Since I last wrote to you I have been on a whirlwind tour across the United States and South America.

This past Fall I did numerous concerts and gigs around Newport, Rhode Island, one of my favorite places in America. There I performed for the Alumni Association at Brown University in Providence, the Atlantic Beach Club in Newport and various other venues around this beautiful town.

In nearby Warwick I taught master classes at the Community College of Rhode Island. These master classes are always such a joy for me, and it is a pleasure to share my experiences and musical knowledge with such enthusiastic students.

Back in July,1959, when I joined the George Shearing Quintet, one of the first gigs I played was the Newport Jazz Festival. It surfaced recently as an article in The New York Times (with a photo of the band) by jazz critic Ben Ratliff who said "there are chillingly good performances in the 1959 crop." You can actually listen to this concert online by going to Wolfgang's Vault.

Sadly, George Shearing passed away very recently. I was given the great honor of being invited to sit in the private section of the St. Thomas Church here in NYC with his widow Ellie (Lady Shearing) and close personal friends. The memorial service featured his organ prelude and favorite hymns sung by the splendid and renown St. Thomas Church Boy's Choir.

Throughout my performances, I pay tribute to the high musicality of the George Shearing Quintet, which I feel so proud to have been a member of. I also include compositions by his noted instrumentalists: Chuck Wayne, Marjorie Hyams and Denzil Best.

After my Newport tour I flew to Lima, Peru as one of the four Mallet Masters to be invited to teach and perform at the First International Vibraphone and Marimba Festival, under the able supervision of the wonderful vibraphonist and percussionist Alonsa Acosta Flores. The event took place at the Lima Conservatory of Music, which is considered the Julliard of Peru.

I was really taken by the attention given to rhythmic structure, classical techniques and sheer virtuosity of the marimba instrumentalists, one from Argentina, one from Lima and one from America. They all performed on a gorgeous five-octave instrument.

My concert program was a performance of classic Latin jazz as exemplified by the writing of Clare Fisher and Antonio Carlos Jobim. I used a sextet featuring reeds, guitar, bass and drums, and Latin percussion.

The Peruvian people have a soft spoken kindness and gentility about them which I found soothing, and their food is terrific -- especially when accompanied by a Pisco Sour (the signature and recreational drink of choice in Peru).

After Lima, it was Naples, Florida to be the special guest artist with the Jazz Orchestra of the Naples Philharmonic Center of the Arts. Both shows were sold out a month in front and I commend the leadership and attentive staff of this well run organization for having everything go so smoothly. Luciano Morello has done a superb job of organizing this jazz series, and Lew Del Gato provided topnotch musical arrangements.

Tucson, Arizona was my next stop and we had a packed house at the Old Pueblo Grill (which, by the way, has excellent Fish Tacos and Mojitos).

Then onward to Los Angeles where I played at the Culver Club For Jazz in the Radisson West Hotel. I was glad to see so many of my fans who came out despite the rainy, windy weather, which is rare for these parts.

My Quartet reunited me with my pal and former band mate with George Shearing, Ron Anthony. Ron was Frank Sinatra's guitarist for 10 years and is very much in demand in L.A. for gigs that require that special sensitivity and finesse.

Coming up, if you're in NYC, I hope you can come by and say hello at the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill where I'll be playing at the end of August. I'll have the brilliant Andy Laverne on piano as well as the terrific Paul Gill on bass.

I have great plans with new music for the future and I hope you will share these moments with me. Here are highlights of where I'm playing: