Hi,

As promised in our last email, i want to take a little time to tell you about the inspirational story relating to this recording.

Some years ago i attended the Leeds College of Music where i met some great musicians and we went on to form a band doing gigs to help us through college. One of the musicians was a flautist by the name of Nigel Scott, who i immediately had a special musical connection with.  We decided that we would set up a studio together once we had left music College, as Nigel was also a great audio technician.

After Leaving music college and working on a cruise ship for a while, i was fortunate to have some considerable chart success which lead me on to working with a diverse array of artists. This in turn lead to us fulfilling the promise to set up a studio, and the first recordings of what is now the Virtual Jazz Band were born. As it transpired, Nigel went on to work at top studios and audio companies, being constantly head hunted. This in turn led to Nigel forming a company called Tyrell, which acquired the exclusive rights to sell authoring machines for a new format at the time DVD, which made Nigel a multi millionaire. We then got back together again to continue our musical journey but then tragedy struck!...

Nigel had a crash on his Ducati at 150 mph and was left paralysed from the neck down after severe brain damage. His condition deteriorated and the decision was made to switch off the life support machine...but somehow he starting fighting back and slowly started to show signs of improvement. We lost contact for about 10 years, and i assumed the worst...I then made the decision in 2012 to ressurrect some of those recordings with the intention of dedicating the new album to him. After completing the first track "Goodbye Stranger", i received an email from Nigel out of the blue, asking me if i had done anything with the recordings! needless to say, i was overwhelmed by what appeared to be a fantastic coincidence. Anyway, it turned out that Nigel was making great recovery, regaining his long term memory triggered by the memories of us creating music together. On top of that the care home where he is resident, is only 20 minutes from my home.

He is back playing the flute again and though he is wheelchair bound for now, we have picked up where we left off over 20 years ago and are in the process of completing the album which will be called The Jazz Club volume 2. Once again i share the first recording from that album with you, and look forward to sharing the finished album with you. This song will be available for download very soon and half of all revenues will be going to Oxfam. All i can say about the album so far is i am very proud, and take great inspiration from the fact that the love of music has brought Nigel back!!! You can hear some cuts from the album at our next gig in April at the Pheasantry Pizza Express jazz Club in London's Kings Road, Chelsea. details and ticket links will follow soon.