Last Friday's gig, June 11

Joining me at the Heathman last Friday was Kevin Deitz on the bass:

and Dave Iula on the guitar:

Now, you all know "I heart Madeleine Peyroux", and would love to sound more like her. Madeleine is a guitarist, and she does this laid-back beachy vibe thing on her guitar. As much as I could try to emulate it at the piano, it just wasn't the same. Somehow it sounded more like Michael Buble than Madeleine Peyroux! And we all know from an earlier post ("And...I'm laughing at myself"), that me playing guitar isn't really an option.

So, having Dave Iula on acoustic guitar is what did the trick. Dave is a very versatile player and can handle just about any style. I played him some Madeleine, showed him my charts, and all of a sudden my music sounded just like I hoped.

Kevin Deitz is a well-respected bass player in Portland - and of course he was rock solid at the gig. He is capable of impressive virtuosic solos, and the tone he creates when using the bow is like rich dark chocolate. But for some of my songs I need something really simple from the bass, like whole notes or half notes. Nothing fancy. He said, "Well I'm not paid by the note, so if it's whole notes you want, that's what you'll get." I said, "No, I AM paying you by the note. That's why I want whole notes." He thought that was pretty funny.... I think? Either way, I got my money's worth. He was great.

Next month Bill Athens will be back on the bass, and Lucia Conrad joins us again on violin. Hope to see you July 9!

Pre-production

Hello everybody!

So pre-production is fun, exciting, new, and challenging - I'm lovin' it. Today Dean and I tackled my song "Hey, yeah". I wrote this song a couple years ago - it's about a bunch of things that I love, that I think of when I need to be cheered up. It's got this funky groove / Sara Bareilles feel.

Dean had some great ideas for the song - a breakdown in the 3rd verse, subtle lyric changes, jumping straight into the bridge after the 2nd chorus, a funky fade out for the ending... (am I giving too much away?) So this is pre-production. And this is what it's like to have a producer! Here is Dean driving the sound ship:

During the recording of the scratch track (the track you eventually "scratch", or erase, but use as the template for recording all the other musical elements, meaning drums, bass, piano, vocals, etc.), Dean encouraged me at the piano to terrace and build the song, saying things like "be sneakier at the beginning.... then do some higher register octaves in the chorus". On vocals he asked me to emote more - pick certain words to sing specific ways, become an actress if I needed to. I can tell he's going to do his utmost to drag the best I have to offer out of me.

The brim on my black hat kept bumping the screen in front of the mic, so I turned it backward - all of a sudden the gangster style just started flowin' out. Just kidding.

I'm excited for the CD. I look forward to sharing these songs with friends/family/the world - and I'll do my best to record them well.

Last night's gig, May 14

At the Heathman Hotel

Joining me was the rock-solid Bill Athens on the bass, and guest artist Cory Sterling on guitar. We played some new arrangements I've been working on for the new CD, a few new folk tunes, some classic jazz standards, plus a bunch of tunes Cory brought to the group. I really enjoyed learning some new (well, new-to-me) jazz tunes, and he had a cool original blues tune with some great rhythmic sections. Cory's off to play guitar in New York in the fall, so I'm glad he could join us at least once.

My 2 sisters showed up at the end of the night - they completely surprised me, because one of them lives in Boulder, Colorado. I knew she was flying in that night, but thought it would be too late for them to come. At 11:30 PM, there they were, just dancing along to the music. No, we're not triplets.

Hope to see you at our next gig, June 11 at the Heathman!

I heart Madeleine

I really like Madeleine Peyroux’s style and approach to jazz music. Here is one of her album covers. Truly beautiful and so artistic. I’d love to do the same thing for my album, complete with a poofy gold dress, red flowers and bare feet, except I’d want to be sitting on a beach instead…

I was inspired by some reviews of her music:

“Norah Jones and Jane Monheit may have spawned a cutesy genre of jazz-lite chirping, but it’s one that Peyroux neatly sidesteps. Here, less is definitely more. Accompanied by piano, guitar, string bass, lightly brushed snare drum and occasional gospel organ, Careless Love has the same live-in-the-studio ambience that made Peggy Lee’s Black Coffee a benchmark album. An interpretive artist as opposed to a nothing-to-say singer-songwriter, Peyroux avoids the overworked wine bar songbook, bringing new sensibilities to Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love” and Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”.”

“In recent weeks, “Careless Love” (Rounder), a record on an independent label by a sophisticated pop-jazz vocalist named Madeleine Peyroux, has quietly edged past 100,000 sales with almost no radio airplay. It’s become an out-of-left-field hit in cafes, wine bars and spas, where its smoky ambience suits the mostly post-college-age clientele.

“People who have heard the record in these places have had an immediate reaction: Who is that? Where can I get that?” says Paul Foley, general manager of marketing for Peyroux’s label, Rounder Records. “We’re looking for an upper-demographic audience that is not being served currently by the record industry’s marketing schemes.”

“With the release of her long awaited follow-up album, Careless Love, Peyroux’s potential as an artist is truly realized. Her smoky voice and knowing delivery make each song her own, whether she’s singing vintage tunes by W.C. Handy and Hank Williams, or contemporary songs by Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith. Producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin) weaves strands of acoustic blues, country ballads, classic jazz, torch songs and pop into a vibrant fabric that is both timeless and thoroughly up to date, with Peyroux’s arresting vocals always front and center.”

Yep, I heart Madeleine.

Last night's gig, April 9

Last night at the Heathman was pretty awesome. The room was packed, the tunes were fun, and the vibe was great.

The ensemble was an interesting mix of old and new players:

On drums was Ken Ollis, and he was rock steady as always. He really gets my music and I feel so comfortable when he’s supporting me at the drum set. Just last night we remembered our first gig – back in May 2008 at Bauman Auditorium. Almost 2 years of gigging! He’s a great drummer, and he doesn’t mind when I pepper him with questions about the music industry. Plus, his original compositions are brilliant. I keep bugging him to do another performance of some poetry he set to music. I forget the name of it, but he performed it with his wife (she was the singer) last summer, and I’d love to hear it again, plus invite all my music-minded friends that would really appreciate his style.

On bass was Willy Barber, and I just met him last night. Usually people are surprised to find out that jazz groups often don’t rehearse before gigs, even when someone is totally new to the group. That’s just the way it goes in jazz sometimes. Willy brought his electric bass, which was a unique change to the usual line-up, but I thought it sounded great. And when he took solos, his fingers really flew. I wished I could have watched him play, but I had to face the piano. Well, at least I got to be the closest person to his amp.

Our guest artist was Lucia Conrad, on violin. She is a classical player, so she had taken some time to prepare some really nice solos over the chord changes. She also threw in some double-stops and trills. I have always felt that jazz violin is such a great fit for our group. It was truly a pleasure to have her in the ensemble.

In attendance were the loyal regulars (you know who you are) and a bunch of new faces. Plus, a friend I knew in high school was there with her husband (thanks to good ol’ Facebook). I hadn’t seen her since high school, which is unbelievably half my lifetime ago. Sigh. It was fun to reconnect.

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear us, it was a great night. I hope to see you at our next gig, May 14 at the Heathman.

And.... I'm laughing at myself

So today’s meeting with producer Dean Baskerville was fantastic. We listened to all the tunes on the demo, listened to some tracks by my “influence” artists (Madeleine Peyroux, Norah Jones, Sarah Bareilles, and dare I say… Colbie Caillat?), and did some dreaming for each song. We talked about possible instrumentation, changing keys in some songs, players we could use, and just an overall feel and approach to the project. I can already tell that working with Dean is going to take my songs to the next level.

For example, he mentioned a studio drummer that has something like 15 different snare drums, so he can create just the right sound for a particular song. What? I thought a snare was a snare.

And, he was gutsy enough to give me some constructive criticism on my singing – which I appreciate probably more than he realizes. He has a great ear, great ideas, and is honestly just a nice person to work with.

So… why am I laughing at myself? Well, as we were listening to Madeliene Peyroux and commenting on her warm, laid-back guitar style, Dean asked me if I played guitar. I said, “Well, yeah, nothing fancy, but the basics.” He asked me to try some guitar playing on the tracks, so he could see what he has to work with. So tonight, I busted out ye old guitar.

I did some playing around on the guitar with my songs, but it sounded pretty campy. I get stuck when any chord with a flat in it comes up. What the heck was I thinking when I told him I could play guitar? I am a retired Young Life song leader, so I’m pretty good at songs like “One Tin Soldier” and “Closer to Fine”. I can even play a decent “More than words”, the rock band Extreme’s hit from 1990 – complete with the little knock-knock on the guitar body.

Even though I wasn’t all that pleased with what I was coming up with, I figured I could try at least one song. I fired up Garage Band on the MacBook and attempted my first guitar track on “Words or not”. I say attempted because I couldn’t make it through the whole song. My fingers hurt too much from the strings and my lack of guitar-playing callouses. Then I listened to it with my piano track muted, with just the partial guitar track and my vocal track playing….

And…. I’m laughing at myself. It sounds like a pretty good singer with a drunk guitar player. The rhythm is all uneven, there are these weird twangs and twongs when I pluck strings too hard, and this AWFUL sliding sound when I move my fingers up and down the fretboard. Plus, you can hear the guitarist laughing at herself in the track as she misses note after note.

So I don’t really think the idea of me playing guitar on the record is going to go anywhere. I know what I’d like to hear from a guitar, I just don’t know how to do it myself. Good thing there are plenty of talented guitarists I can hire, because if it were up to me, this project would be sunk.

Sheesh, laughing at yourself sounding absolutely ridiculous on a guitar is some good fun.

A young-ish mom's journey through CD production

The journey continues towards FINALLY getting the new CD done. It took me awhile to finish the first task: a demo recording of all the songs to be included. I was able to do this at home on my trusty little Mac book with Garage band. Which is why it took so long to complete! Although it was only a demo, I didn’t think the squeals of my 2 year old or the crashes of my 4 year old’s race cars would be all that helpful in the background. So on the occasional evenings that I would have enough energy left over to be creative after chasing them around all day, I worked on the demo. And it is done and in the hands of an official CD producer – Dean Baskerville.

This is my first time working with a producer. Dean has come highly recommended to me by many Portland jazz greats. (And he was a recording engineer for 5 of Sheryl Crow’s songs, including the song “Soak Up the Sun”, how awesome is that!) He has listened to the tracks, and we’re all set to meet this week to discuss the next step, whatever that is. I really have no idea.

So… you may be wondering, why do I consider myself a “young-ish” mom? Well, I think I’m still fairly young (in my early-ish 30s… hmm, I’m sure using “ish” a lot – a great way to be vague), but I read recently in a music industry book that artists in their mid-30s may be too old to capture much attention in the music industry. Which was crazy to me, because as far as I’ve heard, musicians only get better at their craft as they grow older. Maybe the youth-oriented focus applies mostly to the teenage pop genre. I sure hope so.

Besides, my little kiddos keep me young – they bring out the kid in me! But why does motherhood also seem to cause gray hairs to poke out my head from time to time? Well, at least blonde highlights are good at hiding those.

So the journey continues. Now that the production of this CD is out of my house and in recording studios, the pace should pick up. That is, unless a 2-year old squeal becomes a necessary effect in one of the tracks.