With Spring slowly giving way to summer, there was no shortage of music to play. These months brought me some of the nicest musical moments of my career so far. To begin with, I hosted and promoted a small concert series entitled ‘A Tribute To Django’, where I was joined on stage by…

Picking up shortly after the end of the last post, the beginning of 2023, I had the immense pleasure of traveling through europe to perform and teach. Some highlights included my travel to Groningen, Holland to perform in trio alongside..

The ‘Zarek & George’ Rips and Tears album release tour was both a great pleasure and triumph after a seemingly endless road of pandemic related setbacks.

The tour consisted of eight concerts through Switzerland and southern Germany…

Picking up where we left off, the middle of May, I have had the immense pleasure to play with many new groups in different parts of Switzerland. While the effect of the corona restrictions still lingered, it did not hold anyone…

Picking up at the start of January 2022.
With the Corona restrictions in force once again, this was a very quiet time with no concerts. While it was difficult to keep positive in these dark winter weeks, the calm gave me the chance to work on my slowly growing…

With more concerts, new instruments, Podcasts and workshops, 2021 still had much more to give. I was asked to contribute as a teacher for the week long jazz workshop in the beautiful mountains of Engelburg Switzerland for the ‘Gymnasium am Münsterplatz’. We had a great time playing in big band ensembles and exploring the mountain tops..

September brought a bitter sweet crescendo to the live concerts with the ‘Gampel Jazz’ festival where I performed solo. The festival atmosphere, fellow performing artists and location were great. I even made it into the local papers.

While it has been tough to continue with the arrival of COVID-19, it has not been impossible to make music. Here it is what I have managed to do since my last entry in March.

2020 started with a bang as I traveled to California, America to perform at my very first NAMM Show. For those of you that don’t know, NAMM is one of the biggest music trade shows in the world.

I was privileged enough to spend some days playing alongside Emil, making videos and even doing an interview for his online guitar school ‘ProGuitar’.

I played in duo formation with a wonderful musician of Basel, George Ricci, we serenaded the top deck with Gypsy Jazz Standards and cruised up and down the river Rhine.

Thanks to the wonderful team at the ‘Swiss foundation for Young Musicians’ I performed on top of Roche Tower in Basel - for those of you who don’t know about this tower, it’s the tallest building in Switzerland.

Alongside the shows, rehearsals and meetings I have started a new YouTube series on my channel called ‘Office Sessions’. It’s a collection of videos exploring different methods of guitar video making. Check it out here!

The last two months have been spent on the road in New Zealand for the first release tour of my new CD ‘Home’. What a set of rewarding and intensive months they were!

Aesthetically, feel, neck, set up, sound, responsiveness, versatility - this guitar has it all, so after a little help from the ‘Guitar-Repairs Urs Winkler’ team I became a very appreciative ambassador for Maestro Guitars!!

The whole festival was just plain awesome. During the opening ceremony they lifted (by crane!) a grand piano 100 metres into the air to place it where the concerts would take place!

Two big highlights would be performing at the 'Estavayer Le Lac Swing In The Wind Jazz Festival'. The atmosphere and location were just incredible, not to mention, the amazing Biréli Lagréne played there as well.

What a great tour! Albi and I were shown great hospitality everywhere we went and it was my first time playing in a lot of these places.

So, I am excited to announce the very first 'Zarek and Albi' tour through Europe that will be happening in May 2017.