An update on the Musical Front!

I had an awesomely creative day!  I’ve had such an inspiring rehearsal with MsMack – the all-girl vocal group that we started last year.  We are planning and preparing for a show that will be staged in September this year, and the creative ideas and concepts for this show just flowed freely. Amazing! I can’t wait to see it all come to life on stage.

So much has been going on musically that I have not shared on this blog yet. I have just completed a successful solo show, “Jazz & the Gypsies”, and although it was quite a stressful way to start the new year, it was the best way to kick start my musical gigs for this year.  

With my solo gigs, I feel that I have finally found my “signature sound” in terms of the mix of musical instruments (my vocal with piano, accordion, upright bass, acoustic guitar, violin & percussion) as well as in terms of my repertoire.  I love what we’re doing on stage – and it definitely has a very, very positive effect on the audience according to the feedback I’m getting.  I am so grateful!  

Essentially, the musical style is gypsy jazz, but it goes back to the roots of where gypsies originally came from, which is India via the Middle East – so I bring Middle Eastern songs and instruments (darboukas, tablas and an oudh) into the show as well.  It creates a refreshingly different vibe from what the local market here in South Africa is used to – especially the Afrikaans community.  Incidentally, I’m still not sure if this is actually the right audience for this type of music.  However, I am very excited to see where this is going to take me….