It’s 10:50 and I am here listening to “More Than You Know” played by Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins.

A few days ago I started thinking about it again, the pursuit of the essence.

Every time I record myself I can say that I find some good things here and there, some good melodies or developments.

HEART: The ability to move and make me feel deep emotions.

MIND: What is played comes from a well thought concept.

HANDS: I see/feel an intimate relationship between the player and his instrument.

After a long period filled with a lot of work, yesterday I did one of those things that I love the most and used to do all the time back when I just moved to New York. I played two sessions with some of the best musicians I could ask for, and then I went to hear the genius Bill Stewart at the Village Vanguard.

In particular this last Wednesday I played two great gigs one after the other, first with Ben Solomon and Adam Arruda at this place called " Brooklyn Moon " and then with the Benny Benack quintet at Smalls Jazz Club.

I had a lot of fun on Sunday night playing my original music with some of the best musicians I could ask for, Daniele Germani on alto sax, Jon Elbaz on piano and Eviatar Slivnik on drums.

The Ornithology Jazz Club was full and I was happy that the crowd got into the mood we created through our music.

Through the years, flying became for me a place of reflection. Sometimes even too much.

On January 9th, while on the plane back to New York City, I started thinking about doing a double tenor saxophone project and writing some music specifically for that occasion.

After teaching the whole afternoon to four great, but very energetic young students, I had the pleasure to play a really amazing concert with Andrea Domenici and Joe Peri at Mezzrow Jazz Club.

The passing of Maestro Barry Harris made me reflect on the many times I wanted to do something that could have been crucial for my development in music- yet I avoided doing so due to lack of money or absence of work.

One of the most revealing moments for me was when Carl Allen, who at the time was the Artistic Director of Jazz Studies at Julliard, played Amazing Grace, a very special live recording of Aretha Franklin.

Enclosed in these three concepts are the nuances of the music we play; everyone is born with a different beat, a different quarter note and a different feel.

Most importantly, each of us have individual ideas on how these three concepts influence the music through the instrument we play.

Lately I’ve been feeling really tired and overwhelmed in my musical research, it usually happens after such an intense routine of playing, teaching, practicing etc…I’m now familiar with this phenomenon and it doesn't scare me anymore, I know that is a moment of recovery in which I assimilate all the experiences accumulated.

There are three ways to conceive a bass line, and they should all come together when playing.

Writing on a regular basis gives you the possibility to explore different ways of develop a little 1-2 bar motif into a completed song, through using different compositional techniques.

As bass players, we have suffered at some point of not being on the foreground of the action, not feeling as important enough just because we aren't under the spotlight as much as other instrumentalist.

I’ve been going back to practicing with records, something that I did for a long time now and for periods of time I actually did everyday.

Ben is one of the best saxophonists of today’s scene, really something special. He’s continuously developing an idea into another bringing the music to a whole different level, creating a true artistic statement.

As soon as these guys walked on the stage I felt captured instantly by the empowering energy that these gentlemen were emanating. Joe Farnsworth made me feel a sense of joy, admiration and respect towards Ron Carter from the very beginning and so did Mike Le Donne

Two days ago I had this really fun gig at the Ornithology Jazz Club in Brooklyn with Steve Nelson on guitar subbing for Panas Athanatos and Andrea Niccolai on drums.

It’s just an exercise,

just a chromatic scale goin’ up two octaves.

It took me some time I have to say, gotta play in tune, every note should have the same volume, quality, length.