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hannah outside our ger, terelj

me inside the ger with our friends, tsooj and degi

local habitation at terelj

giant steppes of jazz on tv

the irish pub, ulaanbaatar!

one holy mountain - bogd uul

first gig in ulaanbaatar

plus string quartet

the expanded "pause" band

opening night for ubop band

khishgee sings with ubop

After chatting for a few hours, our companions leave for the city, promising to return to pick us up tomorrow! So we decide to lock up the tent and go for a little wander around outside the camp grounds. The scenery at Terelj is very beautiful, and the air is alpine fresh, this area being at 1600 metres above sea-level. After briefly exploring a wooded area on a hillside above the camp, we descend as it starts to get darker. Back at the ger, our attempts to light the stove eventually succeed and we experience for the first time how warm a ger can get! It's a delicate balance - without the stove it's freezing cold at night, with it it's often too hot. After stoking the fire a few times we finally settle down for the night, our first away from Ulaanbaatar since we arrived.

Sun June 4th
6am and it's absolutely bloody freezing!!! Although we've only been asleep for a few hours, the intense cold awakens us from our slumbers. During the night there has been a sharp frost and, since the stove went out a few hours back, we're now experiencing the down side to life in a ger! Eventually, the stove is lit and warmth (and not a little smoke!) fills the small tent. Once our bones have thawed out we are able to go back to sleep in comfort.

Later that afternoon, Ikhe returns to pick us up. Feeling a little defeated by the problem of keeping the stove going during the night, I mention our trials to Ikhe. It turns out that he had a similar problem himself a few weekends ago, and that dealing with the coldness in the morning is just one of the problems with ger life. It makes you realise the harshness of the life led by Mongolia's nomads. Maybe just a small price to pay though for the incredible life they still lead, here in the 21st century. In many countries of the world, including England, city-dwellers can be a little condescending towards their 'country-cousins' who live in the rural areas. Not so in Mongolia, however, where those in Ulaanbaatar have a deep respect for those hardy families living a lifestyle little-changed since the time of Chinggis Khan and the Great Mongol Empire.

Sat June 10th
Before leaving the UK for Mongolia, I did a lot of research into life in Ulaanbaatar, in particular the music scene. There is scarce information available over the world wide web, but a little of what I could find led me to the discovery of the Giant Steppes Jazz Festival and the Mongolian pianist Ganbat. The festival took place for the first time in July 2004 and so I was curious to know if there would be a Giant Steppes in 2006. An initial email to the Mongolian Arts Council enquiring about the local scene (sent before our departure) went unanswered, but a few weeks into our time here I sent another, specifically asking about Giant Steppes. This time, success, leading ultimately to contact with Ganbat himself, who suggested a meeting. So today I met with Ganbat and Enkhbat - two members of the 'Giant Steppes of Jazz' NGO (or 'Jazz Council' for short).

The Jazz Council has several specific objectives:
1. to organize the 'Giant Steppes of Jazz International Jazz Festival' in Mongolia once every two or three years
2. to conduct fundraising towards supporting jazz artists and projects
3. to organize performances by young and inspriring jazz artists
4. to organise courses for young musicians (e.g. Jazz Summer Courses), possibly with the participation of foreign jazz artists or experts
5. to prepare TV and FM radio programs on jazz history and music
6. to help produce CDs and DVDs of young jazz artists
7. to organize jazz re-arrangement of Mongolian compositions

We talked at length (sometimes through Enkhbat, whose English is exceptional) about what the Council has achieved so far, what their plans for this year's festival are, and I told them a little about my past projects and bands in the UK, and also my idea for me to set up a jazz club (they are particularly helpful in this area, suggesting a more suitable venue than the one I had in mind initially). The date has been set for this year's festival - early October - and a couple of fundraising gigs have been planned in order to help generate enough money to run the events in October. The first will take place on Sunday 18th at the Grand Irish Pub (yes, there really IS one in every city of the world!!!) on Chinggis Avenue here in Ulaanbaatar, and will feature Ganbat's band, Pause, with myself on piano (Ganbat also plays drums). The title of the event will be 'When I'm 64', and a number of Lennon/McCartney and solo McCartney songs have been arranged specially. It's a celebration of Macca's 64th birthday, here in Mongolia - you never do really ever know what you're going to be doing next in the music world, I find!

The gig will also give me my first opportunity to play in a trio format since my last Hyatt performance in April with Mike Green and Carl Hemmingsley. I've decided the new trio (featuring Ganbat on drums and a bass player called Munkhbayar) will form the core of any band ventures whilst I'm over here, and will be called the Steve Tromans U-Bop Band. I've made a couple of quick arrangements of Michelle and Here, There and Everywhere (very good for dominant pedal points, incidentally) and am already looking forward to the event next Sunday.

Fri June 16th
Tonight was the rehearsal for Sunday's fundraising concert. The rehearsal took place at Ulaanbaatar's Philharmonic Hall, located on the north-side of the Palace of Culture. I know that now, but it took me about 30 minutes of walking and head-scratching, plus an unexpected sneak-peak at a performance of The Magic Flute in the State Opera and Ballet Theatre (I thought I had walked into the Philharmonic Hall, but I was wrong!), to find where it was. The Philharmonic Hall is a medium-sized concert hall, a little larger than the CBSO Centre in Birmingham, with a good-sized stage and (most importantly for me) a grand piano. It was a strange feeling tonight, sitting down at the keyboard and looking along the familiar strings, 6000 miles from home. I hope it's only the first of many nights spent in this hall, and walking back to Bayanzurkh District afterwards I start to make plans for a new project, Four Holy Mountains, a new work to be dedicated to the four holy mountains that surround Ulaanbaatar, roughly placed at the four points of the compass: Bogd Khan (S), Songino Khairkhan (W), Chingeltei (N) and Bayanzurkh (E) Uuls. Watch this space!

Sun June 18th
First gig in Mongolia tonight! The 'When I'm 64' fundraiser concert towards the Giant Steppes Jazz Festival 2006 in October. Ganbat (pianist and drummer) and Enkhbayar (keyboard player and vocalist) have arranged a series of Beatles and Paul McCartney songs for Jazz ensemble. The gig, at Ulaanbaatar's Grand Khan Irish Pub is well attended by a good mix of tourists, ex-pats and Mongolians. I get the chance to stretch out a little on a couple of piano trio instrumentals (Michelle and Here, There and Everywhere), otherwise I'm really just performing in a support role to the vocals. All the same, it's great to be playing so soon after leaving Birmingham. There's a nice vibe in the pub and old favourites like Hey Jude and Let It Be get the crowd going wild!

Afterwards, Ganbat elaborates a little on his long held dream of opening a Jazz Academy in Ulaanbaatar. It's a great idea, and since there are no jazz teachers in Ulaanbaatar at the moment, although there is a well established Classical and Traditional Music College, I think it is an idea with a lot of potential indeed. Since the collapse of Socialism in Mongolia in 1991, Mongolians have embraced all things American with an almost missionary zeal - MTV, Basketball, Hip-Hop and fast food are all extremely popular over here, and, since Jazz is a music that was born in America, it too holds a fascination for them. Also - and I find this to be the most refreshing aspect of potentially helping introduce 21st Century Jazz to Mongolia - because they weren't able to follow the various movements and revolutions that occured in Jazz throughout the 20th Century due to the MPR's distaste of perceived 'degenerate' music, they haven't yet had time to develop any prejudice towards any particular 'style' of Jazz, and my hope is that they never do.

In the UK, so many people are caught up in useless diatribe about the virtues of 'Trad' against 'Modern' (or 'Ultra-Modern' as I once heard anything that dated from after the 1960's described!), or holding out to the bitter end in nostalgic enclaves and, as one club has decided to call itself, 'Melodic Jazz' societies (that one makes me especially angry - is there a 'Harmonic' Jazz Society too, and a 'Rhythmic' one? How about 'Un-melodic'? What does it mean for pity's sake?!). This invariably meant that for myself, trying to make a pan-tonal music that comes from the heart and appeals to our most primitive sense of wonderment at the new and undiscovered, a majority of concerts suffered due to that old addage, "he who pays the piper calls the tune". Thanks to the efforts of the likes of Birmingham Jazz and Fizzle, Cheltenham Jazz, The Vortex in London, Matt and Phreds Jazz Club in Manchester and The White Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, plus St Andrews' StAnza, Aldeburgh and Belfast's Between The Lines Poetry Festivals, there were some blissful opportunities in the last couple of years to practice real improvisation.

As for my time in Mongolia, I am banking on the fact that this country - steeped in Shamanist tradition and where, aside from in the capital, people live a life little changed down the centuries - will provide me with the key I am so desperately searching for. I know it's something to do with pentatonics - I find that octave divisions of five not seven are the most emotive and essential. Mongolian traditional music is rich with pentatonics and o-tones (overtones derived from the natural harmonic series) and, thus, Mongolia seems like the perfect place to try to answer my current musical questions.

Sat June 24th
Last night was the opening night of the Mealody Jazz Club. The venue, Mealody Restaurant, is on Baga Toyruu, north-west of Sukhbaatar Square. Mealody is a lovely, cosy place with a great vibe, the perfect size for a Jazz Club, with a small stage and an upright piano. My new trio, the Steve Tromans U-Bop Band, played its first gig, with special guest vocalist Khishgee singing from the Great American Songbook.

It was great to be able to stretch out on some piano trio standards and the audience of Mongolians (and some foreigners too) were extremely supportive and enthusiastic. Most of our new Mongolian friends also came along and it was great to see them there. Also, unbeknownst to me until after the gig had finished, famous Mongolian violinist Degi was in the audience. Degi is very popular in Mongolia and her concerts of soft popular/traditional music are very well attended. Not long after we arrived in Ulaanbaatar, Degi performed at the Palace of Culture to a sell-out crowd. After chatting briefly, we decided to play together at some point and Degi will definitely be performing as a guest artist at next Friday's Mealody Jazz Club. Things seem to be moving fast here so far, which is better than I could have hoped for. Only two months ago I was leaving the familiar sights and sounds of Birmingham to travel 6000 miles across Europe and Asia to who-knows-where and what! I wonder what's in store for the coming months? It's exhilarating to be open to any possibility. Like in true improvisation.