Sydney Bach Ellington rehearsals

So we have now done the first two days of rehearsals with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and look to be on schedule for Thursdays opening night concert at the Opera House! Nigel treated everyone to a meal tonight including some friends of mine who have recently emigrated to Australia. The restaurant was called "Love Supreme" a Pizzeria with a Serbian/Macedonian band called Black Trane lead by a trumpet player by the name of Stole.

The musicians were awesome and very tight,the night ended with Nigel Jamming with them and then afterwards with about 5 other string players who had showed up with violins and Cellos in tow!My friends Amanda and Danilo who I missed when they moved back to London from Italy last year and have funnily enough managed to bump into abroad twice in Rome over the years,The first time was when I was with Cleveland Watkiss and the 2nd time with Tony Kofi and his Monk Liberation Front project,the ensemble that does the whole catalogue of the music of Thelonious Monk which takes up over 6 hours in concert.I also bumped into Amanda in Sydney,Australia when I was there in 1987 with Courtney Pine,anyway they have decided to come and see the last show in Sydney on Monday and hang out afterwards wherever the after party might end up!Tomorrow is the last day of practice before Thursday so we will all have to be up to speed and on the ball from now on!