What Is Mastery?

  Hello people. I’m having a bit of a philosophical conundrum right now and was hopeful that you might be able to help me out with this one. If you would, please hang with me a sec while I explain. Not long ago, I attended the performance of another jazz vocalist here in the region. (For the purpose of this post, I will herby refer to this person as the “Singer.” To avoid any identification by gender, I will use the pronoun “it” as needed.…

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The Business of Vocal Jazz: the book & the class

   Danielle LaPorte is my business guru. Her digital course “The Spark Kit” (formerly known as “The Fire Starter Sessions”) is easily the most inspirational and helpful guide for any entrepreneur looking to fire up and build an authentic, satisfying and successful business. (If you’re not yet hip to Danielle, I strongly urge you to visit her website: www.whitehottruth.com. Pure gold.) Danielle has changed the way I think about my life and my work and has empowered me in more ways than I can articulate…

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A Million Stars

First of all, I apologize for the unintended gap since the last post. Unfortunately, I was recently slammed with the mother of all sinus infections and for a brief period, everything came to a screeching halt. The body is like that sometimes; it demands that we stop everything and tend to it and rightly so. This was the sickest I’ve been in well over a decade. After over two weeks of misery and a course of Amoxicillin, I’m just now climbing out. Although I’m still…

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January gigs, etc.

Hello people. January has roared in with a bang, and I have some cool gigs to tell you about! Boxley’s Thursday, January 13, 2011- 7:00pm Duo performance with Randy Halberstadt on piano Boxley’s has all the elements that make it a great place for live jazz: a big, ol’ Steinway piano, a great sound system, upscale but comfortable décor, very tasty food and cheerful service. It’s truly a terrific place to enjoy a slow, relaxed dinner and take in a little live music. Although it’s…

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Playing Well With Others: On Singers & Musicians

Over the past few weeks, I’ve observed a few disparaging remarks about singers out there on the social media playground. More specifically, these were remarks made about jazz vocalists by jazz musicians. It actually surprised me a little. While there is definitely a common sentiment that musicians look down on vocalists, I guess I’ve never entirely bought into that idea. That said, I’m more than willing to entertain the notion that I might be kidding myself. It certainly seems like something worthy of investigating here.…

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Five Days

I’m depleted. I’m talking about that all-consuming exhaustion that creeps into the bones on a cellular level, sucks the very life out of a person and basically renders her brain dead. My body is running on empty at present and even the smallest exertion of energy feels hopelessly cumbersome. If I stop for even a second, I risk stalling out completely. Worse, my mental faculties are completely dulled and foggy. Some kind of base, reptilian autopilot is running the show. It’s a wonder that I’m…

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