A Brand New Week!
After a week off from teaching I am ready to jump back in and get things rolling with my students again. I am preparing them for the end of year concert and I'm really hoping we can pull it off. I know they've got the talent I'm just hoping they have the "ganas" to work hard on making this a success. I think we can do it and I'm pretty confident they will do a great job when the time comes. The biggest challenge is the STAR testing that is coming up and how much time it will take away from their music classes. Somehow we'll just have to make it work!
When I am feeling down, depressed, frustrated and unsure of myself, I am reminded that there are many people in my life who are there to support me and lift me back up. I performed an in store concert at Down Home Music in Berkeley on Saturday. It was a fun event and the music was very well received. People walking by on the street stopped and hung out to listen. Jovino Santos Neto just happened to be hanging out there at the time (big surprise!!) and so sat in with us for the first song. The whole idea of doing the in store concert was to promote the new CD and sell lots of copies. But that isn't what happened! Not one person bought one CD!! I couldn't believe it. Is it a sign of the times? Should I take it personally? I did take it personally!! But then I got an e-mail from my good friend Ray Vega and I began to feel so much better. This is what he wrote to me:
"don't worry about them buying the CD's in the store...they'll buy them when they come to see you at a club, etc...don't let it get to you....your game is way above that small stuff.
If I haven't told you, your CD has wonderful energy.....sit back, relax and breathe.........things will come together without you getting anxious.....let them figure it out.
Your art is documented.
let it go where it will."
Thanks Ray. This is what I need from time to time to center myself--I just have to remind myself that the universe will take care of me and that I MUST trust that or I'll make myself crazy. It's people like Ray Vega and Jovino Santos Neto--two amazingly talented and well-established musicians--that help put it all back into perspective for me. I am truly blessed to have people like that in my life!
2 comments:
I've felt down with my project as well. The audience in my last concert (April 5) was frustrating. Someone said about people from Rio Grande that the sound they really like is the police/ambulance/firemen siren, ant it's true. I have Peggy Stern in June and the Finnish quartet Gilda & Jazztet in August, then my project may come to a halt. Hopefully I come to receive an encouraging message ( like Ray Vega's ). But the horizon is gray. As for your new recording being the second best sold latin jazz work, it just reinforces that your style is getting deep rooted what means the fruit are on the way.
You are great. We all miss you.
Get ahead !!! JC CELMER
Thanks Celmer. I am sorry your jazz program is struggling. I wish there was something I could do to help you! Keeping jazz alive around the world is so important to me. But things always change and we all need to learn to be flexible with those changes. Something better is always on the horizon--don't forget that, my friend.
I miss you all too and hope to be back someday soon.
Abrazos fuertes
Kat
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