Hello fellow guitarists...

While playing my regular Saturday gig at the Sala Thai restaurant (1301 U Street NW Washington, D.C., 7-10 pm), I noticed that Ron Holloway and Derek Trucks came in to eat and listen. Ron has toured the world with Dizzy Gillespie and Derek has played with the Allman Brothers.

We talked during break on a variety of musical topics. Ron told me that Bob Cranshaw the bassist on "Solid" with Joe Henderson, MCcoy Tyner, and Grant Green, stays young looking because he says he is part "Indian". I laughed and remarked it must be the creams he is using. I hipped Derek to the ear training at musictheory.net.

They invited me to come hear them at the 9:30 club in D.C. as a guest. The club had around 650-700 people in it. I had not heard Derek's band before. They play "world music" at the highest level. I heard Indian, African, Jazz, Santana, and the Blues rolled up into one. Derek Trucks is a gifted recreator of great guitar sounds. I wish him the best!

It's ironic that a gifted cat like Ron isn't playing the music that his mentors such as Hank Mobley and Dizzy played to live on most of the time. I wish him the very best. It seems that jazz is in real danger when you'll see jazz clones before you will hear real cats who are still living (like Kenny Burrell) on the Oprah show. Jazz lovers, why don't you e-mail Oprah about it!