Estonia

Well, I did the four hour road trip from Riga to the Estonian capital Tallinn yesterday and am now installed in this lovely hotel in the old town section. Riga was a blast though I drank perhaps a little too much Riga Black Balsam, the jet-black, thick and viscous 80% proof spirit concoction that was developed by a Riga pharmacist in the 19th century and is only available in Riga. It tastes like a cough mixture and has medicinal herbs or something - at less then $2 a shot I didn't ask too many questions. We have some gigs around Estonia but not till Wednesday, so I have some time to meet and hang, especially with cellist Aare Tammesalu who runs this festival that we are playing in on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. As you will see if you click on it, this is a heavy duty classical music festival so our trio is the token jazz content I guess, but Aare has invited me to play my cello piece Ave Maria with him in his recital. We will rehearse it here in Tallinn and I will play it on organ as it is a Church recital with no piano but very appropriate for an Ave Maria. The other big news is that our trio is such a success that we have been invited at the last minute to the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, I will be there from July 16-21 right after my week in Moscow. This is the 3rd year running I have done this Festival so it will feel very much like home. This tour is rather remarkable for adding dates while on the road (see updated itinerary), I have also added a gig in Moscow at Le Club which is the premiere Moscow jazz club and I will be playing with Igor Butman a Russian sax player who has a major international career. In Pori they tell me I will also play with "a sax player from LA", don´t know anymore than that yet!