Levi's Plaza This Wednesday

This Wednesday my latin/world jazz group will be performing at Levi's Plaza in San Francisco from 12-1:30pm. This will be a fun lunchtime concert that will feature Murray Low on piano, Masaru Koga on flute/sax, Peter Barshay on bass and Paul van Wageningen on drums--and of course me on vocals and some hand percussion. This is part of the SJJazz Summerfest series and it's quite an honor to have been chosen as part of this lineup. I'm really looking forward to performing and continuing to hone the new songs that have been added to our repertoire. The guys did a great job presenting the new songs at the San Jose Jazz Fest and I can only imagine it will just get better and better. I am so blessed to get to play with these amazingly talented musicians. We all work really well together and have a good time playing together. There are always nice surprises that add even more depth and vitality to the music.

This week I will also be in the studio beginning the mixdown of the songs that will go on the next CD. I am glad to finally get to put the finishing touches on the music. I feel really good about the songs and how they have turned out and I can't wait to see what kind of magic will occur during the mixing. Wayne always comes up with fantastic ideas on how to really bring out the sounds that have been recorded.

Life, from here on out, is going to get insanely busy for me. I have taken on two teaching jobs that will require a good amount of my time. I am really looking forward to both jobs and think I can bring a lot of new and creative ideas to the classroom. I am so happy I will finally be in an environment where I can experiment with some of my ideas. The elementary school where I will be teaching music to 3-5 grades encourages creativity both from the teachers as well as the children. This is so exciting to me and has opened up the floodgates of possibilities. The other teaching gig will be working with preschoolers and their parents, teaching them music in Spanish. It will be fun to introduce these little ones to music and games in Spanish.

Although life will be crazy busy, I am happy I will be working again. I think it will help me focus more on my music and be more disciplined with composing and practicing. At least that is my hope!!