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05.03.2004 -
Hi everyone!
Thanks to all of you who showed your support for my show last night at
Joe's Pub. I was really happy to see some familiar faces (Wanda, Maeve,
Manami etc...). I know Sting won't see this but thank you Sting for
showing me what a great leader you are by supporting your musicians in
what they do outside of your world. Some of you may wonder what he's
like - now you can see he is a true gentleman. I am proud to be
working with him. It was also great to see and meet all my new friends
at Universal/Decca. Meredith, Jodie, Randy, Olga and of course Chris
Roberts. I also had the chance to meet some of the sales team who are
very much a part of this thing. I feel like I have joined a new family
and I like it. Chris Botti, you excelled yourself as ever. Your
rendition of Ave Maria was truly inspiring. I am proud to have you on
the record and really look forward to doing more. Shane Fontayne is
every bit the musician I imagined he would be. It's strange because he
and I are in the same industry, being guitar accompanists to artists.
Some might say we would be rivals, but nothing is further from the
truth because the mutual respect is there and our styles of playing
and sound differ in many ways. I love playing music with Shane and
hopefully he can join me for more shows in the future.
Jon Ossman is
one of the greatest bass players I have ever heard (don't worry Pino,
so are you). His contribution and dedication to this show was
remarkable. Rhani was as much fun and brilliant as ever. He has now
officially become my surrogate younger brother. I love the guy and his
music. Matt Lees and Dave Kuhn from Chris Botti's crew helped me out
with the sound and backline and were fantastic. I just want to point
out to all of you that everyone did this because they wanted to. I
will never forget all of you. I will admit I was nervous but I was
ready. Preparation worked in my favour. There were some mistakes but
the general vibe was good. The reason I felt good about the set was
because I was backed by musicians of world class calibre. Thanks again
to all of you.
Now back to the best job in the world: Being Sting's guitarist. I do
have to pinch myself daily. Sometimes I wonder what I may have done
right in a previous life to deserve this.
Bye for now,
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