Bit 11 MAY 25, 2007

Greetings from Panama! Since my last post my parents and I had a nice visit to Costa Rica for about a week. I got to meet a guy, Gary, who was the drummer for the Turtles! Remember their hit…"Happy Together"? Of course, he said that happened 3 years after he had left the group. What timing! It was still pretty cool to meet him. It was also nice to see so many of our friends again. It was a nice visit.

When we returned, I did a short gig playing for a group of international coffee connoisseurs who were here to judge Panama’s finest specialty coffees in a cupping competition. It was a lot of fun and got to meet some interesting people from around the world, even from as far away as Japan!

About a week later, our neighbors had friends visiting them from California and the guy happened to be Jim Walker, the owner of Walker Labs. He manufactures battery-powered sound systems and amplifiers. Jim is a bassist and guitarist who is a versatile player and was nice enough to teach me some songs and showed me how to understand and use number charts. Now it finally makes some sense. Thanks, Jim! We had a few days of jamming together and it was great fun! His website is: www.walker_labs.com.

A few days after that, I was invited to play on the Jazz En Vivo radio program. Ironically, I only played one “jazz” arrangement. But I played a number of other styles…country, ragtime and flamenco. My how those jazz fans were surprised at how jazz has evolved once again! HA! It was a lot of fun. It was also the radio host’s birthday. (Happy Birthday, Antonio!)

A week afterward, I was invited to do an interview for a web cast on Window 2 Panama. You should be able to hear that interview for the rest of May at www.window2panama.com. Just keep in mind that the times listed are Eastern Standard Time.

I am expanding my repertoire again. At this time, I am concentrating on the oldies mostly from the 50’s and 60’s. And I am continuing to work on the song arrangements for the next CD. I’ll continue to keep you posted on progress in that area. Technically, I finished my arrangement of the Beethoven piece. I just need to practice it a bit more to get it to be fluid in its delivery!

Tomorrow, Saturday I’ll be performing in a benefit event. There’ll be a pot luck and $10 per person donation - $25 per family to benefit various charities for children in need in the area. It’ll run from 11am till 3pm at the Santa Lucia Country Club, in Volcancito, above the CEFATI / IPAT building in Alto Boquete. I’ll be playing about a 30 min. set. I’ll be followed by a number of other local and expat performers including a singing quartet, a jazz band and lots more! I hope those of you in the area can come out and enjoy the fun!

My parents and I are planning a visit around late October that will have us stateside for about 3 to 4 months! We’ll be all over the US, from California to Florida to Nashville to Nebraska to Michigan to Massachusetts and a few more in-between! I’ll be playing in quite a few locations, so keep an eye on my TOUR section as I’ll be posting the gigs as they come in. If any of you want to contact me for something while we are stateside drop me an e-mail and I’ll get back to you!

Well, I’ve got to get back to my guitars and practice for some private gigs coming up in June. I hope you all have a great day.

Buddy