New Material for Fall

I am writing and recording new material. This is uplifting. This is where my heart lies. It is finally starting to get colder in New York City. The faces of the people on the train looked really drained. The theme is have less people do more work. I admire the protestors for sticking to their guns and staying out there every day.

New Lights

I am finally settled into my own place and so much happier not to have a roommate. There comes a point in life when you need your own space. It is time to make up for lost time and create even more.

Sweet Georgia Brown has invited me to sit in with her at the Lenox Lounge. She performs every Tuesday there. I sat in with her band this past Tuesday and will continue to do so since she has laid out a nice welcome mat. Stew Cutler was on guitar, Greg Lewis was on organ, and Warren Grant was on drums. They play their a---- off every time I see them. Georgia has become a mentor for me. I watch her and absorb all the seasoning. She is a great entertainer. She is so fun to watch. She calls herself one of the Last Red Hot Mamas. She definitely is. The room was full of tourists. There were people from Morocco, Russia, and Mozambique. I am very grateful to be surrounded by wonderful musicians who are positive. When I am singing, I feel most alive and free. I have a lot of covers to learn and a lot more songs to write. It is still so on. :)

I want to say Rest in Peace to Phoebe Snow. She was such a kind woman. We went to the same temple and I remember looking up to her. Someone once told me we have a similar voice. So, I began listening to her. When I moved to NY, she actually came to where I lived to help enshrine my Gohonzon. You never know in life.

The Sugar Bar

I have lived in New York City for 7 years and all of these years I've known and heard about a place called the Sugar Bar owned/ran by the acclaimed R&B songwriting couple and production team, Ashford and Simpson. They have an open mic there every week and I never went because I speculated that they would not actually be there. For some reason, I just never had the inclination to go. Maybe because I have always avoided singing too many covers. I am not sure why. Then one of my favorite guitar players,AB, came to visit from Chicago. I had to figure out something for us to do and so the Sugar Bar it was. We watched the performers one by one as they sat in with the band.Just about all of them were amazing. AB knew the band leader/bass player,Tony Stevenson. I wanted to take in the room and see what type of crowd it was.Most of the singers sang strong R&B songs from the 80s and 90s The cailber of musicianship was extremely high. Freddie Jackson was there. Natalie Cole. Andre Leon Talley. Both Ashford and Simpson were also there. They all sat at the same table and if you can believe this, sang background vocals for the open mic performers.Can you imagine? I thought it would be cool if "I sang I Put a Spell on You" I can play it on the guitar,but I have always felt more comfortable just singing. I waited until the band had a break and I went over the chords with the keyboard player. Something just did not sound right. I might have been mixing the chords up in my head. So, I asked AB if he could play and I told him the chords, but it did not seem like it was jivin' in his memory. We recorded it years ago together. Tony cautioned that it might not be a good idea to do it if the band did not know it perfectly. That I did not want to look like I was rehearsing in front of people like Freddie Jackson and Natalie Cole. I heeded his advice. The audience was really lively. I loved it. The food was excellent and I can not stress enough the level of talent.

Until Next time..... :)

Whoah!!!!

My brother came to visit me in this crazy city with his cousin from Paris. The left most picture is of my brother and I. The middle is of my brother,his cousin and I. The right is of Brian and I. We had a blast. We searched all over for the perfect bar with a view. It had good music and a great view. It was a nice crowd. Women decked out for potential candidates. Lots of caricature hats which my brother seemed really intrigued by for some reason.One transvestite. A borderline riot between the hip hoppers and the police. I advised my brother and his cousin not to get too close. So, they had a handful of New York moments. We all had a lot of fun.

Georgia' s Bday

Georgia had a great turn out. She as always put on a great show. A good part of it was letting the fellas in the band have it for not following all of her cues. It was fun and funny. I sang "Feeling Good". Stew and I had a very dry run through before. It was good.It could have been better. Then Georgia sang "I Feel Good" to get the momentum back up again. I sang background vocals for her and I was between two saxophone players. Saxophones are vocals when you think about it. There were two. One was from Australia. He was easy on the eyes and ears. He liked to be near the crowd. The other sax player liked to be closer to the band. He knew all of the licks for the covers.

Jam

Tonight was nice. Moogy played his song, "Dust in the Wind". There was a nice crowd. It was a cold night. The type of night that even when you are dressed properly, you think," Dam it's cold!" There was frost on the streets from a previous snow. Today, a plane crashed, technically yesterday, but everyone on the plane survived.It crashed in the Hudson River. You keep walking and keep seeing life all round you pumping like electricity. I love walking up the subway stairs to sing somewhere. This is a fun part. I think I will look back and truly take that home in the emotional sense. We did one of my original's "Proud Freak" and my version of "Jealous Guy(Girl)". You can purchase them both at ITUNES. I am taking note of what the crowd responds to and they have spoken. They like Proud Freak. It cuts through.

Even Steven told me it is too bad I was not around in the 80s when everyone wanted A-LINE. Hee hee. I had to laugh. Come on. That is good. The band is so tight. They can roll with it. It is comforting to have them around me. I love it.

The best way to get over/deal with someone or something is to walk through the fire to the otherside and use all of it. Yeah Music. Ummm Hmmm.