Bare Necessities

Watched Jungle Book last night. It's funny that even though it's been years and years and years since I last watched the film, I could still sing along with the trumpet riff at the end. That's how good that music is. Not only the songs, including Bare Necessities and Wanna Be Like You (one of my favorite songs to do live), but the score (George Bruns) that's both lush and mysterious while tying in the jazzy themes.

The Sherman Brothers write all the songs (except Bare Necessities) and, upon watching their films, I am amazed by how delightful and catchy their tunes are. They are also so diverse- hard to believe the same two men wrote It's A Small World, Feed the Birds, The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and the perfect Everybody Wants to Be a Cat.

And did you know that the too-fabulous King Louie is voiced by Louis Prima? Craaazy.

And for Memorial Day...

There are a bunch of marvelously written songs from the early 1900s that have patriotic themes. Possibly the most prolific patriotic songwriter, George M. Cohan, used riffs from military taps and folk songs to create new and contagious music. And as I'm feeling rather patriotic this year, I thought I'd record one! So, here is You're A Grand Old Flag.

Musical Muses

As a female singer-songwriter, I am a little embarrassed that the primary musical inspirations I mention (Sting! Harry Connick, jr! Randy Newman! Thelonious Monk! Etc.) are men. So I wanted to discuss some female musicians and songwriters that have influenced my music.

Sarah Vaughan

She was the very first jazz singer I discovered and she's still my favorite. Her singing is so emotive and Her Lullaby of Birdland is breathtaking.

Astrud Gilberto

I love Astrud's sexy but innocent voice and her completely unaffected manner of singing along with her song choices. AND she got to do a duet with George Michael. Here is a video of her singing Bim Bom. So adorable!

Suzanne Vega

The Christmas after I first started writing music, my sister-in-law gave me Nine Objects of Desire by Ms. Vega and I listened to it around nine million times. Caramel is one of the sexiest songs off the album.

Emily Loizeau

Emily Loizeau is delightfully quirky and her piano playing very accomplished. I actually wrote another blog entry about her a while ago. Here is Jalouse from L'Autre Bout de Monde.

Madeleine Peyroux

Her music is just so delightfully arranged and sung and evokes feelings of Paris in the rain. I love her cozy Don't Wait Too Long.

Cold Coffee

I was in Winter Park doing a sound check for an upcoming show, and my camera-savvy sister took some photos of me enjoying my blueberry scone and delicious German Chocolate Cake-flavored Coffee Cooler from Barnie's (basically chocolate milk with caffeine... yum).

Fun Piano Clip...

I find that lyrics are much more difficult to write than music so for every one complete song, I have about five tunes without words. Or with just a phrase I like. Or with most of the words but just not enough to have the song be finished.

Alas.

So, some of the songs I just record as instrumentals only like this little piano clip. Enjoy!

Festival of the Earth (and sun)

As I promised, here are some pics from the Central Florida Earth Day Festival! Thank you to those who were able to come out because, let's face it, it was easy to believe in the urgency of global warming that day- it was soooooooo hot.

Seven extra o's-worth.

!Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

My most prolific fanvid creator just published another of her lovely fan videos to one of my most Latin-flavored songs!

I am in awe of the way she gets the dancing so perfect in the instrumental section.

Polycarbonate Plastic or Digital?

As I continue working on getting the songs and budget together for my next album, I have been considering different questions. One very large question that keeps coming up in the business meetings I have with myself is whether I should release my album digital only or actual CD and digital?

The pros to digital only are pretty easy to see- more ecofriendly, less expensive, no concern about storage (the CDs from my first album are taking up prime real estate in my closet), the vast majority of my sales have been digital anyway, easier to track sales and, well, those are pretty much the pros. The cons to digital only are that I couldn't sell them at shows, there are audience members who really aren't into the whole digital music thing and I wouldn't get to have a pretty CD cover and insert. Sigh.

So, my faithful readers/listeners, what is your take? Where you stand on this polarizing issue? Any pros and cons I neglected to mention? Any suggestions for a third option I haven't considered? I anxiously await your response.