English – Spanish – French – Portuguese

I'm an Oakland jazz salsa singer-songwriter, fluent in a few languages thanks to my itinerant childhood. Since 2004 I've done more than a dozen studio recordings for my own & other bands. In 2010, I sang on the Grammy-nominated Bien! Bien! In 2011, I made a fan-funded CD, and in 2012 my singing/songwriting was on Pacific Mambo Orchestra's debut CD. In 2013, we won a Grammy!

Rants
Youth is wasted on the young

Youth is wasted on the young

Traveling through Europe in 2018 and 2019, I was able to do whatever I wanted — and mostly be completely left alone. Contrast this to my experiences as a 20- and 30-something traveling nationally and internationally for work. Then, I worried constantly about unwanted attention and had many strategic conversations with men to avoid misunderstandings...
Quest for the perfect mic: Mystery shopping for musicretailer.com

Quest for the perfect mic: Mystery shopping for musicretailer.com

Originally published May 23, 2016 for The Music and Sound Retailer as part of the MI Spy nationwide mystery shopping series. I met this new writing client at NAMM 2016. Mics To Make The Heart Sing For me, the quest for the perfect vocal mic to suit diverse live and recording situations is life-long. For that reason, I,...
Does abundance make you more selfish or more generous?

Does abundance make you more selfish or more generous?

One of the problems I have with Law of Attraction is that at times it seems to be a philosophy about living at the leading edge of individualism rather than collectivism. Viewing the world’s suffering as “contrast” is useful advice for detachment but can seem to point to extreme selfishness. I was outside sweeping the...
I can shovel like a man

I can shovel like a man

Hole-digging can be a contemplative exercise. Or so I thought. I was taking my time digging the hole, feeling rather zen about it, when the foreman came and roughly grabbed the shovel from me, then began muscling dirt out of the ground. In five minutes he’d done double what had taken me 15. That’s when...
Taming Music's Long Tail

Taming Music’s Long Tail

In “Dear musicians: beware, the social construct is shifting again,” Dave Allen issues a call to arms: “I’ve often discussed how disruptive the Internet has been to business and culture, so much so that it’s become a “keep moving folks, nothing to see here” moment. And yet I’m always amazed at how quickly things really...