Tim Bower

On a rather chilly October afternoon we headed out to the Nut Point Center for our concert with Christchurch bass player Mike Kime. Well prepared and with the promise of a rehearsal before the gig the pressure was well off and it was just a chance to play our music for some new found friends and family. We would like to thank John Allan for his warm welcome and hospitality, which gave us the opportunity to extend creatively in a way we don't usually get the chance to. I am in no doubt that we will get a chance to play together again soon.

This year has been a very busy year, with one of the main highlights being the concert with Kanna Yabusaki and bass player Jeff Curry. We played at Blue Eyes in Ginza with a full house the whole night and really made some interesting music. For me, this year has been all about gaining more independence harmonically, since I find myself playing in small groups more and more often. Another really successful gig I had was with guitarist Yosuke Yokoyama. Harmonically, we found a lot of spaces that I really want to delve into more next year. It's always hard to strike a balance between playing tunes accurately while pushing the boundaries at the same time. 

With only a few months left in the year I'm looking forward to 'Ichifes' which is an annual festival held in Ichikawa City on the third Sunday in October every year. It is the third time for me to play in this festival and I have been asked to put together a jazz quartet  to play requests to the local crowd.  

Among other concerts to wrap up the year, will be the concert at Nut Point Center in Christchurch New Zealand with Kanna Yabusaki and Christchurch based bass player Mike Kime. In this concert we will play some of our newest compositions. I'm looking forward to trying out some of these works in a different environment. A very exciting time and Big expectations for the new year. 

The members of bordercross have been busy with their own respective projects and jobs which has limited the number of gigs we have been able to do. With any luck bordercross will be able to get together more frequently next year.
For me, the 'to do list' never shrinks and the new year period is looking exciting with a lot of jazz on the menu. This time next year, I will be travelling to New Zealand for a concert or two, with some interesting arrangements of jazz standards and a few new original compositions. Keep posted for this and more information in the new year.

For the past couple of years I have been spending a lot of time listening to jazz from the 90s and especially to the music of Michael Brecker. At the recent gig in Yotsuya we played a couple of tunes from the 'Tales from The Hudson' album. Our favourite tune from that album is Midnight Voyage. I transcribed the solo  Michael Brecker played and you can download the solo which is in the tenor sax key from this website, here.
Midnight Voyage the Michael Brecker solo