When In Rome

This recording of the band's second appearance since 1996 at the jazz festival at the famous Villa Celimontana captures the wonderful atmosphere and connection between the band and the audience. This jazz festival, staged in the gardens of one of the great roman villas, has run for 3 months every summer for many years and features jazz groups from all over the world. The result is Wanderlust's first live recording on CD. The playing is freer and more exuberant compared to some of the studio recordings so even though the sound quality may not be 100 percent hi fi at times, it is a very good document of Wanderlust in full flight. On this occasion we were rejoined by our former bass player Adam Armstrong, for some years now resident in NYC, and we enjoyed the addition of brilliant oud player Joseph Tawadros, who was also performing in Rome. Our dear friend Daniele 'Chipster' di Giovanni was the live sound engineer at this performance and had the presence of mind to press the recording button; the recording was unplanned. The pieces selected from the two 60 minutes sets are a cross-section from Wanderlust's repertoire of the last 15 years, while favouring the more textural, ambient sounds.