A Good Year So Far
Hello again, it been some months since the last entry and there has been a lot of music played between now and then.
In January I attended the Guitar Workshop in Altea Spain and had a wonderful week filled with music and great players. A highlight was getting to meet and play with the one and only Emil Ernebro. Before leaving Spain I played a great show along side Tanausu Luis, Heiko Bloomers and Maneli Jamal.
The poster for the concert in Spain.
After the concert in Altea I traveled back to Switzerland prepared for the coming concerts. Over February and March I played several small concerts in the northern Switzerland area in different duo formations with Jazz repertoire as well as a small house concert series as a soloist.
It was now April and I traveled to Frankfurt, Germany to perform at the Frankfurt Musikmesse. I was there with the wonderful team from Schertler and played on the Bear Beat stage. I had the great pleasure of playing music with many new musicians. A highlight was playing with Djamel Laroussi, a phenomenal player.
After the Musikmesse I headed back to Switzerland to play for the Swiss Music Foundation For Young Musicians to celebrate the opening of their new location.
The last concert of April was with the ‘Jetsam’ in southern Germany, this was a great gig as we played as a 9 piece band. There were two wonderful write ups in the local papers about the gig, feel free to see it here.
- https://www.badische-zeitung.de/.../familientreffen-mit-folkrock-und-co--
May saw the beginning of the ‘Zarek & Albi European tour’ which consisted of 20 concerts in Switzerland, Germany & the Netherlands over two months. These weeks were intensive and filled with music, travel and great people.
After the last ‘Zarek & Albi Concert’ on the 30th of June I had a small break of two days before flying to London to perform solo at a fundraiser Gala evening in London City. While I was feeling a little worn out it was a great time.
After London I traveled back to Basel, Switzerland for some much needed R&R. The next and final concert of June was in Mendrisio, which is in the south of Switzerland right next to the border of Italy. There I was part of the Analog Music Night, a music festival hosted by the great team at Schertler. The highlight of the festival was meeting and playing with Freedoms Trio & the Luigi Bonafede Sextet.
Now we come to the current month of August which offered a great gig on one of the cruise ships of Basel, the Rhystarn. 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.
All in all, a good start to the year, I am looking forward to the coming months of playing.
More to come,