Listening to Aaliyah's advice, songversinging "Almost is Never Enough" & performing in New York is totes happening.
"...we almost knew what love was, but almost is never enough." [vsw id="utUecJ7wcxE" source="youtube" width="325" height="244" autoplay="no"] The very first time I heard this song, right when the piano came on I knew that it was going to take me back to the old school r&b belting days. I grew up listening to a lot of Whitney & Mariah myself, but honestly feel like I lost most of my r&b chops after heavily singing singer-songwriter acoustic songs & musical theater.(Still gotta work on rebuilding that.)
There's something extremely special about performing with an amazing pianist. My right-hand-piano-man for a while was someone I consider my brother, BK. He's an amazing man of God who serves in worship with the skills God anointed him, but he's been someone who's performed with me a lot. Many of my past performances were just him and I. We'd rehearse, of course, but whenever we got on stage we would still perform songs like it was our first and last time. We knew how to improv with each other and go with the flow. There's an art to that & I definitely miss it. Shout out to Nik aka ImprovPianoTips for letting me relive that again even through this collaboration.
Next week in New York, I'll be performing alongside Joules. We were invited to perform for Columbia University's Price of Life "Love Does"
Price of life Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ColumbiaPOL
We'll be performing at 8PM on Thursday, October 10, 2013 - St. Paul's Chapel *from what I understand, the event is open to everyone.
The performance set up is going to be different with his production skills & a beat machine with my voice. Tomorrow we're going to be tracking guitar with Roark who will be helping us complete our set. THIS is an art in itself as well. There's a discipline when it comes to improvisation, knowing what notes compliment each other on the fly, listening closely to what the instrumentalists are doing, but the discipline with performing & sticking with the planned rehearsal is something I'm still going to have to "master." Think of Beyonce and her crazy (good crazy) productions. Although there may be vocally things that she can do freely (within the scope of the rehearsals), but in terms of choreography, where she can take breathes, the timing, etc. that is all a type of discipline that goes with not doing things completely on the fly. Now, I don't have a gazillion dancers or instruments but I just wanted to emphasize the importance of rehearsing, performing it, & preparing for the worst! SO many times have I performed where things have gone wrong, subwoofers blew out, no monitors, the set up of the stage prevents you from appropriately interacting with others on stage, no one is paying attention so you start talking to yourself in your head instead of thinking about the lyrics & singing, etc.
PREPARE and have fun.
If it goes horrible, oy vey! Well, your work is not done. If it goes great, awesome! Still, your work is not done.
I'm nervous because I feel rusty, uneasy from another recent performance, but there's something exhilarating about getting the chance to do it all over again... everytime. Aaliyah resonates in my head "Dust yourself off and try again."
I will Aaliyah. I will.
Songfully yours,
Jennifer