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Some things take time. I started playing the bass in 1972, when I was 14. It has taken me since then to make this record, my first under my own name. That I felt ready to do so now is thanks to the musicians who have made it possible through their enthusiasm and encouragement, and above all, their willingness to give of their time and talent. Will Fry is a little demon when it comes to hitting things, and he's only about 12! Actually, he's about 19, but it still makes you wonder when you meet someone who plays so well at such a tender age. I've known him for a couple of years, and his playing gets better all the time. Check out his conga solo on Springlike. I've been playing regularly with Ian Price for a couple of years since we met on a gig in a Turkish restaurant, and really enjoy his sound and his playing. I think he's an exceptional player, and a fine composer, too. We play one of his tunes on this album, the lovely ballad, Manhi. Thanks, Ian, I'm looking forward to hearing your album sometime soon. Rob Leake is a real find. We've played a lot together since we met about a year ago, and I asked him if I could record his tune, We Three, on this album, after playing it with him on a few gigs. At my request, he arranged the tune for three saxes, and plays a great soprano solo on it. Ian provides the tenor, and the baritone is played by Rob's wife, Amy. Congratulations are due to them both, as they recently celebrated the birth of Adam, who Rob tells me has bass player's hands, so I'd better watch out. About five years ago, a singer friend phoned me to tell me that I had to meet "an amazing guitarist" she had just met. She wasn't wrong. Phil Hudson is a truly wonderful player in any setting, and his soloing on this record is really exciting. Phil also wrote two great tunes for the record, Ten-league Boots and Lost. He and Frances had been at The Guildhall School of Music together in the early 1990s, but had never worked together until this project. I'm glad to have brought two such great musicians together. In addition to all his credits as a session player, Phil has two great CDs out under his own name: Between the Sea and the Sky and Somewhere Else. I met Enrico Pinna while I was living in Italy. It must have been around 1994. I was leading a rock/blues trio, and had tried a couple of guitarists. Enrico was working with a great singer, my friend, Barbara Raimondi, who very selflessly recommended him to me. I was knocked out when I heard him, and asked him to join the band. Since then, we've played jazz and blues together at every opportunity, both in the UK and on the continent. Enrico oversaw the original studio sessions for this album, and also provided (and played on) a new piece, the guitar, bass and drums trio One for Me. Thanks, Henry. I can't remember where I first met Frances Knight, but it was around 1980 when she was living in Hastings. We became friends immediately, and have worked together regularly since in various groups playing jazz and salsa. We recently recorded the album "Same Air" with the singer Jan Ponsford, and Frances has several great CDs on release under her own name. It was to Frances that I took the first drafts and sketches of my material for this album, and whose creative stamp and personality is a major part of this music. We collaborated harmonically throughout, and she wrote the bridge for D.S. al coda. Frances creates a magical sound, and is one of my favourite musicians to play with. I met Dave Storey in a room in a warehouse in London's Curzon Street in 1976. I had answered a Melody Maker ad for the gig with a "Classical Rock Band", and was there to be interviewed by Robert John Godfrey, Francis Lickerish and Steve Stewart of the progressive-rock band The Enid, which Dave had (re)joined a few weeks earlier. Robert asked me a number of questions on musical theory ("What do you understand by the term 'pedal point'?" was one) I was offered an audition, which I passed. Dave struck me immediately as the most normal member of the band, which was true, but not saying much. We spent many hours listening to McCoy Tyner albums in shared rooms on the road with The Enid, and agreed early on that there was little point in playing with anyone who didn't like jazz or Stevie Wonder. Since then, Dave and I have played together in a great variety of musical (and not so musical) settings, from rock to blues to country to jazz. He's one of my favourite drummers and my closest friend. The main reason I know anything at all about jazz harmony is thanks to Pete White. I had first started listening to jazz and blues about the same time I started playing. This was thanks to the prompting of my friend Simon Napier, who owned Flyright Records, an independent jazz and blues label in Bexhill, East Sussex, where I grew up. Simon told me about a jazz pianist who played regularly in nearby Hastings, and so it was that I followed a number of leads to the back room of The Palace Bars on Hastings seafront one Tuesday night in the early 1970s. At the piano was Pete. The bassist on the gig, Paul Bryant (see below) asked me if I could cover the gig for him for two weeks, as he was going on holiday. I said "Yes", of course, despite the fact that I had only owned a double bass for a few weeks, and the following week began a 33-year friendship with Pete, who became my first proper music teacher. Thanks for everything, Pete.
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