The underlined words and many of the images in the newsletter are linked to more in depth information so don’t hesitate to click…
For those of you in NYC on Thursday February 26th , my musician friend Tom DiMenna will be back in the City playing Story Songs of the 70’s including covers of Cat Stevens, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot, and James Taylor at The Cutting Room, 44 E 32nd St, New York, NY 10016. For those who saw him last time at City Winery, he has increased his repertoire to include some new greats and I guarantee an evening of joy—Click here for tickets
Important Message For These Times
Click image to hear an important message
Image courtesy of Ryan Putnam. Click image to purchase
For the Love of Animals
We all need a break sometimes from the news of the day. If you want your heart warmed, take a few minutes to watch this series of uplifting anecdotes—amazing animal stories brought to you by the kind-hearted Steve Hartman of CBS Evening News. It includes segments on an emotional support alligator, a dog that thinks he is human, and a duck called Snowflake who sleds in the winter and goes trick or treating for Halloween…
If you find yourself wanting more (or are procrastinating from a task you "should" be doing), these extra Steve Hartman stories might just be what you need right now.
Kahil El’Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
Click image above to hear a conversation with Kahil El’ Zabar who aside from being a musician, is also a clothing designer and fashionista…
Kahil El’Zabar on multi instruments, Corey Wilkes on trumpet, Alex Harding on baritone sax.
Kahil El’Zabar is primarily a percussionist—he got his first drum when he was four years old—but aside from a normal drum set, in the performance he played the cajón (meaning box in Spanish), the kalimba (part of a family of musical instruments called Mbira, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe), bells around his ankles, and his voice, used in a different way than I have heard before—“everything but the kitchen sink.” He was accompanied on the stage by two amazing musicians: Corey Wilkes on trumpet and Alex Harding on baritone sax and you could tell they had been playing together for a long time and were in total sync.
For someone who has little experience with jazz music and I certainly don’t profess to know anything, what amazed me the most about the Kahil El’Zabar concert was that it forced me to really listen to the sounds coming off that stage in a new way and to appreciate and isolate the sounds that were coming into my ears. (It reminded me of the first time I ate sushi. It was a different experience…making me eat in a different way—savoring every bite rather than just filling my mouth up with food in an unconscious way…).
The concert began with isolated nature sounds, bird whistles, tiny bells, similar sounds to what I had heard on my morning walk that day when the birds were out in full force. I loved that it began so quietly and forced me into a kind of meditative state. What followed was a feast—“blurring the edges of traditional jazz, Afrocentric rhythms and cosmic expanse.” I am sharing some of the songs that stood out to me:
Compared to What, written by American songwriter Eugene McDaniels. Sad to say it was written in 1966 and is still relevant today
Where Do You Want To Go
Full Live Performance at the 2021 Erie Blues and Jazz Festival
The Timeless Maestro: A Conversation with Sir Kahil El’Zabar
And a short documentary
The band is on tour now and the live experience is essential in my opinion to the full appreciation of this music. Here are the tour dates. Hopefully they will be coming to a city near you...
Painting of the Week
Pam Smilow. House in Fog, mixed media on canvas, 60” x 40”
Charity of the Week:
ACLU
Book of the Week
About The Author
New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.