What a night!!!

WOW!!! Last night's show was incredible!!! OMG!!! I had such a great time. The energy was so beautiful. It was an art show presented at the Catalyst Space, a community center for the non profit Catalyst Community. This great organization is the brainchild of my roommate and great friend Eric Leocadio. The gathering was in conjunction with the 2nd Saturday Art Walk that happens every month here in Long Beach. Wonderful work was on display in addition to phenomenal performances from spoken word artist such as MsT Muze and HustleDiva. I was the featured musical artist for this first time event.

In my last blog entry, I told you that I had come down with a cold and mentioned what I was doing to stay vocally healthy. Well, it worked!! Saturday morning, I took a long hot shower to steam the cords before a lengthy warm-up. I then started running the songs for the show. I was pleased to see my voice working well. I ate lunch and then tried to get a bit more sleep. I took another hot shower and starting warming up again. I had to do soundcheck before I was done warming up so I was a little worried at my sound for a few minutes. But then I headed to the basement of the Catalyst Space and took my time doing a thorough vocalization until the instrument felt really free and flexible.

My set consisted of four of my original songs plus some songs from my major inspirations- Prince and Janet. I did "Thieves In the Temple" which was very well received. "Controversy" came at the end of the set and was cause for much dancing. It was sooo much fun!! I added "Kiss" as an encore. Good times!! A song that came out well but that almost didn't make it into the set list is Miss Jackson's "Come Back to Me". By Saturday morning, I had decided I would wait on this one. But right before the start of my second set, my gut said to perform it anyway. I'm glad I listened- it was a hit with the crowd!!! I also did an a cappella version of Lalah Hathaway's "Learning to Swim". I am very thankful for the positive response to my original songs. It has been a journey getting back to revealing my own work to people after years of feeling unworthy to have my own tunes be heard.

This gig led to some great networking. It seems I may be getting some new students out of it. A local writer/producer was present and was impressed with my writing and like my playing as well. He wants me to work with him on some music of his and wants to help get some of my stuff recorded as well. I am grateful for Eric getting me hooked up for my recent performances. He's damn near becoming my new agent!!!

I was exhausted by the end of the night. Being sick helped with that. I made sure I started to warm down after the show was over so that I would have voice left for the next day. A bunch of us involved went out to Roscoe's for dinner afterwards, so I talked alot when I probably should have started shutting up. But it was a celebration, you know?

Here's a clip from the performance: