helsinki gets god's word

flow festival helsinki finland
the world premiere of king britt presents sister gertrude morgan
flew thurs on lufthansa to frankfurt and from there to helsinki, finland. completely burnt. no sleep (as usual)...upon arrival to hotel...some initial trouble with room availability but eventually sorts itself out...then on to soundcheck (a coke is keeping me propped up)...alls well...off to dinner...and a brief 2 hour nap...up and to the show...we go on after a great soulset from omar (it was good to finally meet him, as i was scheduled to play guitar with him last year...and the tour fell through...i found the reason why) our set was really well received, especially that no one has heard the record yet...they were a wonderful audience very open and listening...they freaked out esp. on 'god's word' and 'healed by the wounds'...and we were called back for an encore...a philly funk jam...the band was banging...chuck treece/drums, barry meehan/bass, mark boyce/keys,
king britt/turntables, efx, + yours truly on guitar. josh
on visuals - heavy + highly effective...
day two.
after a wonderful sleep, a nice walk about helsinki-incredible lunch, then off to m-bar beer garden for a rest (nearby an amazing exhibit of photographs on kiosks by yann arthus-bertrand-profiling our world in ariel photography-incredible! check him out at www.yannarthusbertrand.com) onward to a record convention at the venue...great stuff over here! ...thai for dinner + rest...fueled by chimays, later checked mark murphy with 5 corners...it was like a rock concert but jazz was being played...people were going crazy for this music. fantastic. mark lives in scranton, pa... a wonderful time in helsinki we loved it there. would love to go back someday. flight was jam packed from frankfurt to philly, pretty uncomfortable. 560mph @ 35000ft for 7.5 hours....ouch......
other news:
a great review in esquire magazine this month on the sister gertrude record...put us in there with some heavyweights (ie: herbie hancock, sheryl crow, etc...)...check out the ropeadope site for more info. www.ropeadope.com
you can also check out the story on the making of the record in this months (sept05) REMIX magazine...a nice article, the gear we used, and the famous security guard photos taken at the fleishman gallery in philly.
(((oo)))

gigs

weather's a bit of a heatwave again...hoping for a bit of relief this weekend...have played some really nice gigs the last few weeks...a tribute to miles electric period with trumpeter john swana...he's amazing...and a jewel in this city to be sure...he's mostly in the bop + hard bop jazz area, but really great with the evi and effects as well...check him on the philadelphia experiment (ropeadope) and his own releases on criss-cross jazz...it was interesting laying some on the corner and in a silent way at ortliebs jazzhaus, where usually the jazzmusic stops somewheres around 1966 or so....flew to toronto with ursula for a festival at the harbour front center...a beautiful outdoor pavillion on lake ontario...a wonderful show...we debuted 3 new tracks from her forthcoming album...last night in nyc with king britt at cielo for francois kevorkians' deep space...i played guitar synth and effects along to kings mixes...it was a great night...packed...people loved it...we should do more of these...it really worked and blended well....drove home to philly at 440am....exhausted...630am head to pillow. up at 9am to play choreographer sean feldman master class...still exhausted.