Sunday, July 31, 2005

Catching up.......

Hello fellow friends, family, strangers, and what not.... How are you? It's been a long time been a longtime Been a long time Lonely, lonely, lonely , lonely, lonely time...... Well I have been running around and standing still for a little while. I tell you this music thing is weird.... for lack of a better word. It certainly has it's ups and downs. Like I said before, just to catch up on things, I will not be recording my second CD with Bayswater Records. It was a difficult period for me because this is the group of people that I started to grow with..musically. They were always there for me. In my corner, if you will. Now, that things have changed, I took some time to think about the next move. Or what my direction should be now. Or if I should just Give it all up.... Well, the latter idea was only a three second flash in the pan, Thank God!!


I could never, never, never, neva, just throw it all away just because I am afraid. That's right afraid of the unknown. Of working with people that you gotta get to know again. Of having to "prove" all over again that you are a viable artist... and then one day it clicked..Man this is a bunch of hooey.. You think to much gul... Now just sing and do yo thang the rest will handle itself.

So, I continued to write down little melodies and lyrics while thinking about the possibilities. I was offered a deal by some french rappers, who have started their own label, but the style is more R&B pop than soul. Then later another independent label out of London was interested, but they were interested in more of the acid jazz kinda thing. That isn't bad though I actually like that kind of music, but just for a song or two....... So, then I met some people from Copenhagen who are interested in the same things that I am interested in so..... We are talking about it. Looks like we will start the recording in September (just one month from now), and finish around December. That would be great.....

In the meantime, I have done a few things like back in March with a group called Filet of Soul. I sang as a guest on one song called If You Wanna Know. It was a great experience because we wrote, practiced and then recorded the song in 8 hours. A first for me. At least now I know that it is possible. We had a little concert for the release party of the albulm in April I think.... To see and hear just a bit of this concert click here, just have a little patience because it's in french, so you'll have to wait like 40 seconds before it begins. And yes that's Manu Katche on the drums. The project is two horn players named Alex Tassel and Guillaume Naturel, who invited many different people to sit in on different songs. It's a cool project presented by DJ CAM.


I also went to see a french singer named Veronique Sanson play in a place called L'Olympia Hall. It's like playing at Madison Square Gardens if you will. Not the same size, but a strong history. The place was beautiful, and after the concert I got a tour of the hall. I even got to go onstage and look at the place empty, as if I were singing. What a great feeling. Right then at that very moment I made a wish to sing there very soon... And do you know 3 months after I was told that I will be opening for the legendary Isaac Hayes at the.....you guessed it!! L'Olympia Hall....
Now that is synchronicity if ever .......

Speaking of synchronicity, I met up with an old friend from Texas in the metro in Paris. That was funny.... She's here doing her art and just soaking up the art here in Paris. She's been museum hoppin' as well as jazz bar hoppin'.... Now that's how one should see Paris, if you ask me. LOL.

Had a funny story for Berlin, but I don't think I am ready to quite laugh yet. Suffice it to say that gig didn't turn out how I imagined it would. However, we did see some beautiful things and people there so.............. Pictures later .........

Anyway, it's getting late here in sunny old Paris............. Think I'll put on Shirley Horn and chill out...............Peace.