In December: Mon3rd: short visit to UM, it was good to see the faculty and feeling the schoolmoving forward through hard times.... Sun9th: Krefeld, Germany. Bass Day, unfortunately had to miss it!....a real shame.... some more playing with the C.Spendel Christmas Trio: Sat15 at Jazzkeller in Frankfurt, packed as usual and finally a receptive audience! and Mon17 at the ZO in Darmstadt. Sat22nd: Köln Arena with the Gospel Choir, it's always a pleasure with some 8.000 people that listen....... Christmas and new year's eve will be spent in Frankfurt. No crazy travelling and cues and airports, etc. etc.... In November: Thu8 and Sat10: C.Spendel Electric Trio in Topos (Leverkusen) and Jazzkeller (Frankfurt). 14th to 20th: more work for the Chocolate audio company in Milan, with my friend S.Coen. Fri30th: in Biberach for a concert and workshop with C.Spendel Electric Trio. The workshop was very nice, a crowd of 150 "youngsters" attended the 2 hour clinic and was very appreciative. The concert also was very good! In October: Trying to stay up to date with my website!... Big break!!!! my cd "Envisions" will be officially released by the label Jazzsick Records from Dusseldorf, they have a nice distribution and are very excited about my cd! The release date will be somewhere end of February 2008, along with a number of club concerts and festivals! the Fremble CD is out, released by Konnex, in Berlin! on the 29th I'll be in Munich, rehearsing for a new project with Marco Pacassoni on vibes , Michael wochezer on guitar and Arno Haselsteiner on Drums. It went so well that we are planning for next February a recording session for our cd. Another band, Yes! :-) Wed3: Open Air concert in Frankfurt with the C.Spendel Trio and special guests: DavePike on vibes and Michael Sagmeister on guitar. It's going to be funky! Done!, weather aside, it was a great performance, nice crowd and beautiful bass sound, so was I told! what else? In September: I will start working on a new assignement as Bass Director for the Musik-Akademie Giessen, writing its curriculum! It's a great honor and a nice work, school will begin in March 2008. Also on board as teachers are: Frieder Gottwald, Marius Goldhammer and Markus Setzer, not bad! Thu20 to Fri23: in Varese, recording our first ideas with Ivan Ciccarelli, for our duo project! exciting..I used all my toys: basses, efxs, Ableton Live looping things back and forth, an external keyboard, etc... Sat22: Meet Milano, the new italian trade show for music, There with Jacaranda and played with Ivan Ciccarelli at the Turkish stand. The jam was great! I saw a lot of friends and colleagues! a very short, 6 hours only, visit but valuable! In August: Oh well August in Rome!..could be beautiful but with 41° outside and no activities of any kind (for kids or adults..). a slow come back to organization and work, a lot of planning, meetings, mails and phone calls....not all of them went through! I managed though to meet with my teachers from UM,in Rome; and talked to vibist Marco Pacassoni about doing a project together...let's see. In July: 3-15 Umbria Jazz Clinics and festival, this year with Oscar Stagnaro! again a nice edition, the bass students were very nice and engaged! Did a workshop on electronica and it was very well received! maybe I should look more into that! And now ....VACATION!!!..... with my family on the beach! a new experience, haven't done one in 7 years more or less, just 1 book on composition and nothing else. It ended up being really cool, also without mobile and web connection, imagine that? In June: Sun3: Bass Professor Meeting in Köln, solo performance. Tue5 to Mon11: trip to Rome Wed13: C.Spendel-Stuttgart-Bix Thu14: C.Spendel-Offenburg-Pianohaus Labianca 18th to 25th: CD Production for Christoph Spendel! done in Frankfurt, at Drumtrax and Ffm2001 studios (that's right, my studio!). My electric Upright from Jacaranda has arrived! what a beautiful instrument, now give me some practice time and you'll soon hear it somehow, somewhere... Thu28: 1 day jam-recording with Ivan Ciccarelli (drums) for our next duo project, live electronica Bass & Drums only! In May: Christoph Spendel is "warming up": some dates are arriving for May and June! This is the electric band with Andreas Neubauer on drums. Thu3: A Trane-Berlin-CANCELLED Mon7: Zo-Offenbach Sat12 to Tue14: Trip to Rome, family and UM teaching! my TOUR has been planned: May 10th Topos, Leverkusen May 17th Das Bett, Frankfurt May 26th Cave 61, Heilbronn The line-up is: Me on bass and live electronics, Benno Sattler on Drums, Steffen Stütz on Kbds and Markus Lihocky on saxes. In April: Some heavvy traveling there! will be playing with Steve Lawson in the week-end,at the Sound Expo in Verona(I). Wed25: Gospel Choir at the Köln Opera.... Thu26th: Workshop at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in London, UK! And while I am there I'll do some recording work for Michael Wolff at StarTrack Studios. In March: Sun25: Workshop at Cream Music School with Steve Lawson! Sorry but it had to be cancelled! Wed28-Sat31: MusikMesse, Frankfurt. A lot of friends will show up, this year it's a big hang! This year's time was spent with Steve Lawson and Matt Garrison at the Epifani booth. Peter Murray from MarkBass, it was nice to see you! And my good friend Gary Willis showed up from Spain! we had a very nice dinner and talk (can we talk!). Also my old friend Jorgos Katsanos from Greece came up toFrankfurt, he is very active in Greece! who knows?.... Thu8-Sun11: Jazzahead Conference in Bremen. Very interesting, another dip into the business, makes you realize all the "logic" behind it! I've met a lot of nice people,very good musicians and received some positive feedback, let's see what comes. 17th-18th: finished the mix at the Performance studios with Fremble. We are all very happy and excited for the future. In February: I am writing some more music! finally... Fremble's 1st CD production!! At the Performance studios in Frankfurt, with Walter Brussow (Der Klang.de). 2 Days of heavvy recording, nice! Mon19: Zoo, Darmstadt with B.Sattler and Steffen Stütz, electronica liveset, lots of fun! Sort of a preview into May's tour...... In January: Wed10-Sat13: A trip to Rome for some UM business. Wed17-Sun21: Namm Show! A great experience, saw a lot of great musicians and met a lot of them! Fellow bassists Steve Lawson, Peter Murray, Chris Tarry, Yves Carbonne, Jerry Watts Jr., Hadrien Feraud, Dominique DiPiazza, Alain Caron, Jonas Hellborg, Markus Setzer, Doug Lunn, Leo Nobre, Bill Leigh, my compatriots Lorenzo Feliciati and Paolo Costa. Tried a lot of great equipment: Accugroove cabinets, Mark Bass amps, Jake Kot and Modulus Basses, Looperlative, etc. Saw a terrific show at LaVeeLee with Kevyn Lettau, Russel Ferrante, Jerry Watts and William Kenndey.... To be repeated! ==========2007=============================================================== In December: Thursday 7th, Ben's Jam at Das Bett, Ffm. It was me, Benno Sattleron drums, Simon Höness on Kbds and Jason on Trumpet. Lots of fun! Thursday 14th, Christmas Jazz Trio at Topos, Leverkusen. This year again on tour, with Andreas Neubauer on Drums. Friday 15th, C. J. Trio at Alte Metzgerei in Isenach Saturday 16th, C. J. Trio at the JazzKeller in Ffm Saturday 23rd, the Gospel Choir in the Köln Arena, for the annual Christmas Concert, again with huge band and strings! In November: it looks "quite" relaxed..... Friday 3rd, the Gospel Choir plays in Dellbruck for the Jazzmeile, Köln. Nice and crowded! 8-9-10 a London trip again...more on the family side but I squeezed a meeting with Stefan Redtenbacher, we are planning a future workshop at the ACM in the UK. 23rd-28th, in Rome for teaching at the Universitá della Musica Doing some production work for my friend Simone Coen from the distance....thanks to the internet and the post it's possible! In October: Mon 9th at the Università della Musica, Rome; it's the beginning of the school year and of a new phase at the school, a new system has been introduced and we have been working hard to organize everything accordingly. Fremble dates: Friday 13th(!?!) in Dresden, Neue Tonne Saturday14th Club der Polnischer Versager, Berlin Sunday 15th: Scherer8, Berlin Monday 16th: NIL im Museum, Hildesheim, Thursday 26th: Natalia Karmazin Trio, Kirche am Kampus, Ffm. It's coming together,a very nice band! Sunday 29th European Bass Day, Krefeld. Again with Jacaranda and Benno Sattler on drums, some electronica, some old songs and new ones. It was nice to get to see all dear friends and collegues like Steve Lawson, Lorenzo Feliciati, Stefan Redtenbacher, Charlie Moreno and meet new ones: Hadrien Feraud, Markus Setzer and Giorgio Santisi. The bass community has a lot of potential and should get stronger! I am looking forward to next year! In September: Saturday 10th: Natalia Karmazin in Ffm, with myself and Martin Standke on drums. Rebuilding the studio, again! getting ready for some production work in the winter, stay tuned..... A "jump" to Rome for a CD recording session with Maná, a world music band. Monday 9th Open Bass Faculty Day, Università della Musica, Rome-tbc A short week-end in London the 22nd, 23rd and 24th.... in August: 16th and 18th in Edinburgh, Scotland with Rob Hall. A week long teaching stint in Edinburg, Scotland, at the Jazz Course UK, from the 13 to 19th of August. A very nice experience with a good group of student that I tested with my crazy arranging ideas.... Missed my dear friend Matthew Garrison in Rome, hopefully next time..sorry Matt. Then back to Frankfurt, via Milan, visiting my friend producer Simone Coen, doing some studio work with him..... in July Back in Perugia for the Umbria Jazz Clinics, from the 4th to the 16th of July, it was a nice and inspiring session at the Clinics this year, many good bass players overall and Dave Clark came back as teacher. I have to practice now! Then some relaxing and family time..... in June: Saturday 24th: Workshop at the Cream Music School, in Frankfurt. Unfortunately it had to be canceled due to other urgent work.... Hopefully to be scheduled soon. Sunday 18th: Gospel Choir, outdoor Köln. We played together with US 5, a US boy band, at the Fifa WM Fan Fest! Huge stage, screaming teenies and filming on stage, smoke included: the whole package! Friday 16th: Lauterbach, Fremble. Our first at the drummer's hometown! great concert! Monday 6th: "appearance" at the Universitá della Musica, in Rome, I have been away a while.... in May: Friday 19th, Natalia Karmazin Trio, ArtPoint, Frankfurt. This ukrainian pianist is coming out and giving a shot to jazz! You'll hear more on her soon! Thursday 18th: Electronica Jam at the Café Voltaire, Ffm. I am always amazed how crazy and crowded this little place can be! Some young musicians are showing up and playing great! Friday 12th, Thomas Langer Trio, in Heidelberg. Me, Thomas and Daniel Messina on drums and special guest Peter Lehel. Nice band and very nice concert!. Fremble: Friday 5th: Fulda, Desafinado, 20.30 Saturday 6th: Erfurt, Jazzclub, 21.00 Tuesday 9th: Giessen, Justus-Liebig-Universität 17.00 A nice little tour, the band develops more and more as time goes, songs and arrangements are changing on stage! And we are getting a good response, now we "only" need the CD! In April: I was shortly in London last week for some meetings, I got to meet Stefan Redtenbacher and a few industry people. Also I had the great chance to record live with Marco Minneman in his new project, a collaboration with Michael Wolff. The Köln Gospel choir managed to sneak in a concert, on the 22nd, at the Opera in Cologne! A great place, with tons of history and a very nice room to play in! needless to say it was sold-out.... I am also preparing the first sketch of a book I have been working on for a long time: a collection from all the past years of teaching experience, of my own practice and many tips I was given from a lot of different musicians around the world. April 22nd, at the Köln Opera with the Gospel Choir. Very nice athmosphere and sold out too! -a CD in production with the Fremble Trio, rehearsals have started! A short trip to Rome and then back in Frankfurt for more work; my studio room, my band, Fremble and Spendel rehearsals, etc... Unofficial CD "Premiere": February 11th, Saturday, at the Alte Schmiede in Düsseldorf. With Benno Sattler on Drums, Stefano Sastro on Keyboards and Steffen Weber on Saxophones. The concert was great and a lot of fun, beautiful club, great audience...what else? Thanks to all the people that came and enjoyed the evening. -January 2006 has been full of things already: A lot of work! I finished the mastering of my CD and the graphics and organized the printing. It should knock at my door at the beginning of February! -Happy 2006 to all of you, to all my friends close and far. Here is the version 1.2 of my website, ready for this new year! ==========2006=============================================================== December tour with the Christmas Jazz Trio, in Germany, with Christoph Spendel and Kurt Bilker. It was a lot of fun! The playing gets better every time! The dates were: Fri 9th: Weiden - Jazz Zirkel Sat 10th and Sun 11th: Jazzkeller Frankfurt, we packed the house again! Thu 10th B.Homburg - Englische Kulturzentrum Fri 16th: Leverkusen - Topos-full house! Sun 18th: Düsseldorf - Kommödchen-full house! Mon 19th: Magdeburg - Jazz in der kammer-full house! Fri 23rd: Stuttgart - Intercity Jazz Lounge It was so good some have already booked us again for next year! December 8th Thomas Langer Trio, at the Jazzkeller in Frankfurt, with Berthold Möller on drums. It was fun and very nice to play again with Thomas. December the 4th St.Stephan Gospel Choir, Köln Arena. Very Nice, rhythm section and real string section, in front of 6.500 people!We have also backed the vocal group Basta, 4 very talented singers! The regular band with Christian Cluxen on Piano (arranger, ton-ingenieur by the Wdr, Deutschland radio, etc.), Antoin Fillon on drums (Harald Schmidt show), Heiner Wiberny on saxophone (Wdr big band) and a great string section from the Detmold and WDR Orchestra. It took place on November the 6th in Viersen, Germany. I performed a "special" set, leaning more on the electronica side, using my Jacaranda bass and the powerbook, running Live and Reason. The performance was scheduled for 12.45 in the roundroom, Benno Sattler played drums with me, wonderfully!. The public was blown away, I received very good feedback and lots of interest. Let's wait for the BassDay compilation to come out in 2006! I had the chance to use the new Ashdown amps and to my taste they sound really good, I felt very confortable on stage and that makes the difference. October 6th in Offenburg, with Christoph Spendel and Benno Sattler. The electric trio was up and running again. We will be working more in the winter... Finished mixing my CD in August with Michael Wolff, at StarTrack Studios in London! Had a great time, met a lot of great musicians and new friends! For instance Jules Maxwell and Frances, creating great music. The CD sounds great! I'm only a mastering away...... July 4-17th Umbria Jazz Clinics in Perugia, with Oscar Stagnaro. June 11th C.Spendel Electric Trio, Jazzkeller Frankfurt June 26th Fremble, Open Air, Giessen May 5th Thomas Langer Trio, Hanau Jazzkeller May 6 & 7th Fremble, Fulda and Ulm May 14th St.Stephan Choir, Tanzbrünnen Köln MusikMesse 2005: Performed at Kawai all week with the Christoph Spendel Electric Trio, with Claus Hessler on Drums. Some great playing and a lot of work! March 2005: Version 1.1 Finally online! still under construction though.