Obama's Words: America's Promise

"You know, this country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit, that American promise, that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

That promise is our greatest inheritance."

--Barack Obama, accepting the Democratic Party presidential nomination

Creature Comforts In America - Art

The Mighty Boosh - I'll Put a Move on You

The Mighty Boosh: Jazz Trance

Brilliant Advice Even I Won't Take

Someone I know and who is related to me and in fact gave birth to me is feeling depressed (possible causes: milestone birthday, workplace issues), or so I heard through the grapevine. I thought I came up with some pretty darn good wisdom for her that I figured I'd save for myself, too, when the inevitable (annual?) age crisis comes along.

1. I love her and so does her family.

2. Seeking external validation gives you only fleeting happiness. Find internal joy.

3. Age is just a number, an external measure. We are too focused on numbers and sizes (size of wallet, size of you-know-what, size of house, size of car, size of waist). Numbers on the scale and on clothing tags. You'll never again be as young as you are right now! Celebrate being alive.

4. The antidote to external focus and approval-seeking is a creative project that sweeps you into its flow. Perhaps do something different: Paint a picture, do a sewing project.

I dunno. Now that I read these they kinda come off as too facile. I was condensing, here, though.

Yeah, so, next time you talk to a depressed friend or family member, just smile and say, "Oh, come off it! Find internal joy! By the way, have you considered plastic surgery?"

That's why they pay me the big bucks, folks.

Letting Go of Professional Anger and Bitterness

A few years ago, I remember describing a professional conflict I had been in. The person with whom I was in disagreement was passive-aggressive. But I had become very engaged in the particular struggle (now I can't even remember what it was about or who it was with).

"So-and-so is really passive-aggressive. I don't know what you'd call my style, though. I tend to take it and take it and take it until I finally lose it. What do you call that?" I told my friend. "I'd call that aggressive-aggressive," she said.

This past week I spent some time at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, reporting as a contract portal editor for the Go-Parallel website. At lunch in the press room, I encountered some former employees of the company I worked for for 10 years. We exchanged horror stories, with me joking "...but I'm not bitter." Ultimately, I think I out-embittered them, however, which left me thinking I've got to stop this. Certainly, I'm not in the throes of anger like I was two and half years ago, when I was laid off. But that righteous indignation is still easily triggered in professional situations. Whether it's divorce, bankruptcy, layoff or any untoward event, over time these have to be treated positively in casual social conversation. As a hiring manager, of course, one rejects candidates who seem bitter and vengeful. Why on earth should I be walking around sounding like one?

And in truth, what do I have to complain about? The company has continued to reorganize and shrink, as many media companies are doing these days. I have leveraged (!) my network and continued to write and edit in the field. And I have more time for music and motherhood.

I don't claim to be the best at what I do, but I find it hard to not get invested. So being laid off came as a blow to myself and my work, rather than just a numbers game (which is what it really was). I can't help but feel the message was that I wasn't really engaged in this field, when in fact I have always truly enjoyed covering technology and software. As an independent, some jobs have come my way that made me realize how much better I relate to computer programmers than doctors and radiologists, who comprised my first magazine's circulation.

[As I was writing this the phone rang. The caller violated several rules of etiquette, and I hung up the phone totally pissed off. Ahhhhh. Deeeeeeeep breath. Let go.]

So, where was I? Ah yes, putting the bitterness to rest. Basically, this is a note to self. I am not the first person to be laid off. It happens all the time. I was lucky in that I had a long, unbroken employment streak. I am lucky in that there is still plenty of work in my field -- in fact, there is probably more work for freelancers now, because of layoffs.

And really, all the cliches are true, if you want them to be: "Whenever one door closes, another opens" "Success is the best revenge" "That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable" (see www.despair.com).

Piano Lesson

Beneath the humor, there are many lessons here, on how not to teach and on how not to parent.

New Nameless Song by Alexa Weber Morales

This is the song I wrote last night, starting on piano and adding lyrics. It was a bit hard to match the sentiment of the melody. Contemplative, sad, circular, existential. I could hear violins on this.

Iran's Googoosh, Circa 1977

Windy Wake

This is a song I wrote last night. The melody and piano accompaniment came first, quite a rarity! Then I struggled to write the words. This is what I came up with. I'll try to make a video of the song today.

Windy wake
Bluest lake
Sing to me
Sleeplessly

Clear my eye
Circle sky
Empty bird
Worn-out word

Every dawn lights the same
It awakens the pain
And she unlocks the door
And she goes out to score

Then she sits down to play
Redemption is near
Requiem in the keys
All of life in her ear

Spinneret
Spider web
Nothingness
Nothing said

And she asks me to pray
Pulls me into her breast
I can hear her heart beat
And the blood makes me weak

But in my rancorous way
I fight off her caress
Pulling every loose thread
Left with angry nakedness

Afternoon
Almost gone
Ocean sigh
Overdrawn

And I’m hushing my son
Dammit let me write this song
And he sulks and he screams
Pay attention to me

Daddy’s slamming the door
And he’s revving the car
Careening out with the kids
While I write through the night

One more hour
Patient sun
Someday soon
Lullaby

Copyright (c) 2008 Alexandra L. Weber Morales

The Magnifying Mirror

I abhor advertisements that show women tugging at their faces while looking in the mirror, grimacing at all their perceived cosmetic defects. Of course, there's a whole industry around that concept, ready to sell you a cream or a surgical procedure that will fix the problem. Wouldn't it be better to declare, "Don't ever tug at your skin and point out your flaws! Love what you see! Throw out that magnifying mirror! Get rid of the scale!"

My goal in performance is to be alive, to be in the flow of feeling and composition, listening as the music and rhythm create an irrepressible response in my body and soul. But it hasn't always been that way -- when I was younger, I never listened to lyrics. All I cared about was the resonant qualities of the female voice. And I had a lot of fear -- terrible stage fright, in fact. During one performance with a chamber choir, I sang a solo while my entire body alternated between rigidity and spasmodic trembling. After the show, some of my choir mates praised me for my bravery -- they could see my hands clenched behind me as I tried to keep it all together and remain vertical.

As I've grown artistically and gained experience, I've come into my own uniqueness. That means that I have much less fear, though for whatever reason I have always been a person who appeared to radiate confidence even when it was the last thing I felt. The challenge of music is, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. As I continue to work with my own music and with other bands, the challenges grow too. After each gig, provided it didn't suck royally (generally meaning at a dive bar in front of morose transvestites who want you to sing show tunes, or with angry Nation of Islam guards staring down the white devil on stage, or with paunchy bikers who like their women big-busted and small-brained), I think about what needed improvement and make a list.

Last week, the morning after my San Jose Jazz Festival performance, I was feeling good, until I looked at some videos a friend took of the show. I know that videos and board mixes (recordings made straight off the inputs on the sound board, meaning no ambient blend of the instruments/voices and imbalances in volume) are dangerous things to listen to/view. However, they are quite valuable at times. Ideally, I'd say don't mess with your positive memory of a show until a few days have gone by. But on occasion I have listened to a board mix (OK, twice) immediately after a show and liked what I heard.

This was not to be the case last week. I felt like I did a great job as a performer and band leader. I was supremely organized coming into the gig, doing a number of things for my band mates that in the past I would have let fall through the cracks. Of course, there's always more that can be done, but in terms of rehearsals, set list and charts, I nailed it. The morning of the gig, as I left for San Jose, I told my husband how much I wished this day were already over. It's something I often say before a gig.

Once on stage, however, I was in heaven. Cracking jokes that people actually laughed at, running through the arrangements perfectly, and dancing as freely as I like to (I view myself as the Mick Jagger of latin jazz. The dancing may not be great, but it is enthusiastic!).

The point of all this is that the disconnect between my mental picture and the few clips the video captured was painful, once it was revealed. Granted, I did not have a board mix of the entire show, and that would probably have caught more of the best moments as well as the worst (by the way, I did not post the worst videos online! The two that I put up seemed passable, and I was especially proud of my pandeiro playing).

In a culture of recording, of constant digital capture, where everything is retouched to perfection, we suffer from the magnifying mirror effect. When we went to Cuba in 2003, some of our travel mates spent the entire time with video camera viewfinders pressed to their eyes. My husband and I wanted to experience Cuba, not film it.

I don't record myself much when I practice. As I wrote recently, perhaps I should. But I'm not a person who tends to go back and listen much to what I've recorded. By the same token, I have occasionally kept journals a la Artist's Way, for free writing exercises. These can be useful for songwriting, but I keep meaning to throw them away -- I subscribe to Mae West's dictum, "keep a diary and someday your diary will keep you!"

The other problem of recording is that it feeds that pernicious problem of comparison and external validation. I came across this blog recently by classical pianist Grace Nikae:

We are constantly looking at others, vicariously reading personal blogs and watching reality television, competing against others, somehow trying to find some validation externally rather than internally. There seems to be an inability to determine and understand for ourselves what it means to search for and pursue a deeper quality in one’s music and life, and a certain lack of self-responsibility and awareness. My advice to young musicians has always been the same - first, and foremost, you must always be looking within yourself. How can I improve? How do I keep searching, reaching, and developing as an artist? How do I keep asking questions that challenge me to keep growing? When I go back to play a piece from a year ago, do I take the easy way out and go on auto-pilot and play it the same way as I did then? Or do I dig deeper, and keep searching to discover new things in the music that I didn’t see before? How can I understand myself better? These are questions that only you can ask yourself. The death of any artist is the day they stop growing - the search should continue to the last day of your life, until the last breath you take. And of course, I don’t mean simply locking yourself up in a practice room and looking only at scores for the rest of your life - although there are many people who believe this is what is meant by growing and improving. One has to grow consistently as a human being, in all facets - emotionally, mentally, spiritually - because this is what will always color the lens through which one can perceive and understand humanity, and thereby deepen one’s relationship and understanding to the nature of music and art itself.


Further, she points out that the perfection of recordings today leads audiences to expect that same technical ease on stage. I'd add to that the sense that musicians like myself have, of trying to match the bar of our recordings, many of which were made line-by-line and even electronically pitch-corrected in spots, in live performance. Did Ella Fitzgerald sing this way? Of course not. I heard Nancy Wilson give a talk in which she said the advent of 24-track recording was "the day the music died."

Several fans and friends have written to me since San Jose, having read my self-critical blog. I am deeply indebted to them for their kind words, many of which I will treasure. What they gave me wasn't meaningless reassurances. No, they reflected back to me the picture of unique energy that I experienced on stage. As audiences do, they picked up on so much more than the precision of notes or the overall balance of sound. That gives me hope and renewed passion for practicing the things I want to improve. I want to make clear that I was not looking for pity. And I also want the performers out there to bear in mind that it's generally not a good idea to reveal your mistakes during or after the show. Audiences want the emotional connection with your music. If you can give that to them while achieving technical perfection, so be it, but if not, don't destroy their memory of an emotional high. That's what music is for.

Alexa Weber Morales - Agua de Beber Aguas de Marco medley

This is part of the medley arranged by Wayne Wallace, sung by Latin Jazz singer-songwriter Alexa Weber Morales at this year's San Jose Jazz Festival. Murray Low, piano; Michael Spiro, percussion; David Flores, drumset; Scott Thompson, bass; Daria and David Chaidez, background vocals; Bryan Dyer, background vocals and vocal trombone.

Alexa Weber Morales sings El Cantante at San Jose Jazz Fest

Here's some of the coro/pregon of El Cantante (written by Ruben Blades) and the new bridge written by Wayne Wallace, sung by Latin Jazz singer-songwriter Alexa Weber Morales at this year's festival. Murray Low, piano; Michael Spiro, percussion; David Flores, drumset; Scott Thompson, bass; Daria and David Chaidez, background vocals; Bryan Dyer, background vocals and vocal trombone.

San Jose Jazz Festival Pictures

Thanks to a very kind fan, I have these pix from the gig on Sunday. They are all copyright 2008 Mark Mander. Thank you, Mark, for both the pictures and the words of support.

Wayne Wallace on a Roll!

Both Wayne Wallace and John Santos were just honored by the DownBeat 2008 Critic's Poll. Wayne writes:

First of all, congratulations to John Santos for being selected in the DownBeat 56th Annual Critics Poll Rising Star Percussion category.
I had the honor of being selected for the Rising Star Producer and Trombone categories (I am really proud of the producer selection).

The really big news is that The Nature of The Beat holds #1 two weeks in a row on the Jazz Week World Top 50 Chart!!! and moves up from #16 to #14 on the Jazz Week Jazz Top 50 Chart!!!

Congratulations, Wayne, John and Patois Records!

I Love the Olympics!

Michael Phelps, man-fish with flipper feet! Have you seen him swim? It's like watching a submarine. His turns, like a dolphin. And how his joy and confidence grow with each meet -- coming into the first gold medal event, he was completely shut off from the world, music piping through his ear buds, making no eye contact, pressure on. It seems like now he knows he can do it and he's on a roll.

It's so interesting how the athletes focus, and how they deal with the mental setbacks and surges. I also love looking at all the different body types, and how they are specialized to their sport. The male gymnasts are so bulky in their shoulders, back and arms that it gives them a slightly hunched posture. What they do on pommel horse is just crazy.

Christiane (I think?) of Brazil, those goals against Nigeria! On one she chips the ball straight up in front of her, then bicycle kicks it in a perfect angled arch into the goal. Amazing!

Dara Torres was awesome in the last leg of the swim relay. She was truly the strongest swimmer the US team had, in addition to being the oldest at 41.

Beach volleyball! Woo hoo! And this from someone who hates volleyball.

I'm like a man, cheering at the TV.

Thank You Women's Radio News!

Just got word that Brian Ball at Women's Radio posted a great review of Vagabundeo here (along with more than you would ever want to know about me).

Here's a quote that I really like:

An unsuspecting revelation is found on the Afro-funk fueled outing titled, “The Goddess of War,” where it seems that all of the musicians have formed an ‘audible assault’ with a commandingly bass-heavy and lyrically-rich arrangement that has an amazingly-BIG sound and boasts fabled lyrics such as, “I’d rather be grimy with all the world’s poor-- than shine with the grease of the Goddess of War!”

Full-Blown Mental Anguish

Lest I come off as horribly self-absorbed, I managed to get the family and the dog out the door on time for soccer camp this morning, which appears to be a great program for my activity-deprived older son. It's in a gorgeous setting among the redwoods and we were happy to see how quickly he jumped into the drills. Plus my two-year old woke up on the right side of the bed and had quite a positive morning.

When we came home I showed Emilio the videos and he of course didn't think they were as bad as I did, but he did have some suggestions, some of which are good and some of which are out of left field, but oh well, I can discard those. But anyway for the purpose of painting this artist's portrait, thought I'd document the fact that I am freaking suffering right now. Because the !@#$% truth hurts, dammit. By the way, as an artist, one should always be ruthlessly self-promotional, never calling attention to one's weaknesses (and no, I will not enumerate them here), so I'm violating that rule right now. So if you're a record exec or a booker, fear not, I am fabulous. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

I tried practicing piano but it doesn't help. I'm tired but I can't sleep.

Another thing that hurts is that the background vocalists, the cost of whom put me a couple hundred in the hole, can't really be heard on the video. I guess they looked good. One thing I noticed about Manhattan Transfer is how close they stood to each other, and also how they moved around depending on the song (sometimes two far away from the lead singer, sometimes all four close to each other, sometimes the girls on one side and guys on the other).

The logical side of me says OK write out a plan of action. Address your faults and fix them.

The emotional side says AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH when will I get better?

This all comes from watching the videos. My memory was fine. Self-analysis is for suckers.

Why Must I Be Like That?

Ack. Gah. Blech. A very kind girl, Jacqueline, sold my CDs and took some videos for me at the Jazz Fest yesterday. She wouldn't even take a tip for her efforts. I woke up early (couldn't sleep well, and have to take my son to soccer camp this week) and decided to risk looking at the videos. While I have seen worse of myself, and maybe there's one or two I could post, it's just so damn painful. I feel like salsa turns out more or less well, but the other singing is just so imprecise. Some of it could be nerves, and the noise. I don't know. The comments after the show were nice, people said I had great energy, one woman said I sounded like Basia, and I sold a lot of CDs, so that's an indicator the performance wasn't vile. But later in the day I saw Manhattan Transfer. They were amazing. What I want to know is, how do I sound like that in performance? I was checking out Janice Siegel this morning. What a voice, what control, what range, what an instrument! She's like Annie Ross.

I guess later today I'll show the videos to my husband and see what he thinks. He'll either say yeah you were too keyed up or aw it's not so bad. I doubt he'll say good God that's the greatest performance since Pavarotti sang N'Essun Dorma.

Bad Catcall

Last night as I was walking back to my car at the end of the San Jose Jazz Festival (which went great by the way), some guys honked at me, then whistled, then yelled "Hey, shorty!"
Bet they win over a lot of girls with that one.

Alexa Weber Morales Band at San Jose Jazz Festival

Oakland singer/songwriter Alexa Weber Morales performs at the San Jose Jazz Festival with her fun-loving eight-piece band Sunday, August 10 at 1 PM for a 90-minute set at the Latin stage located at Post and Market streets in downtown San Jose, CA. The Alexa Weber Morales Band debuted earlier this year in a three-night run at Jazz at Pearl's in San Francisco, where the multilingual Weber Morales emphasized the Brazilian segment of her repertoire. These included selections from her Wayne Wallace-produced CD Vagabundeo; songs by Edu Lobo (“Ave Rara,”) and Guinga (“Orassamba”); new originals by Weber Morales; and songs by the great Brazilian composer Ivan Lins (“Sambadouro,” “Lua Soberana”).

In live performance, the Alexa Weber Morales Band expands on the new CD’s stunning vocal interplay with the able assistance of backup singers Bryan Dyer, Daria, and David Chaidez.

“Fans of my songs in French and Spanish won’t be disappointed,” she assured, noting that she will play her trademark spectrum of world music including salsa, Caribbean and funk.

Her instrumental accompanists will be Murray Low, piano; Michael Spiro, percussion; Scott Thompson, bass; and David Flores, drums. Both Murray and Michael are veteran studio musicians who made major contributions to Alexa's two solo recordings.

The complete 19th Annual Comcast San Jose Jazz Festival schedule, along with hotel deals and travel information, is available at www.sanjosejazz.org (or phone 408-288-7557).

Purchase your tickets to the San Jose Jazz Festival online or at tickets booths at the festival. A $10 wristband will get you into all venues that day! Or, buy a three-day festival pass for $25.


THE ALEXA WEBER MORALES BAND



Since 2004, Alexa Weber Morales has made five studio recordings, including her two solo albums, Jazzmérica and Vagabundeo. The latter, named “one of the greatest Bay Area recordings in recent times" by Latin Beat magazine, made top-20 airplay nationwide and received acclaim from around the world. Rio de Janeiro–based producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro (João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfá) calls her original compositions “rhythmically captivating and entrancing.” A June 2008 DownBeat review of Vagabundeo enthuses that "Her large-scale skill and talent encourages her all-inclusive dreams" and praises her "gorgeous articulation, flowing time sense and warm tone" (Ken Micallef).



Murray Low is a 30-year veteran pianist on the Bay Area jazz scene. Though he is a tireless performer, recording artist, and arranger, he is best known for his work with Pete Escovedo (since 1994); Grammy-nominated John Santos and the Machete Ensemble (since 2000); and Andy Narell, the pioneering steel pan player. His multifaceted career has also included international performances with Tito Puente, Bob Mintzer, Sheila E, Benny Golson, John Patitucci, George Duke, and many others.




Michael Spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator, known for his work in Latin music. He has performed on thousands of records, co-produced and played on several instructional videos for Warner Bros. Publications (including Talking Drums, Changuito, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Ignacio Berroa), and produced seminal recordings in the Latin music genre, including Orquesta Batachanga, Grupo Bata-Ketu, Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, and Grupo Ilu-Aña. Michael's recording and performing credits include David Byrne, Cachao, The Caribbean Jazz Project, Dori Caymmi, Changuito, Richard Egues, Frank Emilio Flynn, Ella Fitzgerald, David Garibaldi, Gilberto Gil, Giovanni Hidalgo, Ray Holman, Toninho Horta, to name just a few.



Bassist Scott Thompson has been teaching, performing, and recording since he was only 15 years old, showing a gift for heartfelt American funk as well as the rhythms of Brazil. Now 22, he has already shared the stage with such world-class musicians as Chico Pinheiro, Marcos Silva, Omar Sosa, Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, Jovino Santos Neto, John Mayer, Anthony Coleman (Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill), and Steve Wyreman (Keyshia Cole, Goapele, Missy Elliott, Lyrics Born, Keak da Sneak).


Although Bay Area native David Flores is a drumset player at heart, he is also a skilled hand-percussionist. As a performer he’s worked with such artists as Lauryn Hill (2007 world tour), Orestes Vilató, Donna Summer, Francisco Aguabella, Pete Escovedo, John Santos, Michael Spiro, Steve Turre, Peter Erskine, Bobi Céspedes, Mark Levine, Ray Vega, John Calloway, John Benitez, Rebecca Mauleon-Santana, Mickey Hart, Melvin Seals, and Mary Wilson of the Supremes.



Acclaimed jazz vocalist DARIA fuses Jazz, Latin, Brazilian Rhythms and originals. She is a sultry, powerful and soulful singer, whose trademarks include perfect intonation, fresh interpretations and pure musicality. "World Class ... new experiences and insights beyond the ordinary." - Jesse "Chuy" Varela - Latin Beat Magazine. The release of her 2005 CD, Feel The Rhythm, co-produced by Frank Martin and Wayne Wallace, garnered critical acclaim and airplay worldwide. "Daria is the real deal." - All About Jazz
"Five Big Shining Stars!" - The Jazz Review. Daria is also currently a member of Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks and tours worldwide.



Vocalist and keyboardist David Chaidez, a San Jose native, has been working in the Bay Area as a professional musician for several years. He has also performed as a featured soloist at prestigious venues such as the 2000 Nice Jazz Festival in France and the 2002 Monterey Jazz Festival. In 2002, he formed the Brazilian trio Agua Na Boca which performed around the South Bay regularly for three years. David is currently working with his new group, the David Chaidez Quintet.




Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Bryan Dyer is a professional musician with almost 20 years of experience who has performed many styles of music from classical and avant-garde to rock, jazz, and blues. Music has taken Bryan around the world to countries including Japan, Switzerland, and Jamaica, alongside such artists as Al Green, Michael McDonald, and Bonnie Raitt. He currently performs with SoVoSo, Slammin All-Body Band, and Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir.


http://www.alexawebermorales.com

Media Contact:
Terri Hinte
510-234-8781
hudba@sbcglobal.net