dear europe pages,
i am writing my travel letter from berlin after the fact. by now i have returned home and gone off again, this time to new jersey. it is indeed a small world.

i had some travel related attitude problems while in berlin which is one reason i didn't write from there. by contrast all of our hosts were extremely nice and very accomodating, not to mention appreciative and supportive at every turn. i believe that my adlon hotel room was about the
best hotel room i ever stayed in. i got to see a close friend who now lives in germany and i got to play on the radio with great musicians, which i always love to do even though my version of "that's alright, mama" was characterized by what at least one observer called a "sphicter moment". i must confess that i never really warmed up to berlin. i went out walking a few times and even took a bus tour one day but failed to get interested in what is probably one of the most interesting city in the world.

Wynton Marsalis and a member of his band with Andy Stein and Pat at the A-Trane jazz club in Berlin

on sunday night, however, the guys all star shoe band did an actual concert performance at a beautiful jazz club called the a-trane (see left). it is extremely rare that we play more than a few tunes at a time and it really felt good to air out the repertoire a little and hear what an evening of it really sounds like. we were joined by g.k. for a few tunes each set and we got to sing some harmony on railroad bill which even this jazz club audience seemed to love. then when wynton marsalis and his horn tootin' buddies materialized from out of the audience and took the stage playing a perfect horn section part in the middle of one of our tunes... well, that was quite a moment. it
was a fun night all around and i'll tell you somethin: the guys all star shoe band is one helluva band.

as always it was great to get home at least for a few days but now i'm on the road again chasing the music down so i'd better get to it.

signing auf
pat donohue