Dashing through the gigs....

Friday night - Heathman Hotel

Saturday night - Arrivederci

Sunday afternoon - ORS at St. Mary's Cathedral

Sunday night - "A Wilsonville Christmas" at Abella Italian Kitchen

Last weekend was a whirlwind of holiday gigging, and I love seasonal music - so it sure was fun!

Friday night was at the Heathman, with Lucia Conrad on violin, Nikki Graybeal on cello, and Bill Athens on bass. The room was decked out, with lights, greens, and a big Christmas tree with the hugest ornaments I've ever seen. People packed in, on both floors, some on the stairs.

Some of my favorite moments:

- Lucia's violin solo in "Christmastime is here". To try to describe in words: soulful double stops and blissful trills. Simply beautiful.

- Nikki's cello lines in "Winter Song", by Sara Bareilles. First off, amazing song. Add a talented cello player to play the changes on the haunting chord progressions = rip-your-heart-out loveliness.

- "Noel": We played the original arrangement of this song, which I wrote a few years ago. This year the Oregon Repertory Singers are performing my new arrangement for choir, so it was a treat to perform the old one with strings. Quite a few of the Singers were there to hear it!

I just love performing with string players. What a magical night!

Saturday night was at Arrivederci - a duo gig with my friend Michele Van Kleef. I love the vibe at Arrivederci. Down-to-earth good Italian food, fine wine, and a real living-room feel to the performing area.

Michele and I performed a mix of originals, holiday tunes, jazz standards and covers. Some of my favorite moments:

- Michele's song "Paint you red". Yes, it makes another "favorite moment" list. I love that song!

- "Lo, how a rose 'ere blooming" - I'm trying out a modern arrangement of this old song from the 16th century. A musical style mash-up!

- "Santa Baby" duet. Michele is a very talented, classy woman, but she also knows how to deliver the cheese and/or ham when a song calls for it. We giggled through the whole song!

Sunday afternoon was the first performance of the Oregon Repertory Singers' Christmas concerts at St. Mary's Cathedral. It was our first time performing "Noel". To have something I've composed performed by 60+ musicians to a crowded cathedral was truly a once-in-a-lifetime thrill! And, we get to perform it 3 more times next weekend! I was amazed and overwhelmed by the experience. More info about the upcoming concerts can be found at www.orsingers.org.

After ORS I dashed down to Abella in Wilsonville for the final gig of the weekend: "A Wilsonville Christmas". My friends and neighbors Michele and Christina joined me for some 3 part vocal harmony. So fun! Favorite moments:

- Christina's rendition of Joni Mitchell's "River". She made it her own!

- Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" - we each took a verse and then did some echoes / harmonies in the chorus.

- "Have yourself a merry little Christmas": Christina sang lead while Michele and I came up with some impromptu extra vocal parts. Harmonizing on the fly is a bit of a rush - add another person making stuff up at the same time and you never know what you'll get!

We all stuffed ourselves with ravioli after the show. It was great to do a show in my neighborhood! Christina, Michele and I all have children at the same Wilsonville pre-school, so the kids' teacher and a bunch of parents from the school showed up. Seasonal music + great friends + ravioli = a great night.

Studio session video

Just spent a day in the studio working on the new record with Daniel Smith, electric guitarist. Here is some of the magic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dax8qnJvyTc

Noel

A couple years ago I did a little tinkering with "The First Noel". It has always been one of my favorite carols. I changed the melody, messed with the rhythm, went modal. Then added 2 violins and a cello, tom drum and shaker, and performed it with a bunch of friends at Christmas time. Audiences seemed to like it, and I've always thought I should do something more with it. Maybe find some different poetry so I could play it year round. Maybe record it as a holiday single. Or maybe re-score it for choir?

I have the privilege of being the accompanist for an incredible choir, the Oregon Repertory Singers. So in many hours spent with make-me-crazy Finale computer software, I set "Noel" for choir, and hoped it would be good enough for them. And this Christmas, ORS is singing the "world premier" of my piece.

Last week we rehearsed it for the first time. To hear 60+ singers sing something I wrote was truly exhilarating. It sounded so much better than me plunking out the parts at home on my piano. I did my best to hold myself together, while I improvised my part. I'll probably write something for the piano eventually, so other choirs can perform it. But for now it's my little gift to ORS, and their gift to me in singing it. Thank you ORS!

Recording session: Piano

We just recorded over half of the piano tracks for the new CD!

I love recording sessions. They are so intense in focus and creativity. And to finally be the one on the instrument, creating tracks on my own songs, was truly exciting.

Dead Aunt Thelma's Recording Studio in Portland, Oregon is a great place to record piano, because it has a nice 7-foot Steinway piano. I got some sweet sounds out of that thing: resonant bass tones, clear mid section, singing but not-too bright high notes, an even action throughout, and a lovely soft pedal effect. It did everything I needed it to. That makes a pianist happy.

Dean Baskerville was there serving as producer and engineer. It's nice having one person that can do both jobs! It's like a two-for-one deal. And he is SUCH a perfectionist, which I am so thankful for. I need someone picky. Someone that would hear if I wasn't quite in the pocket or if the piano pedal squeaked. Or any strange minute little thing that could happen while recording that you would hear later and say "What was that?"

When Dean is listening intently, he covers his eyes. I caught him in one of his regular poses:

Such an intense artist!

Dean mic'd the piano just right to capture everything. For one song, "Hey Yeah," he added this old-school ribbon mic, which made the piano sound a bit vintage. Very cool.

Jeramy Burchett came to part of the session to co-produce with Dean on the song "Words or not". Get those two together and the creative ideas really start flying. They had me try a bunch of different ideas, and we ended up with some great sounds. Different rhythms between my left and right hands, cluster chords, Coldplay-esque driving eighth notes.... the song has been transformed! It was like watching my baby grow up in fast forward.

All of my other recording projects up to this point have been "live", in that all the musicians plug in at the same time and record all at once. They are charming and raw with their flaws and group inspiration. But this project is different. It's being produced. Each instrument is tracked and recorded separately. So each player can take the time to make it right.

Which means multiple takes, punch-ins, edits... all part of the trade. As the night went long, though, the performer in me was itching to get one song in one take. And then it happened. The last song of the night, Joni Mitchell's "Both sides now". I sat down, played through it one time, and Dean said, "I think that's it." Ahhhh. I went home feeling good.

Next up - strings. Tim Ellis on guitar. Wahoo! Stay tuned.

Gigging with Michele Van Kleef

Crazy story how I met Michele... we've actually lived a 2 minute walk from each other for awhile now, but met just in this last year because our kids attend the same preschool. At one of the first parent/teacher gatherings, it was very cool to meet another performing musician in such a small group of parents.

Then, come to find out, Michele was the real deal - she was the girl lead singer in the band Calobo! When I was in college at the University of Puget Sound, I was a Calobo groupie. And Michele remembered the packed concerts at the UPS Student Union Building.....I was a little star struck for a sec there.....

So we became friends, our kids became friends (actually, her daughter has already decided that my son will be her husband someday), and we got some gigs on the calendar.

Rehearsing was a bit of an issue because of having children around all the time, but we made it work. With one child napping upstairs and 2 children dancing around us at most of the rehearsals, we got 14 songs ready! With background vocals and all. Her songs, my songs, some covers, jazz standards, it was quite the mix.

We played 2 shows: the Heathman Oct 8 and The Allison in Newberg Oct 9. Bill Athens joined us on upright bass. There was quite a crowd! It was so fun playing for such an enthusiastic and supportive audience.

Michele has an amazing voice, and harmonizing with a good vocalist is so much more fun than singing solo! She also brought her guitar and added some really nice layers to the instrumentation.

A few of my favorite moments from the gigs:

- Michele's song "Paint you red". What a beautiful song! Very cool chord changes. And the blend of piano, bass, and guitar was magical.

- My song "Love on a rainy day". Michele added a lovely low duet part to the choruses and bridge.

- During the song "Lucy in the sky with diamonds," this strange guy got up in front, sang it with me at the top of his lungs, and twirled his girlfriend around in front of the piano. The whole room was cracking up, and by the final chorus everyone was singing along.

We hope to get more duo gigs on the calendar.... stay tuned!

My first music video. Ha ha, not really!

My friend Michele caught me on video at my last gig -

"My Superman" - Live performance at the Allison Inn, October 9, 2010.