The other day, I bid on a holiday party for my quartet. It was for a corporate luncheon that was to take place on a Friday afternoon in December. It was slightly unusual in that the potential client, a woman I’ll call “Jodie,” only wanted us to play for the first fifteen minutes of the event and the last fifteen minutes. But she wanted the band on site for four hours. I might add that the gig was to take place in Tacoma. I crunched…
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.…
UNIVERSITY DISTRICT JAZZ WALK-SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2010 One of the cool things about the Earshot Jazz Festival is the big line-up of outstanding artists and the plethora of performances to choose from. The downside is that it can be difficult to find the time to hit all the shows you want to and it can also get a little spendy. This is just one of the reasons that the University District Jazz Walk is such a great offering. This year, Earshot has teamed up with…
Hoo-rah! Tonight is the first meeting of a four week scat workshop with my much beloved teacher and jazz musician extraordinaire Greta Matassa. I signed up for this well over a month ago and am happy and excited to get started tonight. When it comes to scat singing, Greta is a nuclear missile. She’s also one of the sharpest teachers around, and there’s no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a great workshop. Scat singing mesmerizes me. Throughout the years, I…
