Feb 04 2010

February 2010

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well. Here’s a quick update regarding what I have been up to in the past few months.

Corneille’s third French album was released on October 19. We were in Paris to promote it in that month. It had been exactly two years since I was last in Paris and it was so good to be back. I took the opportunity to visit some of my friends and to see some of the sights that I had missed so much. Oh yeah, we also did some promo. We did quite a few radio and TV shows and for some of them we were lucky to be able to play with the great Gérald Bonnegrace on percussions.  Some footage of the promo can be seen on YouTube.

In January we did a four-date tour of France (and Belgium) with Corneille. We played Brussels, Paris, Lille, and Cannes. It was a great experience and it was great to be able to perform Corneille’s French songs once again to his public. Lucky for me, most of my regular band members were with me on the tour with the exception of JB Carbou, who couldn’t do the tour because of a prior engagement on a TV show. As his replacement, we got the wonderful Alex Paquette, who did an amazing job on the bass. He impressed everyone in the band and the crew and I’m sure I’ll be playing with him more in the future. Next up should be a tour of some Festivals in France in the summer. I have put up a few photos of the tour on the site.

In December I played a concert with Nikki Yanofsky. She is a 16-year old jazz singer from Montreal and she can really sing ! Her material is part jazz/part acoustic pop. We played at the Salle Pierre Mercure in Montreal and I believe the show was filmed and will be broadcast on the PBS network in the States. Her album, New To Me, will be released soon internationally. I did a few studio sessions for the album and perhaps the tracks that I played on will make the final album.

Speaking of albums, I played the album launch of Marco Volcy in January. The album is called C’est Moi and I played some guitar on a few of the tracks. Marco is generating quite a buzz in Montreal and I think good things are ahead for him. I hope to work with him some more in the immediate future.

I have also begun playing with some amazing gospel musicians in town. They are such great players and the music is so much fun to play. Most of them are from Haitian descent and I learned quite a bit about playing their style of music.

A few more albums that I have played on are slowly coming out. I will try to put up some samples on the site when I get a moment.

Besides all of this, I try to stay home as much as possible to be with my twin girls. They are almost 3 years old, and hopefully they will be teaching me their guitar tricks soon !

Take care,

Andy

P.S. In my iPod: George Benson - Songs and Stories, Chuck Loeb - Between Two Worlds, Michael Bublé - Crazy Love, Legally Blynd - Leagally Blynd, Paul Jackson jar - Lay It Back, Keith Urban - Defying Gravity, Robben Ford - Soul on Ten, Fred Hammond - Love Unstoppable, George Benson and Earl Klugh - Collaboration, George Benson and Jack McDuff - New Boss Guitar, George Benson - It’s Uptown, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith - The Dynamic Duo