My arrangement of Over the Rainbow
Here’s how I play the Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg standard, Over the Rainbow. I first arranged this 16 years ago — I remember that because I was pregnant with my son at the time! I added some new touches recently. Oh, and I always modulated up — even before hearing the amazing Eva Cassidy version :-)....
“SAKURA” – PMO FEATURING NORA SUZUKI (ORQUESTA DE LA LUZ) 2017 ALBUM PREVIEW
ALBUM PREVIEW 2017 The Grammy Award Winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra announces the upcoming release of their second full album. It is due in Spring of 2017 and will be named “Live from Stern Grove”. It will feature world-renowned names such as Sheila E and Marlow Rosado. The 11 track album will open with “Sakura” – PMO’s brand new arrangement featuring Nora Suzuki, known...
Lyrics to Bolero Cocomo (To Dream)
By popular demand, here are the lyrics I was commissioned to write for Pacific Mambo Orchestra’s Bolero Cocomo, a composition and arrangement by Aaron Lington. To dream of a melody sweet and new To know that when night died down I’d call you And we’d repaint the dawn To dance until I forget you’ve gone...
Do you ever miss being in love?
I do, right now, at noon, under gray skies, with a slight cold and a deadline I can’t seem to make headway on. The thought of love came to me unbidden so here it is: It’s that heightened sense of everything. Life seems important, and purposeful, and glamorous. There’s a rush, still air brushes your...
The Pacific Mambo Orchestra CD drops TODAY!
Steffen Kuehn and Christian Tumalan, directors of the Bay Area’s best 20-piece salsa big band, announced today that the PMO CD is commercially available online. Congratulations to all of us! In other news, PMO is 2 years old as of yesterday, so Happy Birthday! Listen and buy at the links below (and feel free to...
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...
Birth of an Arrangement: The Names of the Winds
It was the second set of our show. The pianist shot me a malevolent glare, then proceeded to butcher the opening chords of the song I was about to sing, obfuscating the key so I couldn’t tell what note to start with. He finished the intro; silence lingered as the band waited for me to...
Si Mes Vers Avaient Des Ailes
Si Mes Vers Avaient Des Ailes (“if my verses had wings”) is a poem by Victor Hugo set to music in 1888 by child prodigy Reynaldo Hahn when he was 14 years old. It was published by Le Figaro and was a hit. I recorded this as a first test of my new Zoom H2N...
