OK - summer's here!  Time to hit the road and play some music.  Let's start in Jarnioux, France!  Waddaya Say?  Don't be afraid of airline ticket prices, just keep looking, contrary to what many people say there are still good deals out there.  I got a bargain flying right into Lyon from Boston where I'll be meeting up with my great Italian band Leo Boni and Blue Gadjo (who become The Sax Gordon Band for some of my European gigs).

    

     It'll be a pleasure to be back at the Rapperswil Blues & Jazz Festival in late June (check the SCHEDULE page for details). I was there a few years ago with my own band (w/ special guest Scott Aruda on trumpet!) and also with the always soulful and classy singer Toni Lynn Washington.  It was a beautiful couple of days, I can remember jamming with my friend Boney Fields (the great trumpeter and singer) and his incredibly funky band, getting a private tour through a little circus museum (Rapperswil is the home of Switzerland's most famous circus family - and I'm a big circus fan!), and having a great time walking around this beautiful little city.  Here's some photos from two years ago - I promise not to wear the same outfits again...at least not in Rapperswil!

     In early July I'll be once again joining Doug Jay & the BlueJays for a couple of gigs in Germany and Belgium.  As much fun is it can be to visit new places it can be a blast going back to the places where you've had fun before.  I've had a LOT of fun in Gaildorf, Germany so I'm looking forward to that!  Doug Jay's new CD "Under the Radar" is still hot off the presses.  We did some CD release shows back in March with the full little-big band (it seems to be all over www.youtube.com if ya wanna see...)  "Under the Radar" is a cool disc with many of Doug's typically great tunes mixed with classics like "Losing Hand".  The band is one of the best and I'm very happy with the horn work I got to do on there.  Check it out.

     Also in March was the memorial show for trumpet great Bob Enos.  Bob passed away while on the road with Roomful of Blues, the band he played with for 25 years.  I was in there for about one of those years but I have countless memories of good times with "Bubba" on and off stage. With the Roomful Horns and Canadian Blues-Rock star Colin James we opened shows for the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour, and on Colin's own gigs the rest of Roomful came along to open the shows and what a band it was - still 5 horns with original saxists Doug "Mr. Low" James and Rich Latille, original drummer John Rossi, trombonist/producer Carl Querfurth, Matt McCabe on piano and the great Sugar Ray Norcia singin' out front.  Bob was there when the Roomful Horns backed me up on "Have Horn Will Travel" for my first CD.

     The memorial show in Cranston, RI at Rhodes-On-The-Pawtuxet featured past and present Roomfullers along with other notable groups like John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. I finally got to meet and hear their great horn man, the classic rock & roll saxist Michael "Tunes" Antunes (remember him in that 1980's movie "Eddie and the Cruisers"?)

     After those gigs in March I stuck around Boston for a bit and played with a lot of fun local bands like Diane Blue & the Fatback Band, the Boston Soul Revue, and north shore favorites Mojo Slim.