I’ll be in Brussels, Barcelona, Toulon, Marseille, Chantilly and Munich. More train than plane is in the plans; it’ll be interesting to see how Europe handles its travel in the shadow of the volcano.

It’s been a while since I wrote. One of the highlights of the past few weeks was Karen and I going to dinner with Bob Hoover, books editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; his wife, Kathleen; our friends Ron Antonucci and Sarah Willis; and the star of the event, Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate of the United States.

Dinner with the Poet Laureate of the United States was something to chew on.

In addition to his embryonic CJO career, he’s lead trumpet for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (word is he’ll quit that position, where he’s in the shadow of Wynton Marsalis), a professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and the star of a small jazz combo with which he’s recorded five albums for the Detroit-based Mack Avenue label.

His arrival on the local jazz scene late this summer will be dynamic, breathing fire into a field that’s shriveled in the past five years. I’m sure he’ll be featured in various publications, on TV and on radio, because he’s a complex, fascinating guy.

I interviewed him for the CJO web site. Visit it, scroll down to the bottom of the home page, and listen to our talk.