2012 Journey

 Hello! And welcome to my first blog post. Hopefully my bio has given you some good background, but here is a place for me to share current news, happenings, and updates. 

In this post I'd like to share with you my journey of this past year, as it sheds some iight on the new direction I am heading....I have loved jazz for as long at least as far back as high school. I had little exposure to it, let alone a place to play or learn it, while growing up, but am still grateful for the classical training I did receive. I went off to college to study and prepare for music ministry, and that's all I knew through undergrad and grad school (though I remember even then asking my piano teacher to please teach me some jazz chords!!). I seemed to be propelled toward worship leading, that is, until I took a year off from ministry and discovered the Doorway Singers and my love of performing. One thing led to another, and I've been a member of that singing group ever since, have participated in Celtica for the past 7 years, and have been led to numerous other contacts and opportunities through the director. 

In my solo career, I've had 3 different bands, mostly performing at Beach Street for a summer, with a few other gigs on the side. I've explored pop, top 40, and singer-songwriter, but none seemed to fit my voice quite right or take off like I wanted them to. About a year ago, I approached a couple friends who were jazz musicians and asked if they would consider forming a band with me...we started practicing in January and formed Indigo Black....got bookings at Town Center and Beach Street, though Beach Street only as a duo, but, I'm sad to say, the group has already fizzled. I did gain valuable experience in singing jazz and playing flute and realized it is a genre I love and could see myself being a part of for a long time.

With the disbanding of my group, I despaired a little, but always knew I needed real training to actually be a jazz player/singer. I wasn't sure how to do this with two young kids at home and a third on the way. Wtih all my performing and teaching i already do, another time out to pursue classes or lessons was just unaffordable. At the suggestion of my husband, I began to look online and found Berklee Music Online. Upon exploring, I found they had jazz voice, theory, and improv classes, exactly what I was looking for to start my jazz training. So after only a little deliberation, I enrolled in Jazz Voice! I am almost halfway through this course, and it has been great training so far. Every week we study an aspect of jazz voice and then have to learn and record a song for a grade, and it is challenging and humbling! It might not sound that hard listening to the examples, but when you try to do it yourself, you realize how far you have to go. I've been getting great feedback, though, and though always hard for me to handle at first, I eventually am able to accept it and incorporate it into my singing. 

It's a quiet, preparatory time in my life. I stepped back from being a part of church worship for the first time in several years - that was a huge adjustment! - and several other commitments, and feel that not just with jazz, but with expecting out third child in only 3 months, this was a time of preparation, reflection, and quiet to prepare for the next phase of my life.....dont' get me wrong, if you have a jazz gig to throw my way, I am all there!  And I try to make it out to Havana Nights, our local jazz club, as often as I can, to sing with a live band and meet professional jazz musicians. 

Who knows where the Lord will take me? I continue to trust and learn to lean on His guidance. 

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