I've been a bad, bad blogger. Haven't posted in a few weeks. My only excuse is, I suppose, that I've been busy. It's da truth!

We made our annual trek to the Iowa City Jazz Festival this past weekend. Despite a rainstorm that resembled a small monsoon on Saturday, we had a great time. Several folks from our area went, too, including my folks and Kevin's. It was inspiring to see two entire days of musicians of that caliber. I'll admit I did't dig all of the groups, but even the ones I wasn't too fond of expressed excellent musicianship. My favs: Steffon Harris and Blackout, the Yellowjackets (even though Mintzer was absent this time), Patricia Barber, Jane Bunnett and the Spirits of Havana, and Tarrell Stafford.

I'm pumped up to play again, and I even got the ol' horn out of the case the other day and *gasp* practiced!! I've got a festival gig this weekend with the Swing Daddies (Sunday, 2:00 pm, downtown Normal) and I'm ready to play.