For the super curious, keen on even more history :
After the success of playing Edinburgh in 1999, I decided to take on the world. I did a tour of Germany which included Berlin and then found three strong Kerls who came to Italy with me and my piano. This decision was made in the early hours in a pub, but of course a lot of creative decisions are. We made it to Venice, where the piano went on a boat trip and back again on an even smaller boat. I was worried but got sidetracked by an Italian singing to me while we paddled along houses. Then he said: Play, play, and I thought I have done crazy things but not as crazy as that. All a bit of fun I suppose, not so much for the passers by who we got to unload the piano from the tiny vessel.
So what’s the story about stride music? This is my speciality, it means a whole band is contained in one tiny piano. You have your bass and your rhythm in the left hand, and your melody in the right hand. I work a little bit like a jukebox when playing on the street, it’s a pound a boogie …