NEWS - I had a satisfying trip to Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco in July, as always, staying with my son Joad and his wife Erin. I had a few job cancellations and that allowed me time to go to the Little Farm in the Berkeley hills where I happily leaned my forehead against a cow and slowly observed pigs, ducks and goats. And on an extra day off, my friends Ray Landsberg and Jeff Hamilton engaged in a game of Petanque, a sort of French bocce ball.

I played at The Sequoias, both solo and with Clint Baker's band, and my quartet with Clint, Jeff and Marc Caparone on cornet played at Bird and Beckett in San Francisco, which became the high point of my trip. During a break a young woman (with a mask) identified herself and said she came to the music because she lives in the neighborhood and was walking down the street when she saw my name out front. She was a former student from long ago and she remembered how much she enjoyed reading books in my class and also how her sister had one day been my focus in class because of a particularly active and appropriate yet surprising verb she used in an essay. Her sister was thrilled by the attention and was determined to keep writing and creating. Her verb was ":pancake" and I remember that day well.

My trio in Seattle had a wonderful time at the Royal Room later in the month.

I don't have many dates in August. The world is still not back to normal. I will be glad to play for the Olympia Jazz society on August 14 and August 26 and 27 my trio will join my old friend Rebbeca Kilgore, wonderful singer for a couple of concerts at Kenyon Hall.

In festival news, the Labor Day Sacramento jazz festival is now cancelled. However, I am happy to say I will be at the West Coast ragtime Festival in November. It looks like I will be at the Fresno Jazz Festival next February, but I don't have any news about that yet