Patsy's Blog Page

Tuesday October 31, 2006

I had a fun Halloween Ukulele Cabaret evening on Saturday. Lots of great young performers and songwriters on the scene these days. Kelli Rae Powell and Sweet Soubrette are ones to watch. Kelli Rae writes sly songs of wretched love and delivers them with a powerful voice and assured stage manner. And you know what? Ellia Bisker, aka Sweet Soubrette, does the same, but in her own way. Wow. Fantastic evening of song with just these two fine performers, but there was more. Howie Leifer played us a couple of tunes, Meg Farrell was strong, with songs that should be hits, Sonic Uke rocked the world, Gio Gaynor rocked some more, Heather Lev made an unnannounced appearance, was everyone's pleasure to see and hear Mary J Martin again, Mike Bellusci played some Beatles--perfect for a sing-along, Alan Drogin showed us a classy minimal Eric Satie, and then, Khabu showed up. Khabu Doug Young told me that, just a week before the cabaret show, he'd seen my Web site and wandered to the Ukulele Cabaret Web site link, but thought no more about it, until just two days before the cabaret, when Gio bumped into him on the street, noticed his ukulele case, and invited him to the show. Khabu, dressed in a long black monk's cape (for Halloween, or for real), proceeded to play Duke Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss" like you wouldn't believe on his old Harmony baritone uke. Man! He then played the hell out of "Bye-ya," the Thelonious Monk comp. What a talent! Look out for this guy. Please, to everyone mentioned here, if you have a Web link I didn't plug, let me know about it. Did I miss anyone? I might have been at the bar.

For my part, I played 3 songs the first set, starting with "Everything Happens to Me," followed the Johnny Mercer tune, "Me and the Ghost Upstairs." Then, I invited Marlon Cherry up on stage to handle percussion on "Flamingo," which sounded fine with his cha cha cha beat. Next set up I played a not-well-known 1930s number called "Spell of the Blues," which is suitable for any minor-key circumstance. I am drawing a total blank on which song I closed with. No surprise, since I had had a few to drink, it was getting late, and I was flubbing and bumbling my way through those last numbers anyway. I keep telling myself that I'm going to be good and drink nothing but chocolate milk before one of these gigs, but I always wind up at the bar. Hiccup. People still seem to like me for some reason.

Thanks, Jason and Ted!

Friday, October 27, 2006

Well, I had to miss rehearsal with Rick on Thursday. Had a LATE night at work the night before, and I woke up at 2:00 PM on Thursday. Ugh. I like my night shift when it ends at its normal time (1:30-2:00 AM), but when it goes to 5:30 AM, it hurts.

I started a MySpace page. It's all the rage these days. My dear friend Nina Coquina suggested I do the MySpace thing, so let's see what happens. I have not yet added any "Friends," but I'll work on that over the weekend. Go check it out.

More layta....

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I recorded a uke part for "Desafinado," and I sang it through, but as usual when these things are rushed, as they were today, I'll have to do it over. Rick Sowden is due on Thursday for a rehearsal. I hope we can advance the musical cause at that time. It's hard to find the time to do worthwhile personal things during a workaday week

I talked to Ted Gottfried of Sonic Uke today about Saturday's Ukulele Cabaret, and it's a go. I'm still not sure when I'll get up on stage, and I don't know who'll turn up, although you might expect some regulars like Gio Gaynor, Mary J. Martin, and M. David Hornbuckle to tune in. Sounds like fun!

Left the Paul Summers uke on a rocking chair upstairs and the cat knocked it over. It cracked just to the right of the bridge, but it's a tight one, and I should have no trouble sealing it up with some hot tar.

I really like ukuleles. Can you tell? I find them to be the perfect portable instruments for any imaginable situation. I have played ukes in so many places under so many circumstances that I can no longer separate my historical non-uke experiences from my ukeful ones. I've been playing uke longer than I have not been playing. Ugh.

Later....

Friday, October 20, 2006

Not much happening musically today, but I did get a couple of new microphones. One is a Heil "Heritage" model, which resembles the old "Elvis" mics. It's a beaut--all chrome-plated, copper-on-stainless steel...so shiny that it'll blind the over-curious singer who looks too deep into its reflection. Sounds great, too. I'll use it for gigs whenever I can. I also bought a swell Electrovoice N/D468 instrument mic which will help out on uke and guitar recording and live work. I'm nuts about microphones and sound equipment to the point where I'm sure I'll wind up with many, many more mics than I can ever properly use, and then I'll die and leave it all to my puzzled but well-amplified family.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I got together with Rick Sowden today, and we recorded his guitar track for "Desafinado." First, we settled on the chords. He didn't have his chart with him, and I've had my own uke arrangement of the song for a while, so we spent a good deal of time reconciling our understanding of the tune. Rick cut his track, and then added a lead. I still have to put in my uke & vocal tracks, but it's sounding swell already with just Rick's geetbox.

I'm listening to Joe Williams's album "The Song Is You," named after the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein ballad. Inside the sleeve of the album, I found a Washington Post newspaper clipping of Mr. Williams's obituary. He died on March 29, 1999 at the age of 80. It's a beautiful record, with Mr. W's big baritone filling up the room on a batch of pop-jazz ballads. Classy.

Not much else happening musically today. Tomorrow looks just as dry. Need more music!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Here's my "low-tech" blog page. It's just an easily-editable scrolling text stream, without the typical blog page archive sections, comment fields, etc. I've learned how to make modest updates to the site, so I'd like to keep the thing fresh by writing blog notes and uploading new songs now and again. I invite everyone to send me an e-mail. I'd love to hear from you!

I'm working on a couple of songs with my friend Rick Sowden. Rick is a local (eastern PA-Central NJ) jazz guitarist who has been studying with the great Larry Coryell. Coryell used to live in the New Hope, PA area, and Rick got to know him years ago before Larry moved to Florida. Anyway, Rick and I are working on "Peace" by Horace Silver, Erroll Garner's "Misty," and Jobim's "Desafinado." I've also recently learned the great "Blues in My Heart" by Benny Carter, which I'll record and post some day soon, with hope, in a new "Blues" section.

I'll also be appearing at Jason & Ted's Ukulele Cabaret on Saturday, October 28th, 2006. I'll post details at the Calendar page as soon as I get them.

I must mention that today is my daughter's 23rd birthday. H. Birthday, dahling. It's been a lifetime.

Talk to you later....