Russia Revealed & the Road thus Far...

Late posting has become a standard with me it seems. I have been living this whirlwind of a life for 3 years now and at times I can't keep up with me. Perhaps my zest for writing faded a bit after Russia. The reason? My guess is I realized I was on a circuit. Not that I'm complaining about it, just seemed as if I was always returning to certain places because that's where the work was. More on this in a moment. First let me recall Russia.

my name in Cyrillic...

I finally got my Russian visa in time to make the one month trip beginning November 10th. My friends JC, Enrika, & Orianna let me hide out at the vineyard while my passport was being processed in Washington, DC. Yup. I had to send my passport by courier to the States or no visa. At one point I thought it would be impossible to obtain. At last ticket and beautiful visa plus all other relevant documents in hand, I boarded the plane to Krasnodar, RU.

Long story shortened...my buddy Nick joined forces with the Rostov Jazz School to present me in various concerts. Rostov is the home of jazz in Russia-talk about synchronicity. It was pretty amazing to sing with the students and professionals there. I taught a master class and had 2 television interviews where apparently I was labeled "America's Top Jazz Singer". Fancy that! One of my favorite musical moments had nothing to do with jazz. My last week in Krasnodar, where I was based, I worked with a young club DJ on 5 of his beats. In 4 days we gathered the sounds, I wrote the lyrics and melodies, and we performed them live in a club the night before I flew away. WOW! Pretty incredible. The consensus is I should return for a longer stay. We'll see...

the fabulous DJ original music night...

This year when I hit Barcelona in January it dawned on me I had been here this same time last year. Even though I like the city more than the first time, I still don't see it as my EU home. I went to see Nicole in Madrid too. My annual visit this year landed me in a small black-box theatre show with Nicole dancing beautiful flamenco and me singing a Capella respectively. She has really settled in Madrid. It made me wonder why I can't or won't pick a settling place?

The big mosque in Casablanca

Marrakech

Just to get me off the merry go round and keep my dream of singing all over the world on track, after Madrid I changed course and trekked across the waters to Morocco.. People voiced concerns about me going alone, but this is a one woman adventure. I loved it there in the Third World again for it had been several years since I had been in the Motherland. I felt quite at home day or night. I walked the streets to clubs and hotels where I might be able to work. I also reconnected with a musical buddy from Paris '07. We swapped stories about living solely from music. Strangely enough I thought it may be a place to set camp for awhile, but that would have to come later 'cause I had booked work in Lisbon. So I hung out for about a month, made some connections, and worked a little. Will keep you posted on the return.

Now I am in Lisboa. This year biz has been slower. The city lost its oldest jazz club to a fire last year. Plus the economy is crazy for everyone. Nonetheless, I had a wonderful time again, connecting with old friends, making new ones, working on new projects, speaking of future visits. I even got to sing with Kirk Lightsey. All good.

Kirk Lightsey

My gypsy year has become 3 years and I feel as if it's the beginning. I jumped out of the circuit twice with big trips to Russia and Morocco and a few smaller ones around Spain. Now that my Portugal time is winding down I'm considering where to go next. For now I will explore other European cities, but I've got Israel and Asia on the brain.

Thanks for putting up with my sporadic blogging. Keep pursuing your own dreams. Life is amazing!

Peace, Love, & Laughter...