Spirited Woman Blogger Team

The Cool Jazz of Dave Brubeck

When the incomparable jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck died at age 92 a few days ago, I was stunned. Somehow I had hoped that he would be making his beautiful, creative, experimental music forever.

I remember hearing the Dave Brubeck Quartet play "Take Five," an experimental piece written in unusual 5/4 time by Brubeck's alto sax man Paul Desmond, when it first came out in an album called "Time Out" in 1959. I played the record over and over again in my college dorm room, keeping time with the intricate rhythms and listening to every note in the imaginatively composed lines.  Here it is in video, "Take Five."

The famous "Time Out" album that I loved so much went platinum fairly quickly, and was the first jazz album to sell more than a million copies. The other members of Brubeck's classic "Take Five" quartet were drummer Joe Morello, who had been working with pianist Marian McPartland, and double bassist Eugene Wright, an African-American. 

I also admired Brubeck because -- along with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett -- he stood up for integration. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Brubeck actually canceled several concerts because certain club owners continued to resist the idea of an integrated band of black and white musicians playing on their stages. Brubeck also canceled a television appearance when he found out that the producers intended to keep black bassist Eugene Wright off-camera.

Dave Brubeck continued to play concerts into his early 90s; in 2009, he was named a Kennedy Center Honoree for excellence in the performing arts, and in 2010, Clint Eastwood released a documentary for Turner Classic Movies, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way.  Brubeck was married for 70 years to his wife Iola, who survives him. Five of their six children are musicians.

The music journalist Ivan Hewett characterized Brubeck has having "endless curiosity combined with stubbornness." What a musical legacy he has left us!
 
Here is another song composed by Dave Brubeck, a tribute to Duke Ellington called "The Duke." 

Linda Jay Geldens, www.LindaJayGeldens.com
Click here for more of Linda's posts.  

A Time for Every Purpose

Invigorated by an idyllic beach walk with my beloved dogs, wind in my face, the refrain of an old song was playing in my head. “Turn, Turn Turn,” made popular by The Byrds in the 60’s, is based on the book of Ecclesiastes:

To everything
There is a season
And a time to every purpose under heaven

As we laughed and played in the California surf and sand, I felt pure joy. Then, suddenly, I remembered the pain a friend in Arizona is experiencing as she grieves the loss of a dear companion. Once again I was reminded of the seeming contradictions in this experience of life, and our ability to ride the waves of change with resilience and grace. Our beach dance was a reminder to keep the faith.

A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

Intrigued by the power these words had over me, I did a bit of research and learned that the songwriter, Pete Seeger, is still alive today at age 93, singing and giving interviews to convey his enduring message of hope for our world. On Monday of this week he had a studio audience singing along to “Quite Early Morning," a song he wrote in 1969 to “inspire people to keep the faith that a better world is possible, even in the midst of suffering, tragedy, and setbacks.”

Don't you know it's darkest before the dawn
And it's this thought keeps me moving on
“Quite Early Morning” by Pete Seeger

Spirited women, whether at this moment you dance or mourn, it is yours to either embrace or resist. At least for today, I’m choosing to dance.

Andrea Chilcote, www.morningstarventures.com, www.erikshope.com
Click here for more of Andrea's posts.

Is this a Good Story for the Nursing Home?

Call me a Pollyanna if you want, but I think about nursing homes differently than most people. Everyone who knows me knows I am a storyteller—tried and true. As a result, when I picture myself as a nursing home resident, I don’t imagine myself rocking alone in a corner waiting for someone to come visit. In fact, I envision the opposite. I imagine myself sitting on the edge of a chair with a group of residents around me, enthralled with my retellings of my life adventures. Because of my outlook, a few years ago I began basing my choices in life around one question: Will this be a good story for the nursing home?

My husband called me recently from work. He had just heard Wynton Marsalis was coming to town with his fifteen-piece jazz orchestra. The tickets were expensive, but regardless, he wanted to take our sixteen-year-old son—a drummer who usually tries to pretend he does not have parents. My practical inner-voice shouted, “Don’t even think about it!  All your socks have holes, your nightgown looks like it’s been through the shredder, and the lawn needs to be reseeded.” But I knew better. So, I asked myself the same question I always do: Will this be a good story for the nursing home? The answer was obvious. Life is all about experiences, not things. Wynton Marsalis was one of the best jazz musicians in the world. My husband bought the tickets.

A few weeks later, we walked into the performing arts center—our son a few steps behind us—still pretending he had never seen us before in his life. As I handed my ticket to the usher, she gasped. “Oh, you have wonderful seats,” she exclaimed, “We opened up the choir loft for the first time ever.” I turned to look at my husband who shrugged. He had bought three of the last seats, but had no idea where they were located. As we trudged up the stairs, I imagined us sitting behind the orchestra, with no view of Wynton or any of his band members. When we reached the door of the choir loft, this time, it was me who gasped. Our seats were literally fifteen feet from where Marsalis would sit. I could hardly contain myself.

Mama Musician

Before I’d ever heard of The Beatles, Donna Summer, or The Captain and Tenille (yes, I grew up in the Seventies) I could tell you about Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi. You see, my mother, Marilyn, had been training to be a concert pianist before I was born, and thus I grew up listening to – and watching, because it was quite a visual experience -- her play.

Marilyn tried to play the piano for the first time when she was four years old. First, she’d sit next to my Grandma Ida on the piano bench and listen. Then, frustrated when her own attempts to recreate the melody were such failures -- as an adult, she'd say "it sounded like noise" --  four-year-old Marilyn would slam the piano lid down hard on her mother’s hands. Ida, who had no patience with violence to her gorgeous hands or painstakingly manicured dragon-lady fingernails, took her daughter to a piano teacher named Agnes. And by the age of 12, my mother was playing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Never again would it sound like noise.

My happiest childhood memories are without a doubt those involving my mom and her piano. Marilyn would sit at the keyboard of the antique Steinway baby grand, eyes closed, summoning music by memory.  Because she knew it all by heart. Not only that, but she could literally look at a piece of music on the page ONCE and figure out how to play it, often without reading the score as she went along. Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Handel – they were her mainstays. She taught me the difference between the impressionistic Chopin and the structured, orderly Bach through what each felt like, and how each categorized experience. She used composers’ names as adjectives, describing qualities in her own life.

An ordered, well-made bed would be like Bach. A beautiful free-flowing silk dress or an afternoon in the country would be Chopin.  Mozart was her ultimate. Anything extraordinary was likened to Mozart – particularly falling in love. She taught me the songs she and her friends made up in their music study programs at Wayne State University, songs like I Want To Go To Bed With Mozart or Mozart’s In the Closet (let him out, let him out, let him out) with funny words set to the composers oeuvres so that they could remember which piece was which. She taught me, in this way, that classical music was fun. And art could be immediate.

Spirited Women Know That Fairy Tales Can Come True at Any Age

I have had the Frank Sinatra song, Young at Heart, running through my head of late. The chorus goes, "Fairy Tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you're young at heart." It is probably because I have recently seen evidence that fairy tales truly can come true, and at any age. I have always been a big proponent of pursuing your dreams. Therefore, whenever someone would tell me that she could not accomplish her life's ambition because she was too old, I would ask, "Have you ever heard of Grandma Moses? She began to pursue her dream of being a great artist at the tender age of seventy something. You are never too old!? Well, now I have an even better example to give:  Laurie Allyn.

Though Laurie's name may not be familiar to you...YET - her story is both inspiring and thrilling. In 1957, Laurie was on the verge of  breaking through as a sought after singer. She had been signed by a new record label, Mode Records, to create a jazz album with some of the greatest musicians of the time. Her voice had been lauded by many in the industry as innocently beautiful and everyone expected great things from her. She was posed to be a star.

Then the unthinkable happened, Mode Records went bankrupt one short week after Laurie had completed recording the album. Her masterpiece was not released and her chances of super stardom seemed to be swept out from under her feet. Laurie decided to return to her native Texas and raise her daughter and help her ailing mother. She felt music had turned its back on her so she decided to reciprocate.

50 years later the unthinkable happened once again, this time through life was much kinder. Through a twist of fate worthy of a  Hollywood scenario, Laurie's album was resurrected and music came knocking on her door, asking for a second chance. It has been a  glorious fairy tale period for Laurie and I had the uplifting  opportunity to speak with her about her amazing tale and how it has  affected her life.

Laurie is now living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest next to her very grown and equally spirited daughter Carrie Pierce (I profiled Carrie, last year on Spirited Woman - since then she has co-authored the just released book Making Peace With Menopause - Embarking on the Journey of Your Lifetime and
Living to Tell the Tale). Let Laurie's story inspire you to the  understanding that it is NEVER too late: your dreams absolutely can come true! 

Dawn:  Laurie, you must have been devastated when over 50 years ago you found out that your big album was not going to be released?  How did you handle this disappointment?
Laurie: Truth is, I didn't deal with it. I was in the process of getting a divorce, had a young baby daughter at the time, a sick mother back in Texas - and not much chance to even blink. I simply returned to Texas from Hollywood to deal with my responsibilities. I pushed away the dream that had begun so beautifully - and with so much promise; swallowed it as it were, and looked for ways to reinvent myself. I believe I closed myself symbolically to that dream and all that it represented But in my heart of hearts it never left me. Occasionally I would hum to the radio and have such mixed emotions; it seemed such a closed door. Music seemed to have left me high and dry and I eventually became resolved and turned my back on it as well - or so I thought. I didn't sing professionally after that - and only a couple of times at reunions of old early musician buddies. I feared that everyone expected so much - those who knew my early career - and I didn't have the heart to disappoint them - or myself.

Spirited Man Orchestrates Voices Around the World to Come Together in Song and Shared Experience

Whoever said that technology and computers keep us separate and isolated, sure wasn't inspired. The human spirit loves to create. It loves to go with the spark of a new idea and think of different ways to let that spark of inspiration manifest into a new experience. People who have a passion naturally gravitate to others who share that passion. It doesn't matter whether they live in the same neighborhood or around the world in the same global village.

American composer conductor Eric Whitacre was inspired to bring voices together from every corner of our global village. Raising voices in song and creativity to a new expanded experience. He used technology and computers to give his inspiration voice and an easy spread around the world to people passionate about choral music, singing and connecting... The culmination of his inspired idea is185 voices, representing twelve countries in the virtual choir singing their pieces to Lux Aurumque.

The CNN piece gives you a brief glimpse into what it was like to be a part of this virtual choir from one of its members. You can get a behind the scenes glimpse from Eric as he walks us through the inspiration and the steps behind how he did it on his blog. Visit this link to watch the video of all 185 members of the choir performing Lux Aurumque.

It's a wonderful performance and teaches us that we are not separate at all. We are only limited by our mindset and the restrictions we put on ourselves with old beliefs. Eric Whitacre said of the experience "I found the product overwhelming and the poetic symbolism of our shared humanity and our need to connect."

BZ Riger www.artofallowingmindset.com, www.internetradiowithjuice.com
Click here for more of BZ's posts.

My Night With Spirited Woman Carly Simon

Living in NYC brings so many amazing opportunities - often last minute. But if you are quick to the punch, you end up in the middle of some unforgettable moments. And Thursday night I had one of those moments.

I got wind of a private concert for about 150 people at a lounge in the meatpacking district featuring the one and only Carly Simon. The event, part of the Tribeca Film Festival was to celebrate the recent winner of the You're So Vain video contest. The contest called on filmmakers from all over the world to make a video of her 1973 hit You're So Vain.

Carly had pre-recorded some video against a green screen that filmmakers were to incorporate into their video. Before handing over a $10,000 check to the winner, Brett Bisagno, Carly reminded the audience that You're So Vain had never had a music video before. You can see Brett's winning video here!

Carly was joined on stage by Ben Taylor (her son by musician James Taylor), musician and godson John Forte (from the Fujis) and David Saw. Together they sang Hard-Headed Woman, a song Taylor said he learned from his dad. Also accompanying Carly on stage for one song was her sister and Tony nominated composer, Lucy Simon. Together they sang a song Lucy wrote, Wynken, Blynken and Nod for the first time in twenty years. Lucy was described by Carly as the "guitar player in the family" but beyond that, her voice, completely different than Carlys was also just as beautiful.

To wrap up the night, Carly brought out her guitar, invited anyone who "knew the words to this one" to hop on stage with her and sing along to You're So Vain. 

The crowd went totally wild and as I looked on stage, inspired and grateful all I could think was "wow, I love my life and I love NYC".

To see all of the You're So Vain video entries visit www.carlysimon.com. 

- Elaine LaPersonerie - www.winkpr.com
Click here for more of Elaine's posts.

Spirited Woman Connects YouTube Singers to Touch The World

There are no limits to the way we connect virtually, offering us new ways to empower, inspire, and help. Deciding to make a difference through YouTube, singer, Lisa Levie - reached out to her many fellow singers in the YouTube music scene, asking them if they would come together virtually to create their own remake of the famous We Are The World song to raise funds for Haiti. She gathered fifty-seven artists together, each at their own location around the world and together they created, edited, and produced this riveting video, the newly released We Are The World 25 For Haiti. It has been viewed more than 1,300,000 time since February 20, 2010!

The cut they created is impressive and the way they did it is the most inspiring part of the story. It is a powerful example that we are not separate! We are all connected, we have no limits to what we can create...The only limits are the limits we put on ourselves. Anyone who has ever brought musicians into a recording studio will tell you that there is a lot involved in creating a powerful finished product when they are all right in the same room. Add in the different mics, connection speeds, sound levels, acoustic qualities of the location where the singer was... And you have some interesting challenges to work into the mix for creating a music video.

Lisa Levie and the other artists who came together to create this project were undaunted.They didn't think of all the difficulties.They focused on their passion to create this song together in a virtual way and what a wonderful project they have created. Watch the CNN video as Lisa tells you what was involved and be inspired by possibility.

Gaga for GAGA

Hi, my name is Elaine and I am addicted to Lady Gaga!

But wait, I'm not addicted to anything! I don't drink coffee, I don't smoke, I don't watch hours of television, I don't carry lip balm and I don't chew gum or eat candy. How can I be addicted to Lady Gaga? Well, I am.

It started a few years ago when I read some article about her in a local NYC magazine. She was captivating. She is raw. She is authentic. She was everything so many artists are not. Then I learned that she hosted a weekly dance party in my neighborhood just a few blocks away and I loved her more. In some way, I felt that we shared a bond - having danced on the same speaker or having eaten at the same restaurant - Gaga and I were one.

The six degrees of separation thing started and I discovered that friends of friends know her very well. And then to top it off, she and some friends were at a bar two blocks away after her Radio City show Sunday night. Of course, I was out of town. When I got the invite, I literally almost cried.

Obviously, there is a lot of great musical talent out there today. But some who rise to fame get there with good luck, over paid agents and their connections. And of course, some aren't even that talented and still get there. Gaga actually worked her way up through seedy club gigs and self-promotion. She played in dingy bars on Bleecker Street and did an entire tour through nightclubs with no budget.

She actually "worked" to get where she is today. Underneath the sequins, hair extensions, wigs and costuming and overly embellished persona is a girl that can really sing. She writes all of her own music and delivers the most unbelievable theatrical style performances. She has had four consecutive top ten hits off her debut album - The Fame - something that only a few artists have mastered. She has written songs for Britney Spears, Fergie & The Pussy Cat Dolls.

For me, Gaga is the new pop princess who has mastered and added a new element to dance music that distinguishes her from any other artist. She is the Madonna of this generation and stands to create a legacy just like Madonna did in hers. With continued support of her fans and the media, she will rise to the top and I will be there with my Pokerface, dancing the night away.

So there, I admit it. I am gaga for Gaga. But it's fun and she is a genius. Watch her as the opening act at this years Grammy Awards airing tomorrow night on CBS at 8PM. If you don't already love her, you will.

- Elaine LaPersonerie - www.winkpr.com
Click here for more of Elaine's posts.

The Spirited Magic of Music

This evening I was treated to a beautiful holiday treat when I went to see my oldest son sing with a group of about 100 other children. Each year I look forward to this event not only for the beautiful sounds but also for the amazing spirit that shines through in all the young singers.

Perhaps what is even more interesting though, is watching the effect of the joy filled music on all of the audience. Many people come into the concert hall stressed out after a long week of work, more out of obligation to their children than out of any real thought of enjoying themselves. Yet, as soon as the music begins the magic starts to take effect.

Music, especially when accompanied by angelic voices, has a way of lifting most anyone's spirit. Even in those moments when life it not hitting its high points, a magical combination of notes, and all seems better.  I remember a number of years ago when I was going through a particularly difficult period in my life I went on a whim to a holiday concert playing in a nearby town. I knew no-one performing or in the audience, but the music lifted my mood so much that I quite literally had a new take on life from that moving experience.

So though on the surface, it has nothing to do with fashion, beauty or even remarkably Spirited Women, music can absolutely be a key that unlocks your full potential. If you find yourself in a bit of a slump this holiday season or at anytime of the year really, seek out a bit of festive music to get your soul soaring.

How about you? Do you have a "lift your spirit" bit of wisdom to share with other spirited women? Though this is the season of joy, peace and love, even in the best of times we can always use a bit of extra cheer.

To your Spirited Style,

- Dawn Z Bournand  www.fabulouslysuccessful.com
Click here to read more of Dawn's posts.