Dear Friends
Eternal Dance
keeps riding high on the JazzWeek Airwaves - thank you for the continued support. Enjoy at your favorite streaming services,
Spotify,
Apple
,
Amazon
etc. - put on repeat, share, download, and here is the
link to our shop
of music and books. The touring schedule is still empty as travel is difficult, venues are struggling with enclosed spaces being high risk environments. Broadway remains closed as well as many presenting organizations, Cirque du Soleil declared bankruptcy - the situation is extreme. I'm gathering data and examples on how specifically jazz musicians are dealing with these challenge for a piece to be published in the Fall -
this survey for jazz musicians
will be open for another week, please take 15 minutes to complete, and
let me know
if you'd like to share your specific case of entrepreneurial actions with me.
Peter and myself keep our live streaming schedule on
Wednesdays 4pm EST and Saturdays 5pm EST
on Facebook Live.
Here is
our special on Fusion Classics
- Volume 2 of this program is on July 1, 4pm and on Saturday, July 4 we will pay tribute to two giants lost this week: Johnny Mandel and Freddie Cole. We love the opportunity to connect to our audiences, but the virtual environment is difficult - socially and economically. It's been a steep learning curve on technology, setup, presentation - please
send us
further suggestions for themes, requests, and improvements!
Still no performance calendar to post but several special videos with my Trio and more - see below and enjoy. Also - we will do a live concert for the Juniper Art Gallery in Spencer on Saturday, July 18, 5pm EST which will also be live streamed. There will be a limited number of 10 tickets available for live audiences for the event through the
Juniper website
after July 1. And of course you'll be able to tune in through Facebook and swing along virtually. Thanks to all of you who have been tuning in to the live streams, it means a lot to us to be able to connect and share and hopefully brighten up your afternoons.
And, as it has been rightfully pointed out to me, I would like to include a call to activism in support of Black Lives Matter. We all marched and posted statements and expressed support over this past month, but there is a lot of work to be done. I grew up in a country where the generation before me witnessed horrible crimes against humanity. Last summer I took a group of American students to visit some of the sites and learn about the history of torture and murder and injustice. We all were horrified, frightened, and some of the students asked me why the people in the surrounding cities did not speak up. It was a culture of intimidation and terror - few did speak up and were willing to take the consequences of getting imprisoned, losing loved ones and it took decades to reach momentum to overturn the terror. In order to make sure nothing like this could ever happen again very strict laws were put in place and reparations paid to the victims and their families. The offenders were put on trial and every history curriculum includes graphic details and powerful lessons. The symbols of that era are illegal and even some of the verses of the German National Anthem were banned. Similarly, it'll take everyone to speak up and demand change after centuries of injustice in this country. It'll take laws to prevent discrimination, it'll take strict penalties to reinforce these laws and reparations to the victims and their families, it'll take banning confederate symbolism, and it'll take school curricula that include graphic details and powerful lessons. Please don't stop now - I won't.
Stay safe and healthy
Monika