Willingness
My audition rubric includes a score in an unexpected category.
Shades
Shades of Blue Repertoire 2022-23
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my sixth year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. This is the first year in which the ensemble stayed intact across both semesters – same four […]
Shades Make Up
With a vocal jazz quartet, you can’t have someone sick with COVID and still go on. That’s precisely what happened to Shades of Blue a few weeks ago, scuttling our performance at GRCC Jazz Night. We conspired, planned, and got support to put on a Family and Friends Concert after […]
Shades of Blue Repertoire 2021-22
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my fifth (!) year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. Shades of Blue had five singers in the fall semester and eleven singers in the winter. […]
Ain’t Nobody Here
Please enjoy Shades of Blue’s virtual recording of “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” – out in virtual choir style now. It was the hardest chart we recorded remotely this year. Darmon Meader’s writing never disappoints, and this is a fun and silly song for him to play with. It […]
Shades of Blue Repertoire List 2020-21
It’s my end-of-school-year tradition to publish the repertoire my ensemble sang over the year. With my fourth year at GRCC in the books, here are the pieces Shades of Blue learned and performed. Shades of Blue had eight singers (2-2-2-2) in the fall semester and nine singers (2-2-3-2) in the […]
Join Shades Online Tonight!
I got to end my year with Shades of Blue this year with a real-live in-person concert. However, it was outdoors, socially distanced, with limited attendance permitted. Because of that, we didn’t publicize it much. Fortunately, with the support of the Media Services Department at GRCC, we filmed the entire […]
Can’t We Be Friends?
I consider the albums recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess) to be some of the most important jazz vocal albums of all time. The playing, the singing, the swinging, the sheer joy of these albums is immeasurable. I […]
Thank you, Shades
I was part of my first live concert in 15 months today. The first concert after the long quiet. The last time I went that long between musical performances, I was a toddler. Thank you, Shades of Blue, for your yesness. For facing the many challenges of 2020 and 2021, […]
Friday Night – Live!
Please join me and GRCC Shades of Blue this Friday for a real, live, in-person concert! We’ll be presenting an evening of vocal jazz outdoors on GRCC’s campus. There will be lawn seating – bring blankets! Music will include three group numbers, as well as five solo songs that Shades […]