On the Road Again. Tuesday June 15th.

I'm going on the road for a week now with performances in 5 states which you can see here. I will try to keep a tour diary so you can be there with me… in spirit at least if not at the concerts.

There always seem to be a million things to take care of the night before a tour. This time I was trying to get 500 copies of "The Dream" in the mail to radio stations but I never received the mailing labels from the marketer, I didn't have envelopes and the CDs were 3 days late. So I arranged for the envelopes to go to the house of pianist Alan Blackman in Baltimore. That was our first stop so to speak since I was doing a two piano concert with him at Howard Community College. I was getting the CDs from the manufacturer the next morning so there I was at midnight trying to print out the mailing labels and return address labels. I hit print and the printer spit out empty pages. Oh my…. What now. I eventually got it to work but then the 1st letter of every line got cut off so I had no choice but to reprint.

I finally got to bed at I don't know what time. Then in the middle of the night my daughter started to cry so I jumped out of bed but I had forgotten to turn the night light on so it was completely dark. Our bedroom door is usually wide open but for some reason this time it was half closed. In the darkness and with my eyes half closed anyway I slammed into the edge of the door full speed ahead so it closed and then I hit it again. Ouch! It hurt.

Scott and I got the rental car at 11am and headed from Virginia Beach to Howard Community College in Columbia, MD. We had a smooth drive all the way and met Alan at the venue. Alan had a great reharm of Miles Davis' Solar, and also Mingus' Nostalgia in Times Square which I had never played before. We did some standards and my tunes and it was a nice show. I had never played in a two piano setting before and I am hooked. It was a lot of fun and totally different from playing with other instruments. I have to do more of this.

THE MENU
I have some serious dietary restrictions. For some time I can not eat any sugar in any form including fruit, vinegar and wine, also no grains, additives, dairy or yeast and nothing fermented. How do you deal with that on the road? Well, here is what I did today.
I packed sprouts and hummus in cooler and snacked on toasted sunflower seeds and fresh peppers during the drive. In Columbia we went to Safeway and I bought some fresh, washed lettuce mix, hazelnut oil, sugar snap peas and an avacado. I drank water.

I will post more photos on my page on Facebook.

MILES/KM DRIVEN
267 miles/ 429 km

DRIVING TIME: 4 hours plus 1 after concert.
STOPS: 1 at Starbucks.

PLAYLIST in car
Sunna Gunnlaugs – The Dream… the very first listen
Dave Douglas – Soul on Soul
Thelonious Monk – Unique
Keith Jarrett – My Song
Kurt Rosenwinkel – Deep Song
Bill Frisell – The Sweetest Punch