonight—they're broadcasting the set I did with Robert Mitchell at London Jazz Festival! Tune in!

I'd totally forgotten to share this—a lovely review on FD2D.com for the trio's last gig at Embrace Arts.

Teensy bit of coding. There's now a new watch post by e-mail function as an alternative to RSS feeds; and small things. Prepping for my gig later today in Nottingham... hope to see you there if you can make it!

Quick questions about digital/physical format music releases and perception: it's mainly musician/journalist-related, but please feel free to chip in.

1. Is it important to release music on CD to get press [print] coverage?
2. Musicians: weighing all costs/profit in releasing a CD, do you think you'd make or lose money if you did a digital-only release?
3. Journalists/bloggers: do you avoid reviewing/previewing digital-only releases?
4. Musicians: do you think journalists avoid digital-only releases?

I haven't practised Shorinji Kempo for years, but it's always interesting how many of the principles feed back into my life. I "stopped" practising when I went to university—no dojo where I went—and chemistry [and music] took over.

Over time it's like the philosophy has been subsumed into my music practice: "live half for oneself and half for others". When I used to practise, I was able to channel my latent anger [I was a very angry person at the time] into the martial art.

But playing music does much more than that. Music gives me a path to express complex emotions clearly without being overcome by them. And listening to music explains life and beyond in clearer ways than talking ever did.

And that is why I make music.