As most of my friends know, I lost Jean - the love of my life - just over three years ago, and my grieving for her has been long and hard to bear. I keep her memory alive on this website under the R.I.P, Jean button, and there's a whole story on there for anyone interested

I'd been a professional musician for many years, and kept on working at that for at least a year after Jean died, but then I decided to retire from professional music altogether for many and varied reasons - not the least of which was the huge decline in jazz interest over recent years, coupled with the loss of many jazz venues and the lousy pay from those that did stay open.

So, for many months I didn't play any music at all, not even at home for relaxation.

Then I realised that I was becoming something of a recluse - rarely going out and not seeing anyone - so in mid-2010 I decided to start playing again by becoming a 'one man band' as a busker.

I bought a busker's amplifier, which handles a microphone for singing and a USB port for my self made backing tracks on a memory stick.

I busk at local markets and I often get nice comments from people about how much they like my music, and they seem to like my singing too.

I've never really thought of myself as a singer, but I'm now apparently perceived as an old time crooner who also plays a little trumpet...

I've spent a huge amount of time in preparing my backing tracks and now have a good selection, which is aimed squarely at my fellow 'oldies' and includes songs like: Blue Moon, Dream A Little Dream Of Me, Blue Spanish Eyes, 'A' You're Adorable, Ain't She Sweet, Girl Of My Dreams, Ramona, Crazy, Ain't Misbehavin', I'm Gonna Sit Right Down, Spanish Flea, Roses Of Picardy, Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On etc

So I'm now getting out there and meeting people as well as making music, and I make a little bit of petrol money too. Not nearly enough to have paid for the amplifier and the backing tracks software, but at least I'm out there and enjoying life once more.

Here are some sample snippets of some of my songs. They're in Real Audio format and you'll need the free Real Player to hear them.

              Click the icon to get this excellent player.

                                   

              Be sure and choose 'Real Player - Basic Player'

Follow the instructions to install it and it'll run automatically when you click the little spinner on these playable samples.
    Hey There     Manha de Carnaval     Ramona     Cavatina

To see a YouTube video of me in action at a Sydney market click HERE

In the meantime, many thanks to friends around the world who have kept in touch by email and Skype, and who have supported me more than they'll ever know during my very troubled times.

I still enjoy photography (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) as well as converting my old LPs to CD and old videotapes to DVD, so I'll never be short of things to do now.