On my last trip to Tokyo, I had a chance to play with the Jeff Curry band for a couple of shows.  The Band was Jeff Curry on bass, and Daisuke Kuroda on guitar, and myself on drums.  My friend, Zak Bond who sometimes plays with the group, arranged the whole thing.

To me, this is one of the beautiful things about music.  I had never met these guys in person before this trip.  We communicated on Facebook a bit, and Jeff sent me some of his tunes so I could give them a listen.  We arranged a rehearsal for the day of the gig-  and that rehearsal was literally the first time I ever saw them in person!  So we met up, went over some stuff, and went down to the venue to set up.

That night, we hit the stage in a small club, to a small audience, but it was such fun!  The group had a vibe from the get go!  It’s always one thing to rehearse with guys, because you’re just making sure that you know the material, and you’re not putting everything out there, but when you hit the stage, that’s when you really get to know what someone is made of musically.  So, it was a real treat to get to the stage, and see that these guys had a vibe, and a deep musical vocabulary from which to pull.

Unfortunately I didn’t record any of the first two gigs, but I set up my drumcam (although not a very good angle) for this, the 3rd gig we played together at a place called “What the Dickens”-  and Irish pub in downtown Tokyo.

So, here is “Hottentot”, a John Scofield tune as played by the Jeff Curry Band: