Sometimes on the road, the strangest meetings come about completely coincidentally. Yesterday on the train from Zurich to Milan, a mini trumpet conference.

Trumpeters Franco Ambrosetti, Dave Douglas, Chris Botti. Captured by the quick thinking Uri Caine. In the background, Tim Lefebvre, Matt Penman, and Clarence Penn share a laugh. Nice to catch up with Chris, who I hadn’t seen since we both auditioned for the house band (he got the gig) at the New York Playboy Club in 1986. Neither of us had met Franco, who is a great Swiss player. I also got to see Billy Kilson, Chris’ drummer, who was my roommate at Berklee.

Douglas band and Botti band merged for about four hours. Hilarity ensued.