Hike For Discovery

I have a friend with a blood disease that borders on Leukemia. Without the treatment she has been getting and all of the test drugs being tried on her, she might not still be around. This woman is brilliant, strong, vibrant and determined to live a long and productive life. She has a thirteen year old daughter and a husband who completely adores her. So why do things like this happen to the best people? Something I will probably never be able to comprehend. But her tenacity and desire to make a difference in this world has inspired me to sign up for Hike for Discovery. It is a fundraising event (Team-In-Training) that is supported by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). I will be training for the next three months to ultimately hike on the Nepali Coast in Kuaui in October. It is a 10 mile rigorous hike. I will need to raise $4800 dollars in order to participate in this event, 75% of which will go to LLS for research. My thought is that I will donate $5 of each CD sale towards this event. So every CD sold at live shows will be contributing to helping to find a cure for these nasty diseases. I'm excited about tackling this challenge--after all, this is nothing compared to what my friend is experiencing. I've asked her to do the hike with me and she is waiting to see if her doctor will allow her to do so. Either way, however, I will do this hike and do it with her as my inspiration.

So Much Going On

Well, my son Danilo will fly out next Tuesday to start a new life in NYC. I'm so excited for him and at the same time saddened at the fact that he will be so far away. This will undoubtedly give me more motivation to book some gigs on the east coast now! He will be doing an internship with vicetv.com and it sounds as though it will be a fantastic experience for him. I will be taking him to the San Francisco airport on Tuesday and then heading to Berkeley to do the first and only rehearsal before we start recording in the studio. I was thinking today that despite all of the mascara that will be running down my face from too many tears, having the opportunity to rehearse the songs for the recording will be fantastic therapy for me. It reminds me of when my ex and I split up and how much singing helped me get through such a difficult time. Music, singing, drumming are all such powerful tools in aiding us all to work through our "issues". I'm in the process of developing a music/expressive arts workshop that I want to take into juvenile hall or at-risk programs. I think that something like this could have a profound and positive impact on these lost children. They need love and support and a way to express their emotions without doing harm to either themselves or other people. I really want to find a way to reach these kids. But I'm also afraid they might eat me alive!! I've got to figure out how to do this and still feel safe.

Letting Go

My son, Danilo, flew off to NYC yesterday. He is going there for an interview for an internship spot at an alternative news station. It is an awesome opportunity for him and I am excited that people on the east coast are going to get a chance to see how talented he is. The hard part for me is letting go. The idea of him moving so far away is definitely something I need to get my head around. Granted, since he moved up to San Francisco I really haven't seen a lot of him, but now I won't be able to just jump in my car to go and have dinner with him when I want. Nevertheless, I am impressed at his fearlessness and ability to constantly grow and experience new things. He is an inspiration to me, as is my other son. They both teach me so much about life and creativity. I am blessed to have two such wonderful people in my life--and they're my sons!!

I now have almost all of the charts ready for the studio gig. I just need one more for the book to be complete. It is becoming a reality. I can't believe that I am going back into the studio so soon after my last CD. I'm excited and feel really good about the songs that will be on this disc. It will be a higher energy experience than the last one, which will be good for the dancers out there. And having "names" on the CD will also help considerably. Not only will it help in getting me attention, but the inspiration with getting to perform with these guys raises the music to a whole new level. One more week and we're thrown into it--rehearsals, last minute changes, last minute coordinations, etc. I even got my mom and sister-in-law involved by helping to cater food on the studio days--NICE!! :)

Touring Poll and Career Day

A touring poll has been set up on my myspace.com/katparra page to see where people would like to see me perform throughout the country. It will be fun to see the results. We're currently targeting Chicago and Seattle to start with and I hope to perform in both of those regions in the fall of this year. If I start to worry about how I will be able to manage all of this I drive myself crazy. So I am practicing trust in the Universe. I am trying to believe that if it is meant to happen--and I truly believe it is--then the opportunities will present themselves at the right time.

Tomorrow I go back to my old high school, Willow Glen High, and sit on a panel for career day. I am excited to have been asked to participate in their career day. I'm sure some of the kids' parents will hate me, but I am going to urge those kids to follow their dreams, because no matter what path it takes them down, they will be pursuing something that truly makes them passionate and happy and creative. Will it make them a lot of money? Who knows? But how would you ever know if you weren't willing to take the chance to find out! I am a true believer that if you hear a calling you should follow it. That's not to say that the calling might change over time but at least you are listening to your gut, your heart, whatever you want to call it. It took me so long to be able to have this chance of listening to my heart and I am so happy I was able to finally HEAR it--and heed it.

Sonoma wine and Jazz Festival

Yesterday I performed at the Sonoma Wine and Jazz Festival. I had my regular guys back playing with me again--Murray Low on piano, Peter Barshay on bass, Melecio Magdaluyo on wind instruments and Paul van Wageningen on drums. The band, as always, played phenomenally well and made the day a complete blast for me. And my voice was in good form, which always makes me very happy! The crowd, and I mean CROWD, was very attentive and appreciative of what we were playing. I always wonder if my singing in foreign languages will be a deterrant to the average american crowd, but that hasn't seemed to be the case. People really seem to respond to the music--and my voice--without necessarily understanding what I'm saying. I'm not sure how the rest of the country will react to my styles of music--and languages--but people in the Bay Area seem to be open to different musics of the world and I totally appreciate that. I sold a bunch of CDs which will greatly help in the costs of studio time.

I also met Larry Vucovich yesterday. What a sweet man--and an amazingly talented pianist. He really seems to love what he's doing. The fact that he has been a full-time musician for over forty years and still obviously has a good time perfoming is quite an inspiration to me. I want to be singing and performing until the day I die. I can't imagine a better way to spend the rest of my days. I know that when I am performing I am at my happiest. And when I have an audience that is responding to my music I think I've reached some level of nirvana! Yesterday was one of those days.

Preparation

I'm a few weeks away from going back into the studio to record my next CD, Azucar de Amor. There is so much that has to be organized and prepared for that at times it can become overwhelming. But the support that I have from the musicians that will be performing on this CD is incredible. I am so very blessed to be able to record with the creme de la creme of the Bay Area as well as some very well known latin jazz musicians that will be flying in from different parts of the country. I am confident this CD is going to be just as good, if not better, than Birds in Flight. I have been listening to the songs that I chose and hearing them in the order that I think will work best for the CD and it feels good, sounds good and I am getting excited. Wayne Wallace has been such a great source of inspiration and guidance through both of these projects. We work so well together and have created some really nice songs. It's always fun to have an idea, create lyrics and a melody and then take the song to a master like Wayne who will help shape it and mold it into a work of art. This is how three of my original songs were developed for this project.

Today I go down to the school where I teach 2-4 grades and say goodbye to the students for the summer. We did our end of year concert last night and they were fantastic. I am so proud of all of them. I am actually going to miss them! But it will be fun to return next year to see how they have all grown. It feels good to be able to contribute something to the community, helping to enrich the lives of children who would otherwise not be exposed to these sorts of things.

Staying Productive

Working from home can be quite a challenge for me. It's hard at times to stay focussed and assure that I stay productive. I'm so used to having someone else telling me what needs to get done where my job is concerned. Now it's up to me to determine what takes priority each day and how to assure that those things get accomplished. I've started making lists for myself at the beginning of each day to help me determine what I need to do to feel as though I'm not wasting time. Sometimes that works and other days I wonder where all the time went. I also get worried that I'm not moving forward in a way that will earn me a decent living. The last thing I want is to have to go back into corporate america and sit in a cube, listening to people complain about how much they hate their jobs. That should be motivation enough to stay focussed on the goals I have set for myself!!

Last night I was interviewed by Frankye Kelly on her TV show, Jazz with Frankye. It will air in a couple of weeks on the Comcast channel--Sunday 12:30-1pm. It was fun meeting Frankye. She is a really nice and beautiful woman who features local artists on her show. Herman Bosset was kind enough to set up the interview for me. He is such a sweet man! So we talked about the CD and the music. Some of my live performances will be shown on the show as well. This was the first time I've been interviewed on TV. I've done a lot of radio interviews now and feel very comfortable with that. This was a bit of a different beast, being in front of 3 cameras and lots of light. I think it went well, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result. Life is good. :)