Greetings from New Jersey!

It's hard to believe, but we've been back in New Jersey for a month.  (I'm taking a German course...not for fun.  My degree requires it.)  I time here has been incredible.  Perhaps my favorite moment so far was seeing "The Children of the Light" trio (Danilo Pérez/John Patitucci/Brian Blade).  I love Danilo Pérez!  (Here's a recording of Bright Mississippi.)  I'm looking forward to seeing the Dave Holland Trio at the Village Vanguard this weekend.  We've been incredibly busy, so check out Instagram or Facebook for more pics.  I caught a picture of the sunrise over New York City this morning, so I included that here.  We'll be here for another two weeks, and then we start our week-long journey back to Oklahoma City.  We're going to take the long way home in order to visit all the states north of New Jersey.  We'll also make a stop at Niagara and cross into Canada.  We'll be in Oklahoma for two days, and then we leave again for Florida.  The SCU jazz combo is playing at Youth Quest in Orlando.  This summer is brutally busy!

Anyway, the real reason for this post concerns Finale and Sibelius.  I have spent around six months finalizing scores and exporting them from Sibelius.  I'm hoping to finish this week, so I can upgrade my MacBook.  Once it is upgraded, I'm going to try Finale and see if I like it.  I've been using Sibelius for over 15 years.  I know I have friends that are interested in learning more about Finale, and I assume there are other Sibelius users out there that may be interested as well.  Granted, it's not so much that I'm "switching."  I will still have Sibelius on my computer, but I will not be paying the yearly fee...if I like Finale.  If Finale doesn't work for me, I'll continue to use Sibelius as my primary notation program.  Once, I use Finale for a few weeks I'll post my findings.