My 5 favorite gigs of all time

Tony discusses the five gigs that he’ll remember for the rest of his life

Well, so far in my career, I’ve been really blessed to have traveled all over the world and been around so many different cultures and played some amazing festivals with unbelievable musicians that I could have only dreamt of playing with. But some of them that jump out to my mind is the time I played at the Hollywood Bowl with Karsh Khale, the tabla player. Amazing musician from India, and he plays electronica and tabla music. He was part of the tabla beat science while it was his project.

And I was all such a huge fan, and I remember just reaching out to him and sending him my music and saying, “Hey, I hope there’s an opportunity one day to play.” And just over time, you know, we became friends, and would work on different ideas together, and he invited me to come and jam with him. And before I know it, I was in his band, and we were playing and traveling around all over the place, playing amazing, venues. And, yeah, the opportunity came up to play at the Hollywood Bowl.

So I would be playing there and I’d look out and Flea was in the audience. And, you know, I just remember that moment as just being a really good feeling. You know? I felt like my dream had come true, which it had at that time. Another amazing gig experience for me well, all the gigs really.

I spent seven years on the road with the amazing pianist from Japan, Hiromi. So every day was like the best gig of my life, really. You know, we went all over the planet and so many situations from small starting in small rooms to huge venues and incredible experiences. But one popped out in my mind was we played at the Blue Note one night in New York. We were there for a week.

And I looked out in the audience, and Paul McCartney was sitting there. He’s my idol, bass player from England, legend, amazing bass player. And I got to meet him, he hung out and got chatting with him about Newcastle and, obviously, from Liverpool where he is. And he was just really kind.

He actually waited for me to grab my CD for him. He probably tossed it out, but for him to just wait, with the mob of people that follow him everywhere. So I was just really touched in that moment and that he just spent some time and said he enjoyed the concert and he stuck around. That was a very beautiful moment for me.

So another amazing gig experience for me was one time when I played at the Tokyo Jazz Festival with Hiromi. I remember we were on a tour, like an Asian tour, and we were playing around Japan, and we were also playing in China. And we were traveling with Herbie Hancock, his amazing band with Wayne Shorter, Brian Blade, Dave Holland, Lionel Duque joined for some of it. And I just remember watching them every night and thinking, wow. It’s like my most favorite musicians right there playing.

And anyway, I remember seeing Dave Holland at the airport and I was introduced myself and said I was a huge fan. And he said he’d be watching this, perform on TV. You know, he watched, like, some show that we did with Hiromi and he was said he really, really loved it, and he’d never heard it before. And he was really excited to see our show. So, anyway, after the show, one of the staff or one of their management team came over and asked me if I would be interested in performing with them for a kind of an all star jam, the next night in the festival.

So for me, that was a massive honor and a and a big scary moment. We had Herbie on piano, Wayne Shorter on sax, Steve Lukather was on guitar, David Garfield was on piano, Simon Phillips and Brian Blade on drums, Lionel Luque. And just kind of looking up and just kind of being a part of that ensemble was just unbelievable, really. I think I was so scared I probably didn’t play too well, but just kind of I was a bit starstruck in that moment. Each one of those musicians is literally my favorite musician.

So another amazing experience I had was with my band, and we were playing at the Cotton Club in Tokyo. And I’d reached out to the amazing rock star, Hote Tomiyasu. He wrote the the music for Kill Bill and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And he’s sold over 56,000,000 records in Japan. He’s like a legend.

So, anyway, he come to visit backstage at one of Hiromi’s gigs, and we just got chatting. And I found him to be an awesome, interesting guy. So we just exchanged a few emails, and, randomly, I just reached out. Didn’t think anything would come of it, but I just reached out to him through email and just said, hey. I’m playing at the Cotton Club with my trio, and it would be amazing if you would come and watch us, or would you even sit in?

Is it possible? And he just showed up with his amp and his guitar, and the the audience had no idea. And halfway, through the set, he just walked on stage. And there we have it, Hote playing with my trio. So from that meeting with Hote, I ended up joining his band for quite a few years.

I think it was like four or five years and got to play all over the world with him. Really, we were doing shows in New York, in England, London, Japan. We did three DVDs together. So I had a amazing experience with Hote. He’s such a a creative, powerful guy.

That was an unbelievable moment for him to just come and join us on stage. So my last favorite gig experience well, it’s not really a gig. It was a recording session that I had with Hiromi. It was for her second CD, Brain. It was with the trio with Martin Vallejoera on drums and Hiromi on piano and me on bass.

But she’d also invited a special guest to play bass on a few songs, which was Anthony Jackson. So I got to spend a few days in the studio just chatting and chilling with Anthony and watched him record, and he would watch me record, and I would be asking him advice. And it was just kind of one of those moments where I really met my ultimate idol. So just to spend time watching his process, just the way he took care of his instrument, took care of his cables, and how he went through the music, before he was recording it, and how articulate he was, and kind of how he wanted it perfect. It wasn’t just, another gig for him.

He really took a lot of pride in every note that he played. And I think that really rubbed off on me. I tried to take care of every moment and not just kind of blast through whatever song I’m playing. He really taught me to take care, and every note means something. So that was just a a beautiful experience to spend some great, great time with Anthony, and what a legend.