Sorry that it has taken me so long to post something here that reflects my most recent experiences. I have been thinking about what to say for much of this time. The experience I had with my band was enlightening on many levels therefore automatically educational. On April 6th I left Panama City for Buenos Aires as I had a workshop to conduct on the following day at a small music school in there. It was my first stop in South america and would preceede my performance in that city by about one week. I found Argentina to be very vibrant and open with so much excitement in the air! The people seem to convey this feeling in the way they walk and communicate verbally. It is definitely a lively place to be. Upon arrival, I was taken to a television show for a quick interview and then I went to bed as i was very exhausted from the flight down from Panama City which takes about 7 hours I think. On the next day the workshop was was well attended and the interaction between myself and those in attendance had a good flow to it. I felt as if we all left with additional information learned in the time we spent together. This workshop dealt with the same questions in performance that are asked and examined every place in the world, I think. I believe that the questions exist because the answers vary depending upon 'where we are' and 'how the question asked is to be addressed' so, it's a cyclic confrontation with no 'one answer' as a solution to the problem. We play the drums but how do we play them? What is or should be our personal approach to performing through them? These are just two major questions that continually face us all, no matter how accomplished we are in performance. I am always rethinking my ideas as this is an involuntary process that I go through without thinking that I am doing it. My subconscious is continually in "think and re-think mode" thus when I come to the drum set to actually play I am never sure what's going to come out. So, I am forced to fall back on what musical elements in my immediate environment will inspire me enough to spark an idea from which my musical concept will evolve just for the current presentation. Coming to South America was just such a spark as we (JM Ecay, Fifi Chayeb, Christophe Cravero and Marco Lobo) found so much inspiration from the personal encounters we had with the people of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile that we look forward to returning to these countries as well as those other countries in South America that we were not able to visit this time around but who would invite us to come and share our ideas with them. 

When we were in Porto Alegré, which is not so far from Montevideo or Buenos Aires, I found much musical differences in the musical concepts in the local societies and was eager to absorb as much information as I could because I wanted to try and emulate these concepts through my personal interpretation. The musical ideas although similar are still very much unique to each region as I found when listening to the local music. The one constant in all of the countries were the people, they really show there appreciation for music and the arts and were our greatest supporters throughout the performances. They came out in very big numbers to hear our concerts and I am happy to say that were did not disappoint them musically. We also had very good luck with strong positive technical support throughout the tour: something I was quite surprised to experience. This made our presentations even more special. for this I thank all those who supported us on the technical side with the shows.

Regarding the Clinics: I worked in Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, and Porto Alegré in workshops. Without the help of the Odery company in Brazil, I don't believe that the projects would have been as successful as they were and for this I thank Odery for supporting the educational side of the tour. The company that I usually work with, Yamaha is not as strong as I would like to see in South America and could not provide the kind of instrument I required for the tour or the workshops. This is quite understandable if I consider the market for professional musical instruments as it appears for the moment. I do believe, however that there is a strong chance for Yamaha and other established brands to get into South America on a more solid economic footing as there is tremendous potential that will eventually make this region a force on the economic landscape. I look forward to that time as I don't believe that it is so far away and out of reach. South America is growing steadily and a place to invest one's time and resources.