Hey World!!!

What's up? It's been quite sometime since I last blogged. A lot has happened that I need to share!!!  I just returned from my 1st Jam Cruise. I must say, it was one of the best musical times of my life. Playing with people like Ivan Neville, George Porter Jr., Karl Denson, a whole boat full of killers!!! You really can't get any better than that! I think that my favorite part of Jam Cruise though (aside from being on the islands), was Louis Cato's bad ass blowing up the jam room EVERY NIGHT!!!! Im telling you first hand, from someone who has played with Louis as often as I have, That dude is about to take over the WORLD!!! I would like to thank Kraz, Deitch, and Annabel and everyone who was involved with getting me to be apart of JC this year because It was AWESOME!!! I really hope I'm on the next one...

So, Since the last time I talked to ya'll I have been able to do some really cool stuff. I've been able to play the Fillmore in SF which was a dream come true, Bear Creek Festival this year was OFF THE HOOK! I had some heavy complications on the way there, But in the true Royal Family fashion, I kept it way up and it was evident that when I got there, I came to PLAY. Chapter 2 is My favorite band to play with because I get to be a keyboardist and vocalist. That was one of the best sets I've ever played and hopefully if anyone reads this, if you have the set recorded, I'm itching to hear it...

I got a chance to play the Monterey Jazz Fest last year around my birthday and a very interesting story follows that... Check it out.  Soulive played on the 19th of Sept. and John Scofield played with us also. He is the MAN!!! He came up and raged with us sooooo hard and we had such a killin set! Anyway, that whole time in Monterey, CA was what I like to call "Cat-Fest". The definition of that is having all of the GREATEST legendary musicians/influences all in the same room, area, stage, etc. etc. So the next morning I'm sitting in the lobby checking out the scene. Sco comes up to me and we started talking about why I was really just hangin' out in the Lobby... To make a long story short, he is responsible for me meeting my most obvious musical influence, George Duke!!! I almost crapped myself in excitement! Neal busts my chops all the time about it, but it was a dream come true....

Also, I got to bring in 2010 with my boys in Brooklyn for New Years Eve!!! Lettuce/Soulive is the baddest team of people/musicians I've ever known... And we did it right this year! We made the New York Times which is a BIG ONE!!! I think that the way we started this year, there's gonna be a whole lot more to look forward to. Oh, and BTW, my solo album FINALLY comes out this year and I'm hoping it comes out within the next couple of months... I can't wait for you guys to hear it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it...

I'm sure there is something major I'm forgetting, but once Jam Cruise sends me back my brain I'll be able to remember... hahaha!!!

I hope to see you all in the near future and continue to Move On Up...

Nigel Hall