June 18, 2011- Learning to Want What I Have

The morning of the Clearwater Festival

These two illustrations have ridden in my guitar case for maybe three years, They were drawn by a young man working as a dishwasher that season at a favorite restaurant of mine called the Wall House in St. Barth.

I knew I should have taken them out of my case, but I love seeing them there at each show- a little reminder of what I have.

I don’t remember the artist's name. My favorite new expression is my “memory card is full” (said to me by Chris Shott, Denver Co May 28, 2011) Bilfra @xxxx.com is written on the back of these wonderful doodles.

The good news is that I still love to play and think that it was a lucky choice this music thing, because while the career tennis players and Olympians (ie. alternate careers I bypassed) are slowing down, my career ambles along offering new heights now and then plus enough challenges to give me something to talk about.

Ever since I left my day job at Dannon I figured that my life would be something like this. So what’s “this” really like. Have I become the clerk, glued to my computer as predicted? In many was yes, I have.

On my ride home from my last day as a full time employee, I heard the lead-in to a human-interest story on 1010 Wins, New York’s all news, all the time, traffic and weather station. It said something like this ‘ ever since I opened a fishing store I never have time to fish anymore’


My summer schedule is shaping up. I am playing some new venues, will do some travel and still have time to spend with my friends in between. I just picked up these cards last night, the vendor stayed late waiting for me. The Aug 6th date is listed as Aug 7 on the card- my FAULT!!

photo S. Tomczak

Sat June 18 Clearwater Revival Croton NY

Fri June 24 12 Grapes Peekskill NY

Sat June 25  55 Bar NYC
Sat July 7 Underground Wonderbar Chicago IL
Fri July 8 Club La Salle South Bend IL

Sat July 9 Private Event South Bend IL
Mon July 18  Woodsongs Radio Hour Lexington KY
Sat July 23 55 Bar NYC
Fri July 29 Bellayre Music Fest High Mount NY

Sat July 30 Rams Head  Annapolis  MD

Sat Aug 6 55 Bar NYC

Tues Aug 9 Cape Cod Jazz Chatham MA
 

Complete details at  the website
 Dates are subject to change so call in advance
                                                                                                                                                

Probably with all of the talk of the world ending last month, I got to thinking about what I would want to say or do. Even just hypothetically, it served me. I have been purposely instructing myself to practice wanting what I have.  



I have some new video and a piece from the archives.



  New live video from my Birthday- Beautiful: edited By Ralf Menningen
  

Choose Your Weapon  video Recorded by Jon Chattman at Music Conservatory of Westchester

 Something from the archives- so- so resolution,  sorry I'll look for a good one

March 15, 2011

 I have been collecting some stories in my head and started this essay in St. Barthelemy during our three week stay in February 2011.

Remembering Stanley  “…that’s not a gig?" 

KJ Denhert

In late 1979 I joined a group of four women who started a band called Fire and Stanley Flato was our manager. He was kind and spoke with an unfamiliar accent that I learned was Polish. He was not a tall man or particularly fetching, but I sensed an air of someone who had arrived at his rightful place, wearing a sport jacket and tie almost all the time. We’d meet in his office on 57^th Street and have lunch afterwards, as Stanley’s guests, at the Russian Tea Room. He had a number tattooed on his wrist and forearm that would peek out in the simple act of reaching across the table.  It was just one of those things that you never forget.

Stanley seldom talked to us about his survival in the concentration camps, but that was where the tattoo came from. He explained that his life was spared because he was a musician. Stanley played the violin. “We would play for the SS officers- sometimes when they had sex”-he told us once. Stanley had the kind of mouth where you didn’t see his teeth as he spoke but when he said sex, telling us this story, his eyes were narrow and his lips and teeth formed a straight line across his face. Stanley’s stories were never long, never truly painted a picture of the horror he had survived. This was the way that things were done in those days by men of his age. I was happy to know him as the man who introduced me to the Russian Tea Room, with an office on 57^th Street. Were it not for that tattoo I wonder whether we would have known his history at all.

We were so very young.  There’d be some whining about wanting to play rock gigs and be on the new hottest thing, MTV!  Stanley would find us work in the Catskills and Atlantic City where we made decent money and were booked for months on end. ‘Girls, girls”, he would say with a gentle sort of exasperation as he tried to manage expectations.

As far as Stanley was concerned, he had us working- period! We worked fifty weeks the first year that the band was together. After a typical lunch he’d tell stories where the moral came always with his trademark expression– “that’s not a gig?”

I think he genuinely liked us. Most meetings were probably a chance to feel happy at lunch with five attractive women who were trying to look like budding rock stars. He seemed like a classic manager to me, talking about Joan Rivers and bookings in the Poconos. He would remind us that he was a manager, not a booking agent. He worked with agents! In New York State there is a difference by law, which only people who worked for agencies like William Morris would even know. My agent mentioned this law last year. I said “yes, I know” remembering that Stanley taught me this and so many other things by example. He was a gentleman and a pragmatist, a survivor.

Whenever I see someone with a gig that walks that thin line between survival and art, I say to myself – “that’s not a gig?”. I can hear his accent, the way his voice rose like a shrug of the shoulders. Again, it was just one of those things that you never forget.

While I was in St. Barth’ this season, I invited the keyboard player Adam, to come check out a guitarist from Spain who calls himself Soley. I met Soley six years ago on St. Barth’. This year, I found him playing in the sand at Shell Beach in front of the juice bar with his nylon string guitar. Soley is striking and beautiful, the way I imagine the devil must be, if you believe in such things. He has flowing blond dred locks and eyes the color of the sky at dawn. He erupts with bursts of classic flamenco strumming, singing so very hard with a sandpaper voice. He came over immediately and began to play right in front of me. I’m sure he knows I love him- and that’s ok.  I am fascinated - I think he is brilliant. I can’t believe he’s here playing unplugged in the sand. I also can’t believe that I payed 20 euro for two non- alcoholic fruit smoothies and tried to look cool about that.  As we left I said to Adam – “that’s not a gig?”

February 2011

Epilogue: That night after my gig, when everyone went to sleep, I stayed on the terrace with my laptop and using Google and the name Stanley Flato, found the book A Brush with Death an artist in the death camps-Morris Wysgorod. The few stories I read were unimaginable. I gasped when I saw an illustration of Stanley-it is on page 140 (see below).  My mood grew dark so I said to myself, be grateful you’re in St. Barth’, maybe you’ll see a shooting star. I turned my head up and a shooting star flew straight across the sky as though it traced the line of my nose. That is when I decided to write the story remembering Stanley Flato- a man I will never forget.

Click on the illustration to see the actual on line excerpt from A Brush With Death - Morris Wysgorod 

 Soley -

I am really excited to tell everyone that Album No. 9 is officially released here in the US.
I can’t quite explain what this feels like – but it is a very good feeling. Let’s just say it took a few minor miracles and a sense of humor. The coincidence that it came out on Nov 9^th is just unbelievable. The advertised album price is 9.99!! It’s Magic.

There is a new video press kit about the CD with a few interviews and photos with some of the musicians and co-producer Hal Winer.

Speaking of coincidences- I just received a newsletter from Jen Chapin .Since our first meeting back in 1997 I have been inspired by her work.  I saw Jen playing with a trio in a little candle-lit cafe called Sine . I loved what I saw so much that I went right  out to see her again at the CBGB annex. Jen had a different bass player the second time I saw her perform and his name was Mamadou Ba, and the rest is history.  Mamadou has performed with me regularly since then. One night in '97 Jen made a list of bass players for me I actually saved the page- she wrote 'gorgeous groove' next to Mamadou's name, the next name was Stephan Crump! 

Stephan Crump and Jen Chapin

Today Jen is married to Stephan, and they are performing for the first time at The Falcon in  Marlboro NY on Friday Nov 12^th.  I'm going going to the show because I love Jen and this venue, there is really excellent  world class music going on there every week, and I know that Jen will deliver more magic.

Jen writes and records music, helps the hungry, volunteers at voting polls and gets gigs for her friends bands- she is in the middle of recording her next album and I'd love to support her tireless work by sharing this link with you Help Jen Chapin record her next album

I'll be back with my band at  the Falcon next April 1. Jen will be coming to Ossining in December to perform at the library here in Ossining, doing a fund raiser in my home town.

Speaking of Ossining, have any of you gotten hooked on Mad Men the TV series? The main character is from Ossining and that's why everybody was telling me about it.I think it’s the best writing I have seen. I just completed three seasons and am completely hooked. The time period chronicles  so precisely, my first memories of the world, New York City, ticker tape parades and the sixties. I've been reliving memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis when my family fled to Grenada.  

My album has a fair amount to do with the sixties and the music I loved  as a little girl.Watching Mad Men helped me to understand a little better why the eclectic song selection is such a reflection of my earliest impressions of life. There is a wonderful review of Album No. 9 that really made me feel like  the writer, Mark Saleski understood what I was hearing, even down to my tips of the hat for example to Steeley Dan. - Truly grateful to see that.

Check out the Review Here.


Check out the first single from Album No. 9 Help

At my feet I have this pedal board. I am trying some new cables and I have opened up some real estate so that I can fully access the contours of a new 'Cry Baby From hell' Wah Wah Pedal. I think I've got a handle on this devil. I’m excited to try it tonight at the show in Armonk, that is to say I sure hope I’ll stomp in the right places in Armonk! (Big thanks to Hal Winer and Daryl Bornstein for helping me with this!)

Joining the band for his second appearance on keys, is the dynamic Adam Klipple, he thrilled us all at the 55 and is signed on for a number of shows this fall. He’s just a great musician and I’m sorry that I can’t watch him on more than just the solos where I’ll back up and enjoy the show too.

Saxophonist Charlie and Roseann Lagond  have a music school right here in Westchester and tonight is the annual Charlie Lagond and Friends concert presented by the Friends of The North Castle Public Library- Here’s a clip from last years event with Charlie on sax and yes, drummer Omar Hakim supporting!

This year we are the friends – I’m really happy. Why, I even touched up my pedal board and Daryl offered to send me a photo. So here’s a view you wont get from the audience, a little piece of my world- a place where I can animate and intimate change with the tap of my toe.

Charlie and I will be opening the show with a song. From there, we’ll welcome my friends, my family,  Mamadou Ba-bass, Aaron Heick-sax, Ray Levier -drums and  guest star Adam Klipple-keys, for an early autumn evening of music with one intermission. Admission is free and it is the only scheduled full band appearance in Westchester. It sounds so civilized doesn’t it? why, you can even bring the children!

Monday September 20, 2010

Christelle Durandy
Photo from tutumasocialclub.com

New York, there is no place like home.  Johnny B and I caught Christelle's 7:30pm show at Zinc bar. Lovely show!  Singer-Songwriter, Ansel Matthews, was working the door and assisting in the sound check at Zinc. I remember him working at the Bitter End and the round sound of his nylon string guitar and warm vocals. Was that really the 90's when we met?  Christelle Durandy's show was packed. She sang in French, rhetorically posing the question, when I lived in France, why didn't I sing in French?  Nivea purveyor of all things musical and happening was there! Saw the lovely Sofia Rei, met bassist Mimi Jones, and heard Nicki Denner on keys(that's a lot of talent right there). 9pm—Malika Zarra came walking down the street as we were heading to Arturro's on Houston. Malika, fighting a cold and coughing , was still beaming. She had just finished her recording, right there on W 3rd. Richard Bona was strolling up Thompson St. I called out "Hey M'sr. Bona"- but I doubt he heard- he looked content. I was content -people I know and respect came along in every direction. At Arturro's  (great pizza and jazz trio), I sat in before I realized the place was crawling with Jazz Singers. I met some great singers and heard some great music. Pat O'Leary  on bass, Ray Gallon on keys and drummer, Dan, who shared a drag of his last cigarette with me- were truly swinging.  The best thing about NY is I may have some big hair but I'll never get a big head. The streets are crawling with the  talented and the passionate!