I'm still alive and still practising...

This is my first post in about two months. It has been a hectic time in many ways but I'm still practising and (I hope) improving.

Having gone through a number of Grade 1-4 pieces I started to realise that although my facility was improving I was learning by sheer repetition rather than actually reading the music. In order to try and rectiy this I have gone back to the early grade jazz pieces and am learning as many new pieces as possible in order to make myself read a lot more. It seems to be working so far. I'm also enjoying playing more familiar material and improving my fairly modest comping and improvisation skills.

Last night I went to see a fantastic gig. Steve Grossman/Damon Brown quintet with the phenomenal Sebastian De Krom on drums. I loved every minute and have had a huge grin on my face ever since. Swinging band and great soloing all round - thats how its REALLY done!

Also got the new Blue Note 7 CD in the post this morning. It also sounds great and I'm feeling very happy and excited about music at the moment :)

I will put my practice details in a different post.