I happened upon Jenni Alpert at the Belvedere. There was a loud crowd at the bar which drowned out her solo performance, but something told me to buy her CDs and I'm glad I did. They are two little jewels. Her voice is silky, and floats over a very well produced musical arrangement. She calls is jazz, but I didn't hear jazz so much as an original sound that was hard to pinpoint. Reminded me a little bit of Natalie Merchant.

I also had the pleasure of attending Rod Deecey's and Ron Goad's showcase featuring three out of the four Falcon Ridge winners who are on tour. They didn't perform individually, but rather have been learning each others' music, and the performance was somewhat astonishing. The energy alone coming from these three created a kind of a buzz in the small intimate room at Brewer's Alley. Randall Williams, Lindsay Mac, Joe Crookston....the audience was either sitting with their mouths wide open, sniffling, or stomping and singing along. Lindsay had an incredibly original sound, playing her cello strung over her shoulder like a guitar, thumping and pounding out bass rythmns....the three harmonized together as if thhey had been singing together for years.

I finally made it out at the invitation of my great musical friend and amazing jazz singer Marc Evans to the jazz open mic/jam at the 347 club. If I had known how amazing it was, I would have been there already. There was a constant stream of incredible talent, including a spoken word artist who goes by the name Komplex. (komplexwordplay on myspace). His words and energy captured the audience and jump-started our brains to think on a different level.

Well, those are my tidbits for now....thanks for reading my blog.

T