| Letter from New York |
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Hello dear SAJE Readers I have just returned from a week-long “Circlesong” course in New York, led by Bobby McFerrin and five of his amazing disciples (Rhiannon, Joey Blake, David Worm, Christiane Karam and Judi Donaghy). There were about 170 participants from all walks of life (musicians, non-musicians, adults, teenagers, etc.) and we spent almost eight hours a day singing, improvising, learning and being inspired. “Circlesinging” refers to Bobby’s outlook that everyone can and should sing. You don’t have to be a musician but, of course, the more tools you have the bigger your musical vocabulary will be. We would stand in a circle and Bobby or one of the other faculty would start singing an improvised phrase, allocated it to a group of the singers and then, layer upon layer, build the song until every section of people was singing. It’s like a human loop station. Bobby uses this method to involve his audiences when he’s performing a concert. I learnt a huge amount about improvised music, clarity and intention, vocal production and about teaching. Bobby’s attitude and playfulness towards music is completely inspiring. It reminded me that music is supposed to be fun and that the end musical result is better if we keep this at the fore of our minds throughout. His ability to mimic and Rhiannon’s background in theater also reiterated the aspect of being a singer that involves acting. I’ve always felt a strong pull towards musical theater and I place huge importance on the dialogue that occurs in between songs because you have a chance to be, all at once, open, vulnerable and an entertainer in whatever story or anecdote you share with your audience. The pedagogical lessons of the week were incredibly illuminating for me. I’ve come away with new tricks up my sleeve and ideas for future workshops and lessons. I also came away with a vastly deep sense of gratitude for all the teachers I’ve been fortunate enough to study with. They run the gauntlet from my first piano teacher (Merryl Preston, who nurtured me for a whopping 12 years) to my first saxophone teacher (Bob Mowday, who has influenced so many young horn players) to my theory teacher (Noreen Moodie, whose wisdom continues to amaze me) to Natascha Roth (my first ever jazz voice teacher who treated me as an equal and therefore challenged me to be better and brighter) to Francois Du Toit (I have so much love for his loveliness as a human being!) to Andrew Lilley to Anthea Haupt and to my most current batch of leaders and gurus-Peter Eldridge, Dave Liebman, Phil Markowitz, Theo Bleckmann, Dominique Eade and more. Teachers are too underrated and too pivotal in our development as people. The reason I’m sifting through a bucket of teacher-related love is because I was very lucky this past week. Lucky in the sense of this quote: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I had the opportunity to sing my transcription of Bobby McFerrin’s “Blackbird” for Bobby himself. It was intensely surreal and blissful. And I also had the opportunity to discuss my method with him, Judi and the 170 participants. In listening back to my discussion, I am overwhelmed by how each of the teachers mentioned above are in some way responsible for the practice or work method that led me to this moment. If you’re interested in watching the clip, you can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GW9O2EhZnw As many of you know, I graduated in May 2011 and, after a blissful holiday in the US with my mum and big sister, flew back to Cape Town for a month-long holiday. It was a holiday-no gigs (not for lack of trying mind you-but this turned out to be good for me, a forced break), no frantic running around trying to fit in people before I left again, and no more school (happiness of note). I spent my time seeing friends, spending time with family, listening to lots of live jazz (there's so much wonderful stuff happening in the Cape Town jazz scene) and revisiting the things I miss most about CPT (Kirstenbosch, Kalkbay, Franschhoek, Sea Point, and, of course, Cavendish Square). I was fortunate enough to go away for a week to the Eastern Cape with my amazing family. We traveled to the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. The purpose of this trip was two-fold: I had a handful of dear, dear university friends playing at the Jazz Festival and I wanted to hear them and support them, and we wanted to return to The Madhatter Coffee Shop to eat their bran muffins (still good I might add). We saw amazing theater-my mother booked like a complete pro-and heard amazing jazz. The Standard Bank Youth Jazz Festival is amazing. Completely unique in its ability to bring together musicians of different nationalities and have them converse in their shared language-music. That might sound incredibly esoteric and artsy fartsy, but it's true. Music is as much of a language as French or Spanish or English or Mandarin. The proof is in the fact that several times I have been in the company of people who do not speak English AT ALL, yet I will put a piece of paper in front of them, covered in little black dots and lines, and they will say something musically that I understand and that I can respond to in a manner that they will comprehend. It's amazing. This year's festival was no different to past years where the level was incredibly high and the music extremely varied and interesting. It was lovely to see all the musicians I've grown up with-from high school days, from Beau Soleil Music School days, from UCT/SACM days, and then from being a professional musician working in the SA industry. Was it difficult for me to feel my "place" in that scene has been covered in two years of dust and debris and now lays dormant? Yes, it was. But, at the same time, I understand the way time changes things, roles, and dynamics and I accept I am responsible for my choices. My only hope is that one day geography will matter less and personal relationships, ability, and a sense of history will matter more. I returned to NYC six weeks ago and have hit the ground running. I tend to get the same questions about the same things so let me answer all these questions now. As an international student in the USA on an F1 visa, you get a year to work in the USA, in your field of study, following completion of your degree (this is called Optional Practical Training or OPT). So, I am not on a work visa nor am I on an artist (O1) visa. I am simply on an extension of my student visa. Since music was my field of study, the rules are very broad as to what constitutes working in this particular field. I can teach, I can perform, I can work at a music store, I can work at a record label, etc, etc. Being a bit picky I didn't want a job that would interfere with any possible nighttime gigging activity, allow me to get lost in the woodwork working at some massive label or agency, or a job that would hinder my progress in networking in NYC. At the end of my studies, I began working as a personal assistant to my teacher, Peter Eldridge. I would organize his private teaching schedule, put charts into Sibelius (a music notation program) for him, eat cookies with him, etc. I also answered a Face Book ad from Taylor Eigsti-a prodigal jazz pianist who, at the age of 26, had been Grammy nominated, and played with people like Joshua Redman, Dave Brubeck, Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato and more (http://www.tayloreigsti.com/). I met with Taylor at his flat and we got along really well which seemed to secure the beginnings of my freelancing as a personal assistant for other jazz musicians. While working for Taylor, I started working for Becca Stevens-a wonderful person and even more incredible singer/songwriter who sings with Taylor and leads her own unique band (she has also just returned from singing with the F.L.Y. Trio-Larry Grenadier, Mark Turner, Jeff Ballard, and has featured on Kurt Elling, Gretchen Parlato and Esperanza Spalding's lists of "people to listen to"). I would sell merchandise at Becca's gigs, update mailing lists, do research about music rights, etc. and, apart from the job, I made a new friend and mentor of sorts (http://beccastevens.com/) So all these "bit" jobs seemed to fill my days and give me the sense of purpose I'd feared I wouldn't have in the freelance field. When I worked last summer (for Oded Lev-Ari, Anat Cohen and Amy Cervini-a job which has left me with surrogate parents and phenomenal mentors in Amy and Oded as well as odd jobs stuffing envelopes and babysitting their adorable son, Ethan) I had also applied to work for Karen Kennedy. In hindsight, I “applied” to work for Karen for a full year. If that isn’t persistent, I don’t know what is! The moral of the story? Persistence pays off-a year later and I am Karen’s “operations assistant.” Karen is fascinating. Originally from LA, she worked a product manager at A&M Records and, later, as marketing manager at Silas Records. She is eloquent. She is clever. She is strategic. She is passionate. She is inspiring. She is amazing at what she does. She moved to NY and started her own company-24 Seven Artist Management (http://karenkennedy.net/home.html) and she currently represents Kenny Barron, Stefon Harris, Gretchen Parlato and Jacky Terrason. Karen's work really fills my time. It makes me feel efficient and it makes me feel productive. I am ever so grateful to her for these feelings of being answerable to someone. The majority of work I do for her involves compiling artist itineraries and liaising between artists, managers, venues, production teams, etc. It's all email correspondence-which means I can work from home or from a coffee shop-and I get to keep my own hours (as long as it gets done in a timely fashion I can go to yoga, or spend an hour practicing, and then get to answering emails about lobby call times, flight details and djembe drum transportation). I also get to network with some of the most respected people in the USA jazz industry. It's a thrill and it's wonderful to do something that is black and white, it's within my control, it's tangible. It's so unlike the artistic/practical aspect of being a musician. You're constantly waiting to get the green light from someone else, or you have no idea if you'll get that gig, or what your next step will be. The stability it provides is invaluable. While I was working for Karen, I started planning my album recording. I had a couple of meetings with other artists and producers to see who felt right to use in a producer role. One of these people was Matt Pierson (http://mattpierson.net/Welcome.html). Matt is a record exec, in the truest sense of the word. He was high up on both the Time Warner and Blue Note ladders, is very business minded and savvy, has helped artists gain notoriety, and has over 25 years in the music business. I got on very well with Matt but decided to record sans a producer. Upon telling him my decision, he asked if I knew someone "reliable and efficient". Well, the "American way" is to be hugely self-confident and to go out there, guns a-blazing, wearing your skills on your sleeve. I didn't take this exact approach but I did think about it and decide to tell him I was "fairly reliable and mostly efficient." What ensued was an interview with the director of a recording project for charity (breast cancer) that will feature Broadway actors/singers singing lullabies. Matt was the musical producer and they were looking for a project coordinator (someone to organize the recording schedule, liaise with the artists, producers, etc.) It's worth noting that there are people out there who are PROFESSIONAL project co-coordinators. It's what they do. I was completely green in this arena but I also knew, from my work with Karen, that I could do the job. So, I got the job. I am now beginning to immerse myself in email-sending-writing-reading-compiling for "The Breast Cancer Lullaby Project" which is going to feature Sutton Foster, Anika Noni Rose, Judy Kuhn, Victoria Clarke, and many more singing the music of revered and worshipped Broadway composers and lyricists. It's a big freaking deal. And if you don't know who any of those people are, that's ok, it's a musical theater-nerd thing :) In the performing realm, I recently started performing at a venue in the West Village called Caffe Vivaldi, which is something of an institution in the Village. The venue has seen the likes of Woody Allen, Rob Reiner, Bette Midler and Al Pacino, it's mostly a wooden interior, cosy, informal, inviting and it's been a lovely "home" for me to play my music with some outstanding musicians. I also survived (no small feat) a week of the School for Improvisational Music's summer intensive course. Led by Ralph Alessi (whom I adore and have the utmost respect for), SIM is an institution housed at Brooklyn's Long Island University campus. They run intensive programs in Norway, Poland and more and the school focuses on a slice of the jazz pie that doesn't get too much attention in music schools and conservatories. People call it "free jazz" or "avant-garde" music, but the people who make a living playing it, hate these terms. They're just improvising, they say. It's not my genre. I don't enjoy quite so much freedom. But, man, did it stretch my ears and my mind (and my tolerance). I came away from the week knowing this: Listening is the most important thing. As the great Art Lande pointed out, "we're listeners before we're players." Enigmatic Jim Black said, "It doesn't matter what other people think. Do you like it? Then play it." He also, when asked who he'd like still like to play with in his lifetime, said," I don't want to play with anyone. I NEED to play with my friends. But I don't need to play with other people." The course also reiterated what phenomenal educators many of these NY musicians are-they're so eloquent and wise and approachable. It was very difficult for me to concentrate and be present at the course. But I came away from it having identified my weaknesses and what I need to practice, closer to knowing what I do and don't like (so important), and having sung "Blackbird", a capella, for Vijay Iyer at 9am in the morning without warming up (if that doesn't make you braver & stronger, I don't know what will!). There's so much methodology in the US that isn't used elsewhere in the world. At the SIM course, I was enveloped into a largely instrumental environment but taught in the exact same way. It made me think a lot about how singers can be stretched and challenged in a coaxing manner, that develops a more refined ear and palette (that instrumentalists often possess). The “Circlesong” workshop let me see how large groups are led into making improvised music within minutes of getting together. The possibility of doing that with a group of singers and the rewards being instant is very powerful. We work so hard and for such a long time (a lifetime to be exact) on our abilities as musicians, that we often forget that music (especially singing) is supposed to be second nature. Get rid of preconceptions. Get rid of judgment. Get rid of pressure. Focus on making a sound, in unison with other voices. It's a terribly simple premise. Why do we not do it more often, I wonder? I am also thrilled to let you know that I'll be recording my debut album at the end of September with a tribe of incredible friends and musicians and an engineer who is a kindred spirit in terms of aesthetic. I will definitely keep you in the loop but for now all I know is that the adventure continues and, sure, there are highs and lows, good days and bad, but gosh am I having a lot of fun. Love to you all,
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by Nicky Schrire