Pink Martini's China Forbes

Have you ever wondered what the lead singer for one of the most famous bands in the past two decades does in her spare time? China Forbes of Pink Martini, one of the most eclectic, critically acclaimed and well-loved bands in the past two decades, that lays claim to a diversified international audience…wait for it…pressure washes the sundeck of her house when she wants to relax. Ms. Forbes, who this writer had the opportunity to first interview when she released her solo album simply named  ’78 in 2008, almost has this writer convinced to take up her favorite mode of relaxation. 

“I have discovered that the favorite thing that I have ever done, is pressure washing. I moved to a very shady, forest like area so I don’t have roses anymore, but I do have a lot of decks that I can pressure wash when they get dirty. Don’t ruin the deck with the pressure. You can really do damage. I took a dining table and chairs that were left out in Oregon rain for twelve years and they were covered with lichen and moss. They were blackened and I pressure washed them along with a guy who told me that I could and whoa, I pressure washed them back to new, but if you do it too hard you (make) huge gouges. It’s like a light saber,” she says, before laughing.

China could this mean that you and Thomas Lauderdale (founder of Pink Martini) could soon be writing a song about pressure washing? Not likely, but they have written some beautiful and memorable songs since the band was first formed by Mr. Lauderdale in 1994. China Forbes joined Pink Martini one year later. Read More

Mark Rapp Interview

About an hour before the Psycho Jazz Contingency performed their first set in mid-February at Pearlz a new music venue in Columbia, South Carolina, the bandleader, Jazz trumpeter, arranger and composer Mark Rapp took time to talk to us about his career, music and travels. Rapp moved back to South Carolina a little over one year ago, after spending time refining his artistry in New Orleans, New York City and Geneva, Switzerland.

“Psycho Jazz Contingency is a new project that I started in Columbia. I have been back here for a little over a year. I have been getting plugged into the local scene and to my pleasant surprise there are some world class amazing musicians here. It is incredible and I should not be surprised by it, as everywhere that I have traveled there are amazing musicians. I grew up in South Carolina, but I didn’t expect such a strong Jazz scene in Columbia. I knew there would be little pockets, a couple of guys playing, but I didn’t realize there would be cats here that would be really dealing and really playing. I have been getting into circles and sitting in with a bunch of bands. I started getting gigs offered to me and then other players would call me to substitute for their regular gigs around the city,” says Mark Rapp.

We should point out that this is not a story about boy returns home, because he lost his way along the path to becoming a musician to be reckoned with. The situation is quite the contrary, as Mark Rapp has played sold out shows in such highly regarded establishments as New York City’s Blue Note, San Francisco’s Yoshi’s and  Read More

 Lisa Hilton Interview

In the six years that this writer has known Jazz composer and pianist Lisa Hilton and become friends with her, perhaps nothing else has quite captured the essence of who she is both musically and in her personal life, as much as her original composition “Waterfall,” from her current album American Impressions, and the companion video for the song. That is a pretty bold statement to make, considering Ms. Hilton has recorded fourteen albums during the past decade. Lisa Hilton is passionate about nature, she loves to hike and to run and a few years ago she was troubled by how much of the natural habitat for animals near where she lives, had been lost due to fires.  The video for “Waterfall,” begins appropriately with the sound of a waterfall and we see the spray against the rocks. A line appears across the screen, as Ms. Hilton begins to play the piano and it simply says, “I have always been inspired by what I see in nature.”

“The whole idea of the script is how I feel. I was hiking and I saw that the water was moving at different rhythms and speeds as it came down the hill. This was in the Rockies in Colorado. I hadn’t really noticed that before.  That’s life, it comes in puddles, pools and swirls and rushes and I think that (director) James Grant was able to portray that in the video. Everything isn’t literal either. He was trying to take the ideas that I was trying to express. Today we need to have a broader definition of nature, because most of us live in urban areas, but we can find that same kind of stillness or peace.   Read More

Tanya Kalmanovitch

Recently, Jazz and Classical composer, educator, violist and violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch who makes her home in New York City, returned from Istanbul, Turkey where she and New England Conservatory colleague Anthony Coleman led a workshop concerning music improvisation.

“We did a production of John Cage’s song books, with a pretty diverse cast of Turkish musicians. There were Jazz musicians, free improvisers, a character actor from film and television, a folk singer who specializes in music of the Black Sea region and a Rock musician. It was a diverse group of people interpreting the songs in pretty different ways.

In terms of the Cage songbook production, there were definitely some things that we altered with the Turkish audience in mind, but we did that within the parameters that John Cage offers. At one point with the instructions for one song, he instructs people that whenever possible the lyrics should be translated into the language of the audience. I took that as license to play with language a little bit.

I think the very deliberate use of Turkish music and Turkish musicians in a context where it wouldn’t normally be heard was a way of re-imagining or re-textualizing those works and for teaching there wasn’t anything particularly different. The population of musicians is so good. They are such great musicians, with such a great sense of interest, engagement and involvement, so we just went for it,” says Kalmanvovitch and it is obvious from the tone of her voice that she enjoyed the experience. Read More

Mike Stern Interview

Interviewed by Christopher McHale

Down three steps from steamy Christopher Street, in the 55 Bar, Mike Stern has just wrapped a set. He stands behind the bar hawking his latest CD, All Over The Place. This joint is not a fancy uptown concert hall, with hoi poloi seats and feathered patrons. Jazz can be like that these days, a sort of refined swing to the evening, a rarified attempt at legitimacy, as if white tie acceptance is some kind of required validation.

Mike Stern doesn’t really care about any of that.

He lives inside the music. Wherever he plugs in and creates, that’s where the music is, and finding it, shaping is his lifelong practice.

“I love music, there’s just so many ways to go with music. There are so many different things to get into and study. I check out a lot of horn players, a lot of saxophone players and trumpet players, and Miles who I played with, I check his stuff out. I write it out, I transcribe stuff like that. Piano players, like McCoy Tyner and Herbie, I try to get some of those ideas on the guitar,” he says. Read More

Jazz Singer Irene Atman

Irene Atman’s cover of “More Today Than Yesterday,” by Spiral Staircase, from her soon to be released album is the best vocal performance Riveting Riffs Magazine has heard this year. Ms. Atman’s vocals are breathtakingly beautiful, the arrangement is lush, the production superb and the musicians are magnificent. Irene Atman’s singing of “More Today Than Yesterday,” has the WOW factor big time! If a song can seduce you this one, by this lady certainly does just that.  Ms. Atman, a prolific performer and good songwriter, from Toronto, Canada is set to release her new album, which features some of her own songs, plus a good mix of tunes that pay homage to mostly female singers from the 1960s and she took a few moments to sit down with us to talk about the record and her music career.

Irene Atman who most music fans know as a Jazz singer says, “It has been a new direction for me and for the past year, I have been in the studio writing music. I wanted to do something different with the producer / arranger and music director with whom I am working, Glenn Morley, as well as Bruce Barrow who is the executive producer and who also provided creative direction. All three of us have interesting backgrounds. Glenn has an orchestral background and he has worked in film and he is the president of the Glenn Gould Foundation. Bruce Barrow has a Pop background. Bruce was a marketing consultant with Live Nation and he also managed Platinum Blonde back in the eighties and I have a Jazz background. When the three of us got together and I   Read More