My first trip to Italy

So people have been asking about my Sicily trip...

My friend Yuka Honda and new friend Petra Haden started working on a new project together and were asked to perform in Catania, Sicily. I have worked with Yuka a few times and really love all the music she writes, so I was super excited to be asked to perform with them at this gig. The band was an incredible line up of musicians; Yuka, Petra, Sean Lennon, Cameron Greider, Trevor Dunn, Kenny Wolleson, and Josh Roseman. We prepared six songs for the show and improvised the other six songs. Singing with Petra was like finding my soul mate in the singing world. We played off of each other in the most incredible ways. It was amazing to me how great the improvised songs were considering that we had never played together in this particular line up. Not only was the music a lot of fun, but Yuka is a great musical director. She has wonderful ideas and a great execution of those ideas. I felt very appreciated and at that same time, thankful for Yuka inviting me to take part in this experience.

It has been my dream to go to Italy for many years. I have just not had the chance to do it yet. Catania is an amazing part of the country. The people were really nice and food was like nothing I had ever tasted. I never like cannoli before, then I had one in Sicily and I have been dreaming about them ever since. Just looking out the window of my hotel room at all the beautiful, old architecture really put into perspective how young the United States is. I will be eternally grateful to Yuka for asking me to be a part of that incredible stage of musicians and for giving me my first Italian experience. I hope we all play together again in the near future.