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The diary is starting to fill up a bit better with some more big band dates with Back To Basie, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra and Sticky Wicket's Band. I am also very pleased to be invited back to the Norwich Jazz Party on the May Bank Holiday weekend. Once again I will get to play with some of the American musicians that I admire so much, especially trombonist George Massau. After Norwich I'll be making a mad dash to Cumbria for some dates in the build up to the 2008 Keswick Jazz Festival with Acker Bilk and Back To Basie the following night. 2008 hasn't happened yet in terms of my diary, but already I have dates clashing - always happens when you want to be in 3 bands and do things in your own right! It's impossible to make a living with one band, you have to juggle the diary around without upsetting anybody - ho hum that's the way it is these days! The other good news is that I have released my 3rd CD with my jazz quartet. This was recorded live in 2003 but has only just been released. It is called In A Mellow Tone and features Craig Milverton on Piano, Andy Cleyndert on Bass and Nick Millward on Drums. The CD is only available from me on some of my gigs or direct from this web site. As a rule I cannot sell my CDs on gigs with other bands because it could potentially affect the sales of merchandise from those bands, although you can now buy my CD on Acker Bilk gigs. For this reason I have not invested in a commercially produced CD, it would take too long to sell 1,000 of them! I therefore produce these myself to a very high standard - once you put them in your CD player it doesn't matter does it! The CD is available from the CDs page. The Acker Bilk Band is still going strong and so is Acker I'm pleased to say! He wasn't very well at the start of December, but a good rest over Christmas and January soon put that right. We have some exciting gigs coming up in 2008, including trips to Austria, Germany, Denmark, Poland and Cyprus! Another nice gig as a guest musician in 2009 is a flight to Jamacia, a jazz cruise around the Caribbean on P&O's Artemis cruise ship and then sail home, celebrating my 50th birthday in the process. Not looking forward to being 50 but it will a nice way to spend the time! Trombonist Adrian Fry and myself are also in the formative stages of setting up a Trombone Octet (5 bones and a trio), to be called The Bone Supremacy . We're very excited about the prospect, so watch this space ... it will happen... Well that's my news for now. I'll let you know when anything else interesting comes up! Ian Bateman |