I have woken this morning after a night of taking in the news that musician Dan Cho has passed away suddenly on tour whilst in Switzerland about to play the Montreux Jazz festival with Regina spektor.

I met Dan after he auditioned as pianist to play with me on the Ellen DeGeneres show whilst I was living in New York. I stayed for 2 years in New York and Dan played gig with me in Las Vegas at the CES Electronic show with world space radio and played gigs with me on my Barnes and Noble tour and generally in New York and Brooklyn in places like the Livingroom, the Rockwood and many others.

Dan was an incredible musician in his feel and intelligence. When ever I played him a song he would improvise the most brilliant riffs and pretty much everything that he played would sound beautiful. He just had that feel. He was also very modest and funny and would make jokes all the time.

The song below (“how long”) was a new song I played him in a small rehearsal room in 42nd street , Manhattan and this is what he played along straight away with Dave and I. This is just recorded with a mini disk player and I like the intimacy of it and hearing him play. He also played piano and cello on the recordings of my songs “London Town” and “There’s still time” on my Lost Songs album. As well as my acoustic version of “Friends”. I will treasure these recordings and that I got to spend time and play music and hang out with such a beautiful person. He will be missed by so many and Julia, Audrey and his family are in my prayers.

Ellie xxx