2005 has been a great year , though Freedance is still the main vehicle for my music, I have joined three more groups this year which have been exciting. Firstly, Bruce Arnold¹s group Spooky Actions which interprets 20th century composers, including Webern, Schonberg and Messiaen. The group includes founding members John Gunther on reeds, Bruce Arnold on guitar and long time friend Tony Moreno on percussion. The group went to Moscow in May for a festival at the Dom Cultural Center where we performed a series of Webern canons along with two movements of a Schonberg piano piece. Though the pieces take on new light being re orchestrated, they also have the element of improvisation as there are improvisations between each given movement. The performance was filmed and there is a DVD available.

Shortly after the group returned to New York, we recorded Messiaen¹s Quartet for the End of Time where the group was joined by pianist Aaron Jackson. This CD is also available from www.spookyactions.com

In January 2006, we will record all 5 movements of the Schonberg which includes his first 12 tone composition which is the fifth movement.

Second was a collaboration with a group from Syria, Hewar, which means dialogue. The group originally had a cellist who couldn¹t make the tour they were doing. Musically, it was charged with alot of new energy and very fine musicians. All of whom live in the states now except for Essam Rafea who lives in Damascus and heads the Arabic National Orchestra there. Clarinetist, Kinan Azmeh, percussionist Omar Al-Musfi and vocalist Dima Orsho are all inspired musicians. The highlight of the tour is a concert we played at the Kennedy Center which can be heard at www.kennedycenter.org The group is planning a tour in Syria for 2006.

More info at: www.kinanazmeh.com

Thirdly, I had the great pleasure of working with Indian singer Kiran Ahluwalia, who just last year won the Canadian Juno Award for best World Music Artist. We performed a CD release show at Joe¹s pub in New York which was sold out. Her husband, Rez Abbasi also performs in her ensemble. It¹s a true pleasure to work with Rez in another musical context.

More info: www.kiranahluwalia.com

Freedance has had another good year, now in our 13th!!!! We have been incorporating more teaching into our tours, which enriches the road experience quite a bit. At a festival in Mexico in April, we did a improvisation class for the local musicians and really had a great time. That class was possible with the support of the American Embassy. The concert took place in a 1000 seat theater and the performance was sold out. We had the honor of being the only American Jazz group presented at the festival.

Later in April, the band went to Denver to participate in the Auraria Festival which takes place on the Metro State campus. There too, we performed a master class and looked a couple of our compositions with the students and explained how we deal with form, rhythm and improvisation.

In May, there was another successful tour with accordionist Will Holshouser¹s trio in Italy. The trio has a new LIVE CD that will be coming out on the Portuguese label Clean Feed. It was recorded at a festival in
Faro the previous December.

For more info please visit: www.willholshouser.com

Freedance had a beautiful week in Portugal in September where we taught at the annual workshop in Tavira which is in the Algarve region in the southern part of the country. We were joined by two great artists, Russ Johnson on trumpet and trombonist Alan Ferber. It looks like the six of us will return for the 2006 edition!

Freedance just returned form a great tour out in Colorado and New Mexico. We got to perform in the new arts building at Santa Fe College which is a really nice state of the arts facility with a professional studio for their recording dept. The eight concerts we did in Colorado where a real treat and the one at the Jazz club in Denver, Dazzle¹s was a great night.

We will be releasing a live CD that was recorded at the Radio France Festival in Montpellier in July 2004.