My blog is moving!

Hello Good People of the Interwebs!

Moving forward, my blog will appear on my web site at http://www.amandamonaco.com/news. This blog will no longer be operational. Thanks!

New Day, New Year, New Decade, New Post!

Happy New Year, everyone! I know, I know, it’s been a long time…but it’s a new day, new year, new decade, even, so here’s a new post.

I was looking at last year’s posts and realized that there was only a dozen or so. I hope to fix that this year!

The year is already off to a great start. New Year’s Eve was spent with our good friends Cindy and her daughter Lydia. Every year (since 2000!) it’s the same lovely tradition: a cheese plate with olives and what Andrey likes to call “smashed fig” (pressed fig with almonds), followed by a delicious seafood bouillabaisse with parmesan-toasted baguette “croutons”. We watch the ball drop on TV (this year on a live internet feed instead), have a champagne toast, and play a game of Scrabble or Monopoly for the next few hours.

The last time I had a gig on New Year’s Eve was for the millennium. At the time, I was working as a secretary and my boss needed a band to play a New Year’s party at his country club in Long Island. Even though I am primarily a jazz musician, I promised to put together a band that could play “dance” music. We ended up playing more old-school soul music (as opposed to the “Electric Slide”) but it went well, even though there were some moments that were a bit stressful when people were makingrequests and we didn’t know the tunes. I swore it would be my last gig leading a “club date” band as it’s not my forte, to be sure!

I’ve been unemployed on New Year’s Eve ever since, and to be honest, it’s fine by me. I still have memories of struggling to find a cab while schlepping my gear; being grabbed by the waist while on stage by a drunk audience member at Louisiana Bar and Grill in 1997 (screaming at him got his hand off me right quick); getting a funny feeling when the vocalist sang a particular line in the tune “Old Folks” (“someday they’ll be no more Old Folks”) only to find out that my Aunt Alice had passed away sometime that evening. Not the greatest of times, to be sure.

The only “club date” band I play in now is one that only plays a very specific repertoire of Motown and old soul classics, and whoever hires us can request songs in advance, but there are limits as to what we will play. This has made those gigs few and far between, but always a ton of fun for both the band and the guests.

Anyway, back to New Year’s…so I slept kind of late today (10 a.m.), got up, practiced, had breakfast with Andrey. We have no plans today – not even my usual gig at the synagogue is happening – so I’m home enjoying the sunshine, the quietness of the day. I’ll pick up my guitar again after this and write some new music.

Speaking of new music, Deathblow got together the other day to play three new tunes of mine, and it was pretty fabulous. Michaël, Sean, and Satoshi are just incredible musicians who aren’t afraid to participate in shaping the course of how the tunes will go. They never cease to surprise me with what they can do with a simple lead sheet of mine.

Deathblow has a gig at The Stone coming up, which I’m super excited about. The great saxophonist/composed Matana Roberts curated the month of January at The Stone, and she asked us to play on Tuesday, January 12 at 8 p.m. We’ll have mostly new music.

We’re also playing at the 2010 Winter Jazz Fest on January 9 at 7:45; we have a 40-minute showcase where we’ll play our four strongest tunes. This one’s going to be great, too as we’ll be sharing the night with a bunch of other great bands such as Elliot Sharp’s Terraplane and The Claudia Quintet. I’m looking forward to both listening and playing!

I hope that your New Year’s Day is a good one. ‘Til next time…

Take Me Out To The Ball Game…or at least to 59 St.

Last Wednesday I was walking up the stairs to the #4/5/6 trains at Grand Central Station, happy to be on time for my first student of the day, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted the bottom of a dark green subway car sitting on the tracks. Initially thinking it was one of the “garbage” trains that you see on the tracks now and again, I was surprised and overwhelmingly excited to find that this was a vintage subway car, put back in service in honor of the first day of the post-season at Yankee Stadium!

A little known fact about me is that I’ve always loved the subway. The NYC Subway and I share the same birthday (October 27) and I’ve always had a fascination with old New York subway cars. (One of these days I MUST get to the Transit Museum – maybe I’ll go on our birthday!) For years I’ve been hearing that every now and again they’ll take a really old train out for a ride through town, but I’ve never had the fortune to find myself on one – until now.

Giddy as a schoolgirl, I practically skipped onto the train, sat myself down on one of the old woven seats (leather or plastic? no one could figure it out…) and prepared for the ride uptown. The inside of the car was filled with old-fashioned ads (clearly placed there in the not-too-distant past, but true to the spirit of the originals), ceiling fans, and plenty of rubber/metal straps to hang on to.

Once everyone was on board (and believe me, there was plenty of confusion with those trying to take the train) we were off. The good news? It ran just as fast as today’s cars (or so it seemed). The bad news? It took forever to open and close the subway doors, and when I had to transfer to a local train, service was so screwed up that I had to let two trains go by before I could even find space in one – and was late to my first lesson. Once I told them the story of the vintage subway car, though, they didn’t seem to mind.

OK, It’s Official:

I think it’s time for me to admit that there’s just not enough hours in the day to do what I need/want to do. Either that, or my time management skills are SO HORRENDOUS that I need serious help. Or I’m too distracted. Or I can blame having MS and the cognitive dysfunction it can cause. Or a little of everything.

So, in an effort to “get it all done”, I have begun asking my “civilian” (i.e. non-musician) friends what they do. One made an elaborate hand-written spreadsheet that she recommended I put into Excel, which was helpful. Another friend just recommended I be “realistic” (what’s that?), look at everything I’m doing, and ask myself, “what will it take to get this done?” and, more importantly, “can it get done?”

Never one to step away from a challenge, it’s difficult for me to answer the latter because if the answer were to be “no”,  I would most likely refuse to accept it. Maybe it’s because I have MS that I have become more stubborn. I refuse to let this disease take me down; it is my worst enemy and I will fight it with everything I’ve got.

One thing’s for certain: I have TONS of photos from this summer, and there will be blog postings for them, better late than never.

Some of the things that are keeping me busy:

1. A new CD - LateSet Records will officially release my CD I Think I’ll Keep You in the US on October 20. We’ll have a CD Release party on October 27 at Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village (which, coincidentally, is also my birthday).

2. Another new CD: Posi-Tone Records has released Playdate’s first CD, and we need a CD Release Party gig, so I’m working on that, as well as the press release.

3. Training for the ING NYC Marathon (26.2 miles!) that takes place on November 1, 2009 – need I say more?

4. A Gig with my Pirke Avot Project – We’re playing at Drom, 85 Avenue A, on October 7 at 9 p.m. We’re rehearsing next week, and I’m putting the finishing touches on three new tunes.

5. Know Thyself – Noah Baerman, one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world (we met in high school 19 years ago!) received a grant from Chamber Music America and has written a fabulous hour-long suite of music for his trio plus four other musicians (basically, it’s our group Playdate with an alto saxophonist/flutist and a vibraphonist). We’ll be premiering this piece at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut on November 13, with another performance at New York City’s Jazz Gallery on November 19.

6. Vipassana – we’ll be performing this gorgeous piece by composer Joe Phillips on October 28 at the Brooklyn Lyceum at 8 p.m.

7. Practicing – because one can never practice too much.

8. Teaching – I love my students, and I have a lot of them. They’re all making great progress!

Yikes! It’s a little after 1 p.m. – I’m getting off schedule. More to come…

NGW IL: an intimate “unplugged” concert

We were sitting in the office when an annoying, high-pitched alarm began to sound. I walked around the building to discover that half of the lights were out; I learned soon after that power in the auditorium was off. Further investigations revealed that a transformer had blown, and it would take some time to fix it – so much time that we wouldn’t have the auditorium for our student concert night.

What began as a small crisis turned into a surprisingly beautiful evening. Crammed into a seminar room at Judson University, equipped with nothing but one microphone, a few guitar amps, and a drum set made up of a snare drum and a 6″ splash cymbal, the student concert went off without a hitch – quieter than normal, smaller space than normal, no stage lights.

We had singer/songwriter acts such as Danielle Thomas (with faculty member Greg Horne)

A bunch of really sweet blues numbers such as “Got My Mojo Workin’:

and a ton of other good tunes with lots of energy and audience participation:

The night ended with a sing-a-long of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”, sung my NGW’s own Matt Smith and led by a young man from Milan named Elio:

We were all delighted at how nice the evening was! It reminded us of the “good old days” of NGW, when we were at the CT campus and had outdoor concerts on the patio in front of the office. We almost considered not going back to the stage for the second night, but we did. To be continued…

NGW IL – Sunday, 12 July – getting it together?

I’m sitting in the office of the Elgin, IL campus of NGW. Jason (the head director) is on Windows Live Messenger visiting with his wife and son, along with Allison (last year’s assistant director – and boy, do we miss not having her on board this year!) and her son, Dylan, who are here for a little visit. It’s really cute that they can talk on the phone and visit on video together…technology is amazing.

Speaking of technology, this has been my summer for it. Not only did Jason introduce me to TweetDeck so that I could organize all of the people I’m following, but today’s discovery was Google Reader, where I can follow all of my favorite blogs in one spot. It’s soo great because it’s all gathered in one spot; does this mean I’ll be more organized? That I can stay on top of what’s going on and still have more time to practice and compose?

Now if I can just figure out how to book a European tour for Deathblow and still pay the bills…

NGW IL – Saturday, 11 July 2009

It’s a quiet day here at the NGW campus in Elgin, IL, as we await the arrival of the faculty. The IL campus is soo wonderful. Located at Judson University, Scott and Diane (the directors of Conference Services) always make our jobs easier than ever. They store our amplifiers and office supplies during the year, they have the dorm list ready to go before we arrive, they have our office set up with all of our boxes when we go there to set up…not to mention that they are two of the nicest and most organized people I’ve ever met.

The dorms are pretty unique: once a 7-story hotel, each dorm room is, essentially, a hotel room with private bath and enough dorm beds, dressers, and desks for three students. There are ethernet jacks in every room, and a keyed elevator to get to our floor, for extra security (even though I’m pretty sure that the crime is pretty low around here – and even if it wasn’t, the security in this place is tight!).

Jason Shadrick (the head director) and I arrived in Chicago’s O’Hare airport on Thursday morning, picked up the rental van, and headed to Jazz Record Mart, where I got a sweet Baby Doll T-Shirt with Blue Note Records artwork on it. (Note to musicians: if your band sells Baby Doll t-shirts at their gigs instead of the shapeless t-shirts, more women will wear them.) Then it was a quick burrito at Chipotle and off to Judson to meet with Scott and Diane, our new Assistant Director, and the RAs for the week. This is the “Dream Team”; we finished all of our prep work by lunchtime today, and have had the afternoon off. I practiced, took a quick nap, and now I’m writing to you.

I never thought I would be a “director”, but I enjoy it; besides, I’ll be teaching at NGW’s Purchase, NY campus August 9-14 (and it’s not too late to take my jazz guitar seminar if you’re interested!) as well as Berklee College of Music’s Guitar Sessions August 19-22, as well as a few gigs in August, so it will be a music-filled summer no matter which way you look at it.

NGW Part One: McLean, VA

It’s summer time, and the living is on the road. Last week I was serving as Logistics Director of the National Guitar Workshop’s McLean, VA campus, located at the beautiful Madeira School, home to one of the greatest views of the Potomac River that I’ve ever seen:

This is always a great campus to work at because our campus contact, Kim Newsome, is friendly and helpful, and has made setting up camp far from home a delight.

Both of this week’s guest artists were guitarists I admire: jazz legend Pat Martino and shred legend (not to mention new jazz guitar hero) Alex Skolnick (of Testament/TSO fame).

It was my first time meeting Pat Martino. Jason Shadrick (my head director), Tom Dempsey (Legends of Jazz Guitar Instructor), and John Horne (Rock Core Instructor) went to the famous Blues Alley jazz club in Washington, DC to hear Pat play with organist Tony Monaco (who I am convinced is a long-lost cousin of mine), saxophonist Eric Alexander, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. What a set! They were recording for an upcoming live CD, and the band was on fire.

We spent a bit of time talking to Pat afterwards, and I’ve gotta say, you’ll never meet a warmer individual. He arrived at NGW a few days later to give a phenomenal master class, and taught some private lessons the following day. All three times I was able to spend some time with him and his wife, Aya, and it was a real treat. They are beautiful people, really deep and great to talk with. Aya also plays guitar, and accompanied Pat on guitar during his clinic (which I’m sure was amazing, but I was stuck in the office because my Assistant Director was MIA…aargh). I tried Aya’s Benedetto guitar after the clinic, and I loved it so much I felt like I had cheated on my guitar. What is it about nice guitars that guitarists have a zillion needs for them, or so they feel like they had a zillion needs for them? As soon as I gave the guitar back I was thinking about how I could get a Benedetto guitar eventually, if I was really frugal and saved all my pennies…though that’s a lot of pennies!

As for Alex Skolnick, he’s an old friend of mine. We met at NGW in 1994 at the John Scofield Master Class; he was just starting to get into jazz after years of playing in a very successful metal band (Testament). I was able to attend Alex’s Master Class, and it was about as thorough as one can get, and very easy to understand. Alex is such a phenomenal player in that his knowledge is so vast, and he explains the guitar and the music in a way that is inviting and inspiring.

All in all, a fantastic week. On Thursday I leave for Chicago…stay tuned!

rehearsing on the floor

My dear friend Ayelet Rose Gottlieb is moving back to Israel in about a month after living in the States for about ten years. I will miss her terribly, but I know we’ll still see each other often as she’ll be coming back to New York on a regular basis. Still, we have to make a record before she goes as I have a musical project that wouldn’t be right without her beautiful voice singing on it.

Ever since I first discovered the Pirke Avot I’ve been enamored of it. A compilation of the select teachings of over 65 different rabbis, the Pirke Avot has been studied for centuries. Its wisdom is so relevant even in today’s world (I should say especially in today’s world!) and I’ve always wanted to put it to music…

…so here it is: The Pirke Avot Project, with the text in Hebrew and English, with Ayelet on vocals, Sean Conly on bass, Satoshi Takeishi on floor percussion, and Daphna Mor on recorders and nay (a Middle Eastern flute).

We had our first rehearsal yesterday, with Quinsin Nachoff filling in for Daphna on clarinet (we have a gig at Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village on Sunday May 17, and Daphna couldn’t be there). Being that Satoshi plays floor percussion, he showed up at my house, moved the drumset around (using part of it) and sat himself on the floor. I then realized that I only had one music stand for five people, and that I couldn’t get another one because it was in my apartment upstairs and we were getting the carpet replaced so I couldn’t get in, so we all sat on the basement floor (well, except for Quinsin – sitting on the floor with a clarinet would have been tough) and played.

I’m really excited about the gig and the recording! It’s been a bit rushed, if only because a) Ayelet’s moving two weeks earlier than I thought she was and b) I am such a big procrastinator when it comes to writing music, but it’s going to be really fun.

The first review of the new CD

The first review of my new CD, I Think I’ll Keep You, was written by Stuart Broomer and appears in the April issue of AllAboutJazz-New York and on the web at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=32141

It’s so funny having a CD on a label that takes care of everything for you! Being the control freak that I am, I keep asking them, “what should I be doing?” and they, in the nicest way possible, tell me that they’ll take care of it and that I don’t have to worry about it. And  yet still I fidget, start feeling guilty/lazy/disorganized, like I’m supposed to be doing something (as if I didn’t have enough to do already!) but then Andrey reminds me to chill out and let them do what they say they’re going to do. And I remember that for about a week before I start getting antsy again. Something I need to work on, I guess…

Things continue to be busy. I have a gig at the Rhythm in the Kitchen music festival tonight, preceded by a panel discussion about the lives of musicians during “transitional times” such as these. Should be interesting! I’m looking forward to it.