A few bits and pieces to look forward to over the coming weeks! First of all, I’m on the hunt for a label for a new trio recording with Liam Noble and Mark Sanders. It’s sounding great (yes, I say so myself!) so if you’re a label and would like to vet a copy of the first mix, please get in touch!!

Also looking forward to some upcoming gigs…

Particularly excited to be playing with Mary Halvorson, Liam Noble and Ben Davies at the Vortex in May (see my live page for details). There’s another great band on that night (!) so I’m guessing it might be an idea to book tickets.

Also have some gigs with Loz Speyer’s lovely Inner Space Music. He writes fabulous tunes, and it’s always a pleasure to play with Chris Biscoe and Olie Brice.

A couple of gigs with wonderful altoist Julie Kjaer. We’ve an ongoing duo which is great fun. We also recorded recently and ended up with far too much stuff – so we’re listening through and trying to pick out the best bits which will hopefully be burned to cd in the not too distant future – watch this space!

A few nice things to look forward to in March… including playing at the Pizza Express with Andrea Vicari, a gig at Boat-ting with wonderful alto sax player Julie Kjaer (we have a duo, and hopefully a cd on the way) and special guest Steve Noble. And somewhere in the middle Liam Noble, Mark Sanders and I head to the studio. Watch this space

…and this week I’ve three lovely ones…

I’m very excited to be playing with a new-to-me line-up of fabulous trumpeter Ian Smith with the world class pairing of John Edwards and Steve Noble on bass and drums. This gig is at Boat-ting on Monday 16th.

On Wednesday I’m playing with the very wonderful Liam Noble and Mark Sanders. This is around our fourth outing, now, I think, and it’s such a privilege to play with these two. There are murmurings of a recording in the pipeline as well… This gig is part of a special celebratory anniversary gig at Flim-flam in Stokey. It’s looks set to be a great night – also on the bill is a solo set by Alan Tomlinson, and a duo by Alan Wilkinson and Paul Hession.

And next Sunday the 22nd I’m at The Vortex with trumpeter Loz Speyer’s Inner Space Music. We had a little tour lat autumn which was great fun, and I’m looking forward to doing more…

Details:

January 16th 2012, quartet with Ian Smith, John Edwards, Steve Noble @ Boat-ting, London 8:00pm £6/£4 http://www.boat-ting.co.uk/

January 18th 2012, trio with Liam Noble and Mark Sanders @ Flim-Flam, Ryan’s Bar, Stoke Newington Church Street, London £6/£4, 8:30 http://flimflam.org.uk/

January 22nd 2012, with Loz Speyer’s Inner Space Music @ The Vortex, Gillett Square, Dalston, London http://www.vortexjazz.co.uk, 8:30, £8

Apparently there’ll be a short excerpt from Skein’s set at Cheltenham earlier this year on Radio 3 on boxing day, 23:00.

Playing at the last Lumen jazz session of the year with Simon Picard, Alex Hawkins, Olie Brice

http://www.e17jazz.com/

Skein are making an appearance that the Friday Tonic slot at the QEH this Friday. With special guest Dave Wickens, alongside Alcyona Mick, Will Collier and Javier Carmona.

The other day, among a very illustrious list I noticed my name on the London Festival Fringe London Jazz Awards. Not quite sure how, who, or when, but it does look like the number of Facebook likes or tweets (incidentally I’ve just joined Twitter but am struggling to make sense of it!) count towards the judging. So, go on… like me!

…were pick of the week in the Guardian Guide a couple of weeks ago… someone’s only just handed me this cutting…always nice to be mentioned…