Out with the Old - In with the New!

Happy New Year!

2011 was quite a busy year for me.  Highlights included:

• My first UK tour (from Cornwall to Northumberland) with new Celebrating the Divas project with my band in February was a great success with several sold-out dates and quite a few radio and newspaper interviews
• In March I performed at a charity event attended by Prince Charles
• In March I also gave a speech (sharing the stage with MPs and the actress Maggie Steed!) for the Lost Arts initiative - extremely scary but a very worthwhile event
• Four sell-out dates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were the highlights in April
• Two licensing deals for music from my album Licorice Kiss - the first for Spain/Portugal and the second for Singapore/China
• Four festival appearances for a Greek Islands tour with Dimitri Vassilakis Qt in July and August made for a blissfully sunny and beautiful summer
• Five wonderful gigs with Kate Williams at village halls in the rural north of the UK also saw some beautiful hot weather at the end of September
• My debut performance at an historic venue in Moscow in October
• Two gigs at the London Jazz Festival with a new European Journey project with Jonny Phillips
• My debut performance in Hong Kong and a return to Moscow in November
• Finally December saw me return to Greece with two gigs in Athens over Christmas where I also managed to finish 8 new songs!

Plans for 2012 include:

• A return to Russia for 3 performances in February
• Another rural tour with pianist Kate Williams in March
• A new duo project with pianist Kit Downes
• Recording one (or maybe even two!) albums

Phew!  After all that I think I deserve a quiet, relaxed January... and that's exactly what I have planned.

Here's hoping 2012 brings us all lots of love, luck, laughter and lolly!

A Tale of Three Cities: Hong Kong, Moscow and Athens

It's been a very busy month!  Three cities in 3 consecutive weekends.  Felt like a resident of Heathrow Aiport but luckily I quite enjoy flying and I absolutely adore travelling.  It was my first trip to Hong Kong and a welcome return to both Moscow and Athens - two places I'd visited earlier in the year. 

I'm going to back to Athens in 3 days and returning once again to Moscow in February.  What a lucky girl I am!

Hong Kong

View from the window of my hotel room - spectacular!

The first meal ended with mango pudding.  Was very excited to receive my first Asian fortune cookies...

... and loved the fortune I was given.  Hope it's true!

Hong Kong is shopalicious - but sadly there was no time for shopping.

Occupy Hong Kong!

View from the hotel's roof top terrace at sunset.  The HK skyline is absolutely stunning.

The final meal.  My pianist ordered frogs legs!  There was no way I would eat them but I was informed that they tasted like "chewy chicken".

Moscow

View from my hotel room.  A grey day but not as cold as I feared.

The venue in a very upscale area in the suburbs of Moscow. Very plush!

The very imposing Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.  Just looking at it made me break out in a cold sweat at the thought of some Kafka-esque nightmare

Just opposite my hotel is what used to be the "Golden Palace Casino" but as all gambling is now banned in Russia, it's been transformed into a nightclub.  Tacky but I love its kitsch design especially the palm tree streetlights!

Athens

View from my hotel room

This suburb of Athens is by the coast and is absolutely beautiful

Sunset view from my balcony

A brisk afternoon walk by the sea - aaaah so peaceful

I love trees and thought these looked especially beautiful

Musicians and Copyright

Apologies for being AWOL recently but I've been super-busy!

So far this summer I have been to Greece twice, up north to Wirral and I'm about to start my rural tour in Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland tomorrow.  And BBC weather states that we're heading for a UK heatwave - yay!  I won't need any wellies - which is just as well as I couldn't find any sequinned ones...

And next month I'm off to Moscow to perform there for the first time.  Before that I'll be back up north to Wakefield and then in December back again to Greece for some gigs over the Christmas period. :-)

I've also been rehearsing for a new European project with guitarist Jonny Phillips for the London Jazz Festival in November.  I'm planning to sing songs in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Russian!  Time to brush up on those language skills...

But back to the reason for this post.  An excellent guide to copyright has just been published by the wonderful Jazz Services.  It contains important information that every musician/composer should know.  Definitely worth checking out to make sure you're not missing out on any potential income.

Download the Jazz Services Guide to Copyright here

Greece is the Word!

I'm going back to Greece tomorrow!  Tinos is one of the Greek Islands and home to the Tinos Jazz Festival.  I'll be performing once again with the wonderful Dimitri Vassilakis Quartet as part of the festival's "Ladies of Jazz" programme.

Apart from the music, I'm especially looking forward to the sun as although we've had a few bits of sunshine recently, today it is pouring with rain in London and the Met Office have even issued flood warnings! This is what we laughingly call the British Summer...

My camera is coming with me as usual so I'll be posting pics here when I get back.

Sun, sea and swinging jazz - here I come!

UPDATE - September

Photos as promised...

On the ferry from Athens to Tinos Island

Tinos Beach Hotel

A walk along the beach before the gig

The venue

Yes - yet another sunset... but I just love sunsets and on the Greek Islands they are particularly spectacular!

Mykonos, Syros & Athens - My Big Fat Greek Island Experience

The sight that greeted me on arrival.  The hotel pool aka Paradise!

View from my hotel balcony first thing in the morning

Sunset begins at Mykonos Port

Another sunset pic (I LOVE sunsets!)

The band!  Manos, Manos, Me, George and Dimitri.



On stage in Mykonos



On stage in Mykonos - Dimitri and me



Syros



On stage in Syros.  The lighting for the show was amazing!



On stage in Syros



View from the house I stayed in just outside Athens

On stage in Athens - Dimitri, George and me

On stage in Athens


With thanks to Elena Vassilakis for the stage photos.

Jazz in Europe

Although I've performed a few times in Europe, I'd really love to do a tour there someday.  So far I've worked in Germany, Greece, Italy and Russia but always for one off-events.

I've never worked in Spain - actually I've never even been to Spain (especially shocking for someone British!) - but I had some great news last week.  I was contacted by a company who wants to license one of my tracks - Tainted Love - for distribution in Spain.  Yay!  I only hope it will lead to performing there in the near future...

And in other European news -  I'll be going back to Greece twice this year.  Once in July to play an open air concert in Athens and back again in August to perform at the Tinos Jazz Festival.  Can't wait to soak up some of that sun!