August has been a surprisingly busy month and one of the highlights was being invited to play with my new quintet featuring Nat Steele, Colin Oxley, Josh Morrsion, Jeremy Brown and myself to play at the 11th annual Canary Wharf Jazz Festival. It’s great to play with the addition of Nat on vibes and also arrange some new songs for this line up in mind. We had a great gig and thanks for Peter Conway for inviting us to play. Hopefully I’ll upload some video footage in the coming weeks.

This month I also travelled to France to teach on the Loire Music summer school in the Loire Valley not far from Le Mans. I’ve been involved in the summer school since its inception in 2004 and always enjoying teaching and meeting new and returning students from all of the world. The course goes from strength to strength every year and this was one of the best yet! Thanks to Tristan Maillot and all the tutors and students that took part for another brilliant year.

Left to Right: Oli Hayhurst, Rob Barron, Barry Green, Nia Lyn, Tristan Maillot, Gareth Lockrane.