Some thoughts on the past few days in London and Milano

Just returned home from a great 6 day musical experience in London, at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Dean Brown, Gary Husband and Ric Fierabracci were my team and immovable support in performance both on and off stage. Ross Morgan kept us on track as our lone dedicated technician and my wife, Faina worked her magic from the administration side while my close friend, David Shah covered our "6" when needed. As usual, the Ronnie Scott's management team were nothing short of professional on all levels so, generally speaking everything, save for the weather in London was extremely positive and so a "blanket thank you' goes out from me to everybody involved. The musical performances, through out the week, were very special as could be heard from Ric, Dean and Gary. It was very special for me to experience the growth and development of all of the material presented over the six nigh span of performances. We were even able to add one more tune to the set (Gary's "Dreams In Blue") which was a big plus and started to work on a new piece by Ric ("Betty Boo V2") and Dean's "Solid" so, I am really pleased with all that we achieved over a period just shy of two weeks when I include the three days spent performing in Milano, Italy at the Blue Note, working with our other technician, Franz Erl there. So, we got a lot done, had a great time in the process. I can only see a great and positive future for our musical collaborations, down the road and smile at what I imagine to very, very positive and fruitful results. All of this could not happen with out all of you, the audience, who came through the bad weather in both cities and, in the case of London even braved a transport strike to sellout both shows as well........THANK YOU! Thank you Jeff Beck and Mark King, John Wetten, Carl Orr and Guy Barker for taking to time to take a listen our young musical aggregation as well. Oh what fun it was! Looking forward to the next one! BC

Hello Boomer, thank you for sharing these news!Happy that you and the band had good times both in Milan and London.Right now,i'm just waiting for the "tales from the skeleton coast cd" and  later this summer the "spectrum anniversary live cd" with maybe a part of these shows".I just can't wait...!!! Peace,Stef.

That is great news, Boomer. Of course,
you can the gang deserve it. How I wish
I was there. You guys are it!

Regards,


P

Hey everybody:
We have a show tonight on a festival that has featured some of my favorite artists and people whom I don't often share the stage with (Abdullah Ibrahim, Dianne Reeves and Pat Martino, to name just a few). So, the Spectrum 40 team continues to develop our musical face through these experiences. Hopefully, we will have a live cd out by the fall if I can keep us on schedule. The mixing process is set to begin this coming spring. More later.

Boomer

ok billy, you are my number one drummer!! the concert report was -number one- i love the ronnie scotts, i have been there twice. (what a shame, but i life in germany) the first concert was weather report (with miroslav vitous) and the second was the phil woods band. this was at the hippie time    
i wish i wood be there!! i love your music anywere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
love     Gee

As things worked out the band, (Dean, Gary, Ric and me) made a pretty good account of ourselves in light of the fact that this was a "one off" presentation with far more time spent physically getting to and from the venue by a factor of 10 than time spent in performance on stage, including sound check. This was a testament to us having a few shows under our belt that brought to the "table" a few different aspects of experience needed to make something positive happen in what could have been a relatively negative situation. So there is a lot to be said for working with colleagues who hold a level of mutual respect on and off the stage for each other. Proof of this comes when faced with working on a hollow stage in a hall that doubles as a bowling alley. Now, there was a challenge...........The stage was hollow but supported from below by sub woofers with sooooo much low end that the first note of sound check (first tune "Sphere of Influence") made Dean levitate involuntarily. This was because the plywood on stage was flexing as we played through the tunes. Of course adjustments were made so that Dean didn't bounce as high as the first time yet there was some consistency experienced when he went for notes that seemed to transcend the etherial. Throw in line of sight problems when trying to connect with the technicians for constant adjustments made for an interesting time for all. BUT! WE MADE IT.