In July I traveled with my family to Europe to meet up with so many good friends in both Spain and Holland. In Madrid, Spain I met up with a great friend, Colombian percussionist Alonso Gonzalez who I know from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I got to attend a rehearsal of Jaime Vásquez's band and then to attend the the performance of Pepe Rivero's band at Cafe Populart. The club was electric with Latin jazz at it's best. Notable amongst the musicians was Manuel Machado who was a former member of Cuba's Irakere. His trumpet playing was exquisite and I don't know if I ever heard anyone swing a band with güiro better than this guy.

Before attending the North Sea Jazz festival I spent a few days in Amsterdam visiting with notable Dutch musicians and friends. Dear friend, Jeroen De Rijk was kind enough to pick us up at the airport and we shared a gourmet Italian meal with him and his girlfriend, Jullia. Our savior in Holland, percussionist Dwight Muskita provided transportation to all the social activities that were there for us to enjoy. We had lunch with Henk and Carla Van Steenwijk in Den Haag marina, Indonesian dinner at Norman and Renata's house. Their baby, Nelson is gorgeous. Along the way we stopped at Dwight's house to see his wife, Djuly and their new baby, Delano and their daughter, Lorraine. While there Matthew got some endorsement photos of Dwight. On Friday we headed out to Rotterdam and to the first of 3 days at the amazing North Sea Jazz Festival where there was as usual a lineup of world-class headliners that included:

Steely Dan
Snoop Dogg
Joe Zawinul
Al Green
Elvis Costello
Sly Stone
India.Arie
Gym Class Heros
The Roots
Paoli Mejias and Robby Ameen with Conrad Herwig's band
Larry Carlton and Robin Ford
Maceo Parker
Randy Brecker
Candy Dulfer

Special thanks to our friends at Hoshino in Holland and Ton Keverkamp and Jeroen Bakx for making possible the all-access passes that made it possible to record this historic event.

Click here to see pictures from the North Sea Jazz Festival, 2007

Click here to pictures from Holland, 2007

Click here to see pictures from my trip to Madrid, 2007