13 February 2007

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In the morning we travelled to Poland, 14 hours of trains. Once we arrived the band went straight to Alchemia to put our equipment in the basement of the club and store it until the following night for our gig. Of course, as we walked into the room, Cat Steven’s, “Moon Shadow,” was playing on the stereo.

Once again the gig at Alchemia (on the 21st) was a standout on the tour. For a variety of reasons all the pieces seem fall into place while I am there- the bands play well, the audience comes out to listen in full force, everyone connected to the club treats us with more than respect. There is a sense of caring and joy at Alchemia that is unbeatable. From Krakow we travelled to Zagreb, another long journey. We played there on the 23rd to a fine audience. It seems that people’s response to the new group was strong everywhere except Germany, not sure why this was so. The quartet really got a firm handle on the pieces as the tour progressed, midway through we were playing freely and getting to new ground every night. When I get back to Chicago I’ll write some more music for the group and work towards getting the material recorded.

Sadly, our last concert, in Poitiers, was cancelled due to the sudden death of the presenter and organizer for the performance. Fred caught a bad flu when we got to Zagreb so he flew back to Chicago early. Tim, Nate and I spent two days in Paris trying to resist spending too much money on good food, and watching bad movies at night in Nate’s friends place. Then Tim headed to Rome, I went back to Krakow to start a duo tour with Paal Nilssen-Love, and Nate stuck it out in Paris for a few more days before flying home.

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