Today, Oct 26, 2011 - or is that yesterday....I've been up all night working on the computer. Getting some much needed promo done....on time, for a change!! It must be yester-today....or to-yesterday. I'm delirious! - It's a musician's life.
Ok, yesterday was Tuesday. The day started with me having stayed up till extremely late after teaching and gigging at night at the Kino Cafe show with Sal and Pancho's amazing and colorful Gypsy Caravan 'tribe'. A family group that attracts a super colorful extended family and friends 'audience' that also ends up flowing on and off stage, since many of them are other players, singers, dancers. It was beautiful. Jacky Essombe and other fashion models / dancers from the Maiwa Fashion Show were out in force! (including me - we did that show 2 days before, with music by friends Pepe Danza, Ron Stelting, and Sacha Levin). After a virtual parade of talent across the stage and thru the music at Kino I went home and relaxed by studying music parts for some of the repertoire I have to know, while stretching on my sheepskins. It was such a nice change to be quiet and doing music just for my own pleasure and learning at home, that I got to bed at 7am or so.
When I got up, it was late afternoon. Enough time to rush about getting ready for the day, or what was left of it - dressing and feeding myself, whilst sprinting around the house, and preparing myself to teach my Tues night drum class, last of the 7 week session. (I run the classes throughout the year except August). Rush rush.....to the space, set up, then enjoy the blissful class with beautiful people, then a little student performance group meeting, then to Nyala restaurant on Main St. with friends, for their closing musical night, then to an invitation to Sal and Pancho's place with friends. Chill lying about at that point was very appropriate. Me and 2 friends walked into their warm and cosy living room of people quietly jamming and relaxing. I let the others play music while I chatted and flopped on the couch. We were all musicians! People living an unusual, often nomadic, and very colourful lifestyle. Pancho brought out Kombucha and Tequila (not to drink together!), and we enjoyed time into the wee hours with each other.
Before dawn, it was time to go. I'm packing it in with them since they are leaving for a few months in days time. I love to play music with people who are also my friends. It is the best. We've spent a lot of musical time together in the past year and it has been sweet. Now, change is in the air, and it's on to the next thing. As an artist, everything changes all the time. It's hard to keep track. Constant factors are busyness, late night schedule, lots of bliss music moments but lots of crazy running around between, and the ever ever ever present administrative work - hours on the computer every week, promoting, outreach, organizing gigs, planning and scheduling rehearsals, and trying to manage the ever growing email inflow. Scary. But all good, and all necessary for the job. Constant factors are also running from one thing to the next with barely time to absorb or process all the varied and rich experience, let alone the material that is played, learned, taught, shared.
Speaking of which, last night, I came home to recall my admin work, undone, at 4am. Decided to get to work instead of sleep, so I could go to Ladner to Jamie Perry's daughter Stella Bella Blue's birthday party with my musical friends. Jamie is musical genius Bocephus King, and we have been playing together with my other above mentioned friends regularly for a long time now. Members of the Chai community, where we play a lot, and who also become like family, will be at the gathering too. It will be a beautiful time, and I have missed all those times this year so far, out in Ladner at Jamie's, due to crazy busy schedule with work.....so, this is the moment to make it happen. 8 hours of newsletter writing later, here I am. It was a lot of work but always easier to actually just do - than to get started. And sooooo good to have finished, on time.
Now I can have a nap and go enjoy my friends again in a few hours, and probably more music, definitely more hanging out and being human. I love this!
My calendar tells me I have a meeting for preparing for a DJ accompaniment gig on the weekend at 1030pm tonight, so it feels like I have some time, at 1:30 this afternoon, as I write..
Yep, it's a crazy lifestyle. But for now, I love it. So many moments of musical transportiveness.......being human with my friends........being in creative flow........being in community. The quiet life will come later.....down the road......or maybe even tonight, for a brief moment, late and when my time is only mine, with no audience or students....or bandmates....and I am quietly enjoying my carpeted, sheep-skinned room on the floor, stretching, reading, listening, indulging in some downtime and dreamtime.
Ok, yesterday was Tuesday. The day started with me having stayed up till extremely late after teaching and gigging at night at the Kino Cafe show with Sal and Pancho's amazing and colorful Gypsy Caravan 'tribe'. A family group that attracts a super colorful extended family and friends 'audience' that also ends up flowing on and off stage, since many of them are other players, singers, dancers. It was beautiful. Jacky Essombe and other fashion models / dancers from the Maiwa Fashion Show were out in force! (including me - we did that show 2 days before, with music by friends Pepe Danza, Ron Stelting, and Sacha Levin). After a virtual parade of talent across the stage and thru the music at Kino I went home and relaxed by studying music parts for some of the repertoire I have to know, while stretching on my sheepskins. It was such a nice change to be quiet and doing music just for my own pleasure and learning at home, that I got to bed at 7am or so.
When I got up, it was late afternoon. Enough time to rush about getting ready for the day, or what was left of it - dressing and feeding myself, whilst sprinting around the house, and preparing myself to teach my Tues night drum class, last of the 7 week session. (I run the classes throughout the year except August). Rush rush.....to the space, set up, then enjoy the blissful class with beautiful people, then a little student performance group meeting, then to Nyala restaurant on Main St. with friends, for their closing musical night, then to an invitation to Sal and Pancho's place with friends. Chill lying about at that point was very appropriate. Me and 2 friends walked into their warm and cosy living room of people quietly jamming and relaxing. I let the others play music while I chatted and flopped on the couch. We were all musicians! People living an unusual, often nomadic, and very colourful lifestyle. Pancho brought out Kombucha and Tequila (not to drink together!), and we enjoyed time into the wee hours with each other.
Before dawn, it was time to go. I'm packing it in with them since they are leaving for a few months in days time. I love to play music with people who are also my friends. It is the best. We've spent a lot of musical time together in the past year and it has been sweet. Now, change is in the air, and it's on to the next thing. As an artist, everything changes all the time. It's hard to keep track. Constant factors are busyness, late night schedule, lots of bliss music moments but lots of crazy running around between, and the ever ever ever present administrative work - hours on the computer every week, promoting, outreach, organizing gigs, planning and scheduling rehearsals, and trying to manage the ever growing email inflow. Scary. But all good, and all necessary for the job. Constant factors are also running from one thing to the next with barely time to absorb or process all the varied and rich experience, let alone the material that is played, learned, taught, shared.
Speaking of which, last night, I came home to recall my admin work, undone, at 4am. Decided to get to work instead of sleep, so I could go to Ladner to Jamie Perry's daughter Stella Bella Blue's birthday party with my musical friends. Jamie is musical genius Bocephus King, and we have been playing together with my other above mentioned friends regularly for a long time now. Members of the Chai community, where we play a lot, and who also become like family, will be at the gathering too. It will be a beautiful time, and I have missed all those times this year so far, out in Ladner at Jamie's, due to crazy busy schedule with work.....so, this is the moment to make it happen. 8 hours of newsletter writing later, here I am. It was a lot of work but always easier to actually just do - than to get started. And sooooo good to have finished, on time.
Now I can have a nap and go enjoy my friends again in a few hours, and probably more music, definitely more hanging out and being human. I love this!
My calendar tells me I have a meeting for preparing for a DJ accompaniment gig on the weekend at 1030pm tonight, so it feels like I have some time, at 1:30 this afternoon, as I write..
Yep, it's a crazy lifestyle. But for now, I love it. So many moments of musical transportiveness.......being human with my friends........being in creative flow........being in community. The quiet life will come later.....down the road......or maybe even tonight, for a brief moment, late and when my time is only mine, with no audience or students....or bandmates....and I am quietly enjoying my carpeted, sheep-skinned room on the floor, stretching, reading, listening, indulging in some downtime and dreamtime.
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