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Greetings from Amsterdam.... I'm here on a 3-week Eurpoean tour with Liza Minnelli. We did a show last night in Munich, Germany, will be at The Hague in the Netherlands tomorrow & then move onto Berlin, Paris, Brussels & 3 other cities in Germany before heading home in early March. The most fun, thus far, has been spending the last 2 days in the company of Al Porcino, who is kind of a living legend of big band trumpeters. I'd heard of him through the years & had seen his name on many records but always thought of him as, mainly, a studio trumpet player. Boy, was I wrong! He has a huge history of playing with tons of the major forces in jazz from the 1940s onward. What made it special was that, at 80 years young, he loves to hold court & entertain appreciative musicians with stories from his career. We literally spent hours listening to him recount many tales from all of his journeys. (My favorite being his performing with Charlie Parker & Strings at Carnegie Hall. The Bird with Strings album is definitely one of my favorites of all time so it was amazing to actually meet someone who was there & experienced it 1st hand!). He now lives in Munich & is still going strong leading a local big band. Check out his website at www.alporcino.com That's about all for now. Hope to have more to tell soon.

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