Tuesday 23 August 2011

Greece is the Word!

I'm going back to Greece tomorrow!  Tinos is one of the Greek Islands and home to the Tinos Jazz Festival.  I'll be performing once again with the wonderful Dimitri Vassilakis Quartet as part of the festival's "Ladies of Jazz" programme.

Apart from the music, I'm especially looking forward to the sun as although we've had a few bits of sunshine recently, today it is pouring with rain in London and the Met Office have even issued flood warnings! This is what we laughingly call the British Summer...

My camera is coming with me as usual so I'll be posting pics here when I get back.

Sun, sea and swinging jazz - here I come!

UPDATE - September

Photos as promised...

On the ferry from Athens to Tinos Island
Tinos Beach Hotel

A walk along the beach before the gig

The venue

Yes - yet another sunset... but I just love sunsets and on the Greek Islands they are particularly spectacular!

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Moscow Mule Cool or Russia Revisited

I've been booked to go back to Russia!  Really looking forward to performing in Moscow.  Although I've been to Russia several times - including Siberia! - I've only been to Moscow as a connecting point and have never played there.

But that's about to change as I've got 2 dates (27 & 28th October) in the diary at a couple of great clubs.

Jazz Club "Soyuz Kompozitorov" (or The Union of Composers) is widely known among musical circles in Moscow and has live music every evening.  Luminaries such as Joshua Redman and Diane Shuur have both performed there.

The second club is called "Cool Train" and lives within the B2 Club.  B2 is the biggest club in Moscow and one of the largest clubs in Europe. The five floors of the club house a restaurant, a sushi-bar, a billiard room, a jazz club, a modern concert stage, a dance floor, a chill-out, a cinécafé and 7 bars. UK Jazz musicians Peter King and Dick Pearce have both played here.  It looks amazing!

It may be pretty cold in Moscow by that time of the year but I'm sure I'll be offered plenty of vodka or perhaps even Moscow Mule cocktails to keep me warm! :-)