What's New
9/5/08
Beginning a new album
Hi everyone. I am beginning a new recording project, engineered by Barry Phillips, and I plan to release the CD at the Harp Festival (December 19). The new album is a solo double-harp CD of mostly traditional world music, including tunes from Sweden, Bulgaria, China, Zimbabwe, Japan, Ireland, Wales, and America. Many of the songs have been featured in past Harp Festivals and recorded live in the ensemble, but never released commercially, so I am creating solo versions of the originals. You will also hear two compositions by Barry that I absolutely love, and also his arrangement of the Poloness i h-Moll, the Swedish polonaise that he learned from Mikael Marin and arranged for Swedish baroque ensemble - we took that music and put it into four parts for harp ensemble. Anyway, you get the idea - it will be a mix of many of my favorite world music pieces that I've been playing over the last few years. Hopefully Shelley can join me for the Shona pieces (from Zimbabwe, traditionally played on mbira) because we have been playing them like mad lately (we had a lesson with mbira master Cosmas Magaya and were really inspired).
I am also preparing music for two other albums: one, which has been in the back of my mind for a while, is an album/book combo for kids - a collection of sweet and relatively easy songs for the lever harp. The other project is my singer-songwriter album, and that one is more nebulous - I'm not sure if I will record the work live at a show and release it as a record that way, or dive right into a studio project. It's a project I am far more picky about, as I have been wanting to do it for many years. So I'm at home with my fellow artists and I'm alternately teaching, playing in epic/ridiculous rock musicals with my housemates, and holing away in my room working on my own songs or double harp arrangments.
I will post a list of dates as soon as I know the show schedule. For now it looks like the Harp Festival is Friday, December 19, 7pm at Our Lady Star of the Sea, 515 Frederick Street, Santa Cruz, CA. Cheers! - Jesse
6/29/08
Last night of Discourse off the Walls
Tonight is the final performance in Sarah Day and Daniel Davis' month-long contemporary dance festival at the Dead Cow Gallery, Discourse off the Walls: A Month of Dance in a Small Room. I attended about eleven shows, performing in three (including tonight). I strongly encourage folks to show up for the last night because not only will there will a beautiful dance performance, but the setting is an installation by phenomenal visual artist Bridget Henry, who is known for her color reductive woodcuts. She created a forest inside the gallery, where Sarah and Dan and I will perform (I will probably be playing double-harp for this, maybe some accordion and singing too). The show will be followed by a closing night soiree.
Those of you who didn't make it to any shows but still want to support the project, please consider donating after the fact to Shah and Blah Productions - all financial donations go directly to the artists, and there were 40 stellar performers involved this month. Every contribution helps. It was a wonderful month, with many premieres of new work by a variety of artists, and they could definitely use the support. Contact Shah and Blah Productions at myspace.com/shahandblah or just stop by the Dead Cow Gallery at 1040 River Street to drop off a financial donation. Thanks for your support!
The Tannery Music Festival is still in the works for September. It looks like this may be less performance-oriented and more about bringing the music community in for collaborations, jam sessions, and educational workshops. Concerts will be outdoors on weekend nights thoughout September. Interested folks should email me for details. I will post info as it develops.
Cheers, J
6/16/08
Teen Celtic Music Camp in its 9th Year
I'm up at Camp right now, where I am teaching a class of seven phenomenal harp players for the week. There are cellists practicing in the room next to me right now. Teen Camp has been going strong for nine years and I can't believe it's been that long, and I've been here from the beginning. The Community Music School (directed by Shelley Phillips) has been running this fantastic camp and a Kids' Camp for ages and part of the fun is that there is such a high percentage of returning students every year, so it has become a very vibrant musical community. This year's camp seems small and mellow (we've had our crazy pirate-themed camps in summers past) and I can tell that I will be drinking a lot of tea and reading, drawing and playing harp in my room whenever I like. It's beautiful, we're among the redwoods, the weather is perfect, the students are very gifted and fun people. The wigs and strange hats are already being donned. The faculty, minus one, are all under the age of 30 this time, but we're getting up there! We have some new faculty members (Theo Paige on fiddle, Rachel Keynton on cello) and they may be new teachers but they are old friends.
Some other news: I am producing the first Tannery Music Festival in the Dead Cow Gallery for the entire month of September! The festival will include concerts, classes, instrument building workshops, and jam sessions. Musical styles represented include folk, indie, world music, classical, hip-hop, electronic, reggae, rock n roll, and the avant-garde. It's a celebration of the wealth and diversity of local music in Santa Cruz, and an opportunity to get more musicians and artists involved with the upcoming Tannery Arts Center, a project that will house 100 artists and their families in low income live/work apartments, and additionally offer 35,000 square feet of work studio space and a Performing Arts Center with a theater, and a building for the Santa Cruz Ballet School (this is all for artists of every discipline, including musicians, dancers, painters, writers, actors, sculptors, metal workers, crafters, etc). Performers who are interested in participating in the festival should email me for details. Also check out TanneryArtsCenter.org and SCICA.org for more information about the project as well as the Dead Cow Gallery, currently in operation on the Tannery site (there is currently a month-long dance festival happening at the Cow - every single night at 8pm all June long! These people never sleep. SantaCruzDance.com)
That's all for now! Till next time .... J
4/13/08
B-Day & Fun Spring Shows
I turned 26 last Thursday (I'm an Aries all the way), and celebrated by playing music with good friends, eating delicious food, and making an excursion to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to see the Lee Friedlander exhibit. Also visited an actor friend and folksinger friend in the city, and was very inspired to go up more often to perform and see shows. San Francisco is beautiful in spring. 'Twas fun.
Coming up in April and May there are a bunch of great concerts and exciting events: Monday, April 14, 7:30pm is the incredible Swedish band Vasen in concert at Star of the Sea Church, Frederick St, Santa Cruz, hosted by Community Music School (info and tickets at 426-9155). Then on Friday, April 25 at 8pm, Neal Hellman of Gourd Records is releasing his new CD at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, backed by a band of artists (including myself) from his indie music label which has been making stellar acoustic music albums in Santa Cruz for twenty-one years. Info at gourd.com or (800) 487-4939. Sunday, April 27, is Earth Day and Shelley Phillips will be downtown in the afternoon teaching people how to make bamboo flutes by hand. Friday, May 2 is the First Friday Art Tour - you can visit downtown galleries on foot or meet at the Dead Cow Gallery at 1040 River St to take a ride on the Art Bus. Art receptions start at around 5pm and some go late into the night, it's a lot of fun. The next day, Saturday, May 3, 2:00 - 5:00pm there will be a Garden Tea Party with live music, tea and treats at the Felix Kulpa Gallery, 107 Elm St, and I am hosting this one, with a Harp Quintet playing music from Ireland, China and Sweden, the Community Music School Teen Celtic Band, and other special guests. Suggested donation $5 - $10 at the door. Eccentric fashion is encouraged, especially kooky hats. Proceeds benefit the School and the Felix Kulpa, which is a volunteer-run gallery. Come have tea with us! More info at 426-9155.