My Favorite French Netflix Shows
I recently devoured season one of the French show Call My Agent on Netflix, and that reminded me that I have watched so much French TV during the pandemic. Black Spot was perhaps the first one I saw. It’s a dark fairy tale mixed with a police detective show. At first I thought it would...
Unboxing and review: Duraflame electric fireplace insert with heater
On an especially chilly Northern California day in December, I was searching Amazon for electric stove heaters when I came across these “fireplace inserts”. I bought a used/returned Duraflame DFI020ARU-A004 Electric Fireplace Insert w/ Heater for $100 from Amazon warehouse deals, and I LOVE IT! The flames are so realistic — better, in fact, than if...
Quest for the perfect mic: Mystery shopping for musicretailer.com
Originally published May 23, 2016 for The Music and Sound Retailer as part of the MI Spy nationwide mystery shopping series. I met this new writing client at NAMM 2016. Mics To Make The Heart Sing For me, the quest for the perfect vocal mic to suit diverse live and recording situations is life-long. For that reason, I,...
Review of I Wanna Work For You in the Los Angeles Jazz Scene!
So excited to learn this review by renowned jazz journalist Scott Yanow will appear in the June 1, 2014 print edition of The Los Angeles Jazz Scene! REVIEW: ALEXA WEBER MORALES I Wanna Work For You By Scott Yanow Alexa Weber Morales is a singer-songwriter based in Oakland whose music straddles the boundaries between Latin...
Book review of ‘The Insanity Hoax’: You don’t have to be a nutty artist!
I recently read Judith Schlesinger’s book The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius. What a relief! With a gallivanting, witty writing style, Schlesinger doesn’t just debunk, she pulverizes that annoying meme that mental illness is more common among artists than the general population. Interestingly, every time I’ve brought the book up to...
We are profiled in the NEW YORK TIMES! The NEW YORK #%$^$# TIMES!
We are profiled in the NEW YORK TIMES! The NEW YORK @#%$^$# TIMES! …And they spelled my name right! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/arts/music/pacific-mambo-orchestra-is-unknown-no-more.html
Great review in SF Bay Times
Thanks to Shelley MacKay for this great review of my last gig with Azucar! Tonight, don’t miss a rare chance to hear this uplifting all-women band! We play 8 PM at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Avenue, Alameda, CA – (510) 865-5060! Azucar! I was first introduced to Alexa as an artist when I...
New Video Series: Alexa’s Books
Episode 1: Reviewed in brief: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle The Big-Ass Book of Bling by Mark Montano The Anatomy of Story by John Trudy The Renegade Writer by Linda Formichelli & Diana Burrell Don’t Shoot: The End of Violence in Inner-City America by David Kennedy...
Review of Alexa’s “Energy and Style” on Timba.com!
“Pianist Remy Rodríquez made clear how excited she and the others were to play along with Morales on vocals. Morales sings in several languages, she is a sonera, and perhaps because she is a prose writer as well as a singer/songwriter, she talks extemporaneously on the mike with a lot of energy and style.” Thanks...
Concert Review: René Marie at the San Jose Jazz Festival
Watching René Marie at the San Jose Jazz Festival after my own band’s 2 pm show on the Latin Jazz stage was an experience that I won’t forget. I had a seat in the orchestra at the beautiful San Jose Rep. I’d never seen her live, but I was about to find out — as...
The Names of the Winds – New Video
I upgraded to Sibelius First 7 this week and have had a lot of fun learning its features, especially the ability to create video of your sheet music! I exported a video of the sheet music (which took me a few days to transcribe — I only had a lead sheet of the arrangement, and...
We won Latin Jazz Outer Edges Album of the Year!
Thanks to all the fans who voted for us! I share the award for Latin Jazz Outer Edges Album of the Year with arranger/associate producer Sam Bevan, as well as Colin Douglas, Carlos Caro, Jonathan Alford, Gary Mankin, Steffen Kuehn, Mara Fox and Felix Samuel! Thank you all, and thanks to Chip Boaz of the...
