Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 10:10 AM PDT
Sept 15, 2009
Perla Batalla sings on Cy Coleman Tribute out today!!
http://www.clearspring.com/widgets/4a96df5b66c8bb2e
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 10:32 AM PDT
The Best is Yet To Come/ Out Next Week!!!
http://www.newwestrecords.com/cy-coleman-tribute
I have had a blast working with these wonderful singers on this recording and on some fun performances. We are doing some cd release concerts in LA and New York soon!!!
Keep those eyes and ears open!!
xoxo
P
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 6:45 PM PDT
Madrid Ole!
After a month away I am so glad to be back home and yet something in me really misses Spain.
Most of my time was spent in Madrid where I got intimately aquainted with the many areas of this grand city and the metro system that took me to them. I love the energy and I swear that I never stopped moving the entire time I was there (except for my time in many cafe's of course). I ate way too much and listened to a great deal of wonderful music as well. Eva saw Gael Garcia Bernal in the FNAC book store on her fifteenth birthday. I told her it was my birthday present to her but she did not believe me...
I sang at the Caixaforum with Javier Colis and had a blast with his marvelous band. I went to exhibits! exhibits! and more exhibits! and learned to stay away from the Prado during summer especially after 6pm when they let the public in for free and you are stuck with enormous crowds of mostly American tourists that feel they should go to the Prado but have no interest in art.
I traveled a bit of the south of Spain; Malaga, Granada and Cordova to research the rich history
for my next project. At every turn was a reminder how connected we are to cultures that seem so foreign at times.
I miss the sound of Spanish being spoken and the constant church bells and the late night flamenco singers at the bar around the corner. I will always be partial to sitting in cafe's and chatting. At night the whole city comes out and the plazas are filled with people who are talking and laughing while being serenaded by a distant accordion.
I am now preparing to start touring again and cannot wait to sink my teeth into some Spanish songs!!
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 10:50 AM PDT
Buika is coming!!!
I am so thrilled to be meeting and sharing the stage with a singer that I have been
in love with since discovering her music in Barcelona a few years back. I bought her cd at
FNAC Barcelona because I loved her photo on the cover. I couldn't not stop listening to her song Mi Nina Lola. I was obsessed!!! One night Tom Schnabel came over to our house for a late night meal and I gave him a copy of the cd and he began to play it on his show to rave responses from his audience. Tom was always supportive of me and my music in my early career and he continues to bring us great singers from around the world. Buika is not to be missed!!!
See you at Cal Plaza this Saturday night at 8pm. THE CONCERT IS FREE!!!!grandperformances.org
Monday, June 22nd, 2009 9:31 AM PDT
Locally Grown Concert is a smash!!!
On Saturday morning I asked myself "Is this really late June? Then why is it rainy and cold? IN OJAI?? It was the morning of our Locally Grown concert at the outdoor venue... Libbey Bowl.
I was very nervous and checked the weather repeatedly and it said "no rain all day" so already they were wrong. Marty Fujita and food for thought had been preparing all year for this concert and all arrangements were in place including our artists who were coming from far and wide. Mason Jennings came in from Minnesota, Jack Johnson from Hawaii, Quetzal from East LA via Seattle and Culver City Dub Collective from....well...Culver City. I had the easiest commute (about two minutes). As I arrived to the venue the skies started to clear and the sun came out.
I came early to soundcheck with Quetzal and prepared to stay for the duration to be a support to Marty. I was afraid she would overdo it considering her fragile state of health.
But watching her she had no problems on Saturday and seemed to be running every little detail from that super loud walkie talkie she was carrying. Marty is small but oh so mighty and needed no help from the likes of me! She runs Food For Thought, an organization to build awareness about food in our community. One of the missions of FFT is to bring healthy food to our school kids. Also we were going "green" on this concert which meant everyone had to bring their own water container, no plastic water bottles on stage, no plastic utensils or paper plates etc.... Zero waste was our goal for the audience and our backstage as well.
The concert went beautifully starting with the Culver City Dub Collective who were just fabulous! Our host Kevin Ruf was hilarious and kept things moving on schedule. I loved introducing Ojai to Martha Gonzalez (singer, dancer, song writer, scholar) and Quetzal. Today they are on their way to Washington D.C. to the Smithsonian to do a residency. They are highly regarded in the art world for their ability to be contemporary while including folk tradition in their music. I have always admired their work and I loved singing with this band and Martha's brother Gabriel Gonzalez can really sing and dance!!! Quincy Mc Crary brought the house down with his soul wrenching version of A Change is Gonna Come.
Mason was flawless and the audience sweetly sang along with him on every song.
When Jack Johnson joined Mason on stage the audience went nuts! The way Jack so gently
worked into Mason's set so as to not upstage his friend was truly amazing. Jack Johnson is
a super star and yet he is a "regular guy" who is devoted to his family, friends and to preserving the planet. In a perfect world all big stars should be like Jack, Mason, Martha, Quetzal, CCDC, all people would gather to sing and dance and help each other and all potential gloomy Saturdays would turn out like this one. On Saturday June 20 in Ojai....it was a perfect world.