My Pal

Thanks to Rick Moody for this essay on the wrong done to my former boss - musician/actor/artist  John Lurie - in the New Yorker article written by Tad Friend last summer. He does a great job of unveiling the shoddy journalism and vapid reporting that 'profiles' everything about John except what he is really about. I wrote a rather pissy blog after reading the NYer piece as it made me incredibly sad. But moody reveals the best in John and it reminded me of the many things i love so dearly about him. And as you can see John's paintings are really beautiful. In the past months I've spoken to a lot of former Lizards about playing a festival of his music. There are still more musicians i need to speak with so that everyone is included. I hope we can pull this off next spring in NYC.

And while I'm at it, my suite Kingdom of Champa - composed in 1995 while travelling in Vietnam with my first wife - will be performed in Milano in January of 2012! It's been 15 years since I've played the work. The compositions were inspired by my tenure and the musicians I got to work with in the Lizards. I'll write an in depth blog about that when it gets closer. So many trips ahead - Vancouver, Italy, Poland and then Zambia!