Some new music after a long time

It's been a long while since I posted, but I've still been continuing with my music. A lot of what I've been doing has been learning to play with bands, some blues and some jazz. But I took a couple classes this semester at the Jazz School in Berkeley that I've really enjoyed. One was a jazz singing class with Laurie Antonioli, who is a really excellent teacher. And the other is the blues and groove workshop with Danny Caron, who's also a great teacher. Both were fun, and I can feel myself getting better musically. We had our performances for both classes this week, and here's a little music from the shows.

This first one is a version of the great Thelonius Monk tune "Round Midnight," with lyrics written by Bernie Henighen. When I heard this tune, I was somehow reminded of the Indian Raga Kirwani, which is used often in bhajans and other "light classical" music in North India. So I sang an intro to the tune in Raga Kirwani. Accompanying me for this are Lee Bloom on piano, Carla Kaufman on bass, and Doug Kassel on the drums. They were the musicians we practiced with every week in class, and are really quite wonderful.




The second one is my rendition of the classic tune "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans" by Louis Alter and Eddie DeLange, which was composed for the film "New Orleans," and first performed by Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.



The final one is a tune from our Blues and Groove workshop, the Ray Charles tune, Mary Ann. I'm at the piano and singing (if you can see me in the back :). Danny Caron, our teacher, is on bass, Barbara Fitzpatrick on guitar, Jean Fineberg on drums, Dave Ramet on tenor sax, and Vida Bateau on baritone sax.



Hope you enjoy them!