nothing much... just a routine update

I haven't written on here in a while, so I thought I would do just that, so that all (one, none?) of you can read what I'm up to ("up to what I am"?). Recently, I took part in a couple of fun shows in which I was sort of a  "ringer": First was a guest appearance with trumpeter Anthony Coleman's big band. This also featured some VERY strong rappers/spoken word folks. I always like it when my scatting shtick is refracted against that of vocalists from the hip-hop arena; I've always considered what I do to be, functionally at least, closer to that than to "jazz singing". I wasn't on any tunes with the rappers, but it was interesting for me, just the same. And then not a week later, I was similarly featured as a guest with the Shotgun Wedding Ensemble as a part of their reinvestigation of the music of Cab Calloway. Here, I used an original recording (passed to me by Adam Theis) of Calloway as a jumping-off point... I tried to evoke the general tenor of his vibe while resolutely inflecting with MY vocal vehicle. So, two interesting experiences of me being a "guest".

And then drummer Sam Ospovat and I had one of our best gigs ever at the Actual Cafe, as part of Jacob Zimmerman's and Theo Padouvas' "Actual Jazz Series". I think we're beginning to figure out what works in our duo. Plus, we each did (for the first time in this setting) two SOLOs as well. Sam premiered a composed piece of his, while I attempted to scat the slow movement of the 5th Bach Cello Suite. Neither of us were satisfied with our respective solo efforts, though we were both glad that we got through them. And thanks so much to the trio of Ian Carey, Adam Shulman, and Bryan Bowman who played before us (for, it must be said, very little money). Until next time...

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