Got some sun in Tucson, Arizona! There I joined forces with soprano Melinda Whittington. Melinda was in town to sing the role of Donna Anna in Arizona Opera's production of Don Giovanni. On a day off in between her performances we did a private Downton Abbey-themed program, as the PBS show was heading towards its finale.

Melinda and I have had a lot of fun the past few years giving Downton Abbey-themed programs. The show consisted of opera (including some Puccini that was performed on the show), and several songs from the 1920s that appeared on the Downton Abbey soundtrack.

For several songs, we changed the lyrics to make jokes about the show. As you can see from the photos, Melinda and I can do the serious thing, but most of the time we like to joke around.

Room full of jazz fans. They had an upright piano but attached a mirror to the top so you could see the fingers move.  I played most of the concert solo but enjoyed spicing things up for several tunes with alto sax wiz Ronald Haijtmajer.

I also had time to stroll around the small town of Sassenheim and eat Indonesian food.  While on my little stroll, I heard church bells playing "Home on the Range." That caught me by surprise, as I hadn't seen a single deer or antelope in Sassenheim.

That was my final gig on this trip. Hope to make it back again before too long. ​This amazing experience was all made possible by Marcel Bouwmeester, who is president of the  Netherlands Classic Jazz Concert Club. He and his wife Coco hosted me all week long. Dank je well and tot sienz!

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Today I did a house concert in Amsterdam which was around the corner from the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum, and Concertgebouw.

​At the house concert, one lady was particularly engaged and asked me to sing something so I played/sang "You've Got to be a Football Hero to Get Along with the Beautiful Girls." She said I was a good singer, which is a compliment I rarely receive, so I assumed she was just being extra nice.

​She introduced herself to me after the concert as Xaviera Hollander. I was told later that she wrote a bestselling autobiography in 1972 called "The Happy Hooker."  I thought back to how she complimented my singing. Perhaps she has a history of telling men what they want to hear?

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This was a tiny museum in the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. The museum was a quirky little place with lots of great piano knick-knacks from days of yore.

​The concert went great, it was a full house (although a tiny intimate house). And I should mention that on the flight from the USA to Amsterdam,  I sat next to Cecil, a Canadian neurologist who was to spend a year working in an Amsterdam hospital.

​We became friends and he and his wife came to this show! Also, I wore a bowtie with wooden shoes (klompen) on it. Much more comfortable than wearing actual klompen. ​

I went to Apeldoorn for a show with a pianist named Eeco Rijken Rapp. Eeco is a killer boogie woogie pianist and swings like nobody's business. There was a full house at the Brasserie de Manege, and we played a bunch of solos, 2-piano duets, and we had drums (David Herzel) and a sax (Ronald Haijtmajer).

​The only video I have so far from the show is from a duet with Ronald. Its of a Bix Beiderbecke/Frank Trumbauer song called "Krazy Kat." Its pretty obscure. That's what I liked about playing with Ronald, he loves digging up songs from deep in the vault.

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