August 11..

A busy last week, and weekend it was. Rock climbing, meeting up with friends who are back for the hols, movies, more movies, bumming, reading up my stack of novels, catching up with more friends, going for gigs, late nights, more late nights and a whole lot of other events I can barely remember. Glad I got a few newbie's hooked to rock climbing!

One interesting event that just came my way was when I was asked to play for a Soul/Jazz/Funk band last Saturday, together with other professional musicians like Juwita's bassist and keyboardist, and drummer Steve Jordan. It was actually my first gig out without my band, Crimson Epiphany, and playing a music genre that's not even my own. It turned out, well, fine I guess.

It feels good to play with professionals, knowing they have your back and you feel safe when playing. A whole lot of ther stuff happened that night, with legendary jazz guitarist/singer Jordan Rivers walking into the cafe and later playing on my guitar for a song requested by the audience. I was just awestruck by the amount of talent, coupled with humility, that he has. He was also generous with his advice, giving me pointers on how to play the guitar with my heart, and not by over-thinking.

Well yea, I also found out a couple of months back when I was at a gig at The Attic, that Jordan Rivers' son, the drummer that night, Steve Jordan was my junior back in Primary School and he still remembered me all this years. And to make it more interesting, Ben Jin from church was his classmate in the same school where I was their Senior. Its funny how we are all connected, and maybe its time I believed the whole "Six Degrees of Separation" theory.

Ah well, a lot of other stuff happened, but I guess I do not have the patience to write about everything. Here are 2 pictures of me and the other of the legendary Jordan Rivers (my apologies for the bad quality of the pictures taken) taken from the gig by Aaron on his mobile phone.