Clockwork Blog

Maui: Day 7 ... and home

2009-02-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

Our last full day on the island found this group RATHER exhausted. Juliet climbed a mountain with Paul to deliver her dad's ashes at his request. Honestly, it was quite the feat! I could barely drag myself into the living room ... I opted out of the climb but I had all the best intentions at the beginning of the week ...

The rest of the day was spent finding lunch, a little gift shopping and then to Makena Beach. Unfortunately, our only day off was a cool and cloudy one. We all plopped down on the beach and napped a bit ... SUCH an exciting group we are ... then Dave and John ceremoniously dipped their toes in the ocean and we left. (I didn't get any photos so I found one on the web for y'all. It's a must-see if you get to Maui!)

Dinner at a great, casual flatbread pizza place in Paia with Paul, dropped Dave at the airport then home ... packed up the next morning and headed back to the Bay Area.

So, no tans for this group, but we are invited back and already have some ideas percolating for that trip. We did get some nice press on this trip, I have to say, and everyone we met was so welcoming and lovely. Here's a link to an article in the Maui Weekly about us coming to the island by Paul Janes-Brown, and a review in the Maui News of our Sunday concert by Ron Youngblood. We also have a copy of the Mana'o Radio broadcast and will figure out what and how to post it best very soon. Who knows ... there might even be some live tracks we can put out there.

Thanks for listening! Mahalo and Aloha!

Angie

Maui: Days 5 & 6

2009-02-24T00:11:00.000-08:00

Day 5 first: There are many things that I can do well, but apparently, figuring out how to turn the all-ready-to-go coffee maker on is not one of those things. Spent WAY too long staring at the Thing without the ability to make it begin brewing. It was one of those "need coffee to make coffee" moments that SOME people around here are not letting go of ... Juliet then walked right up to the dang thing and pressed the button that says "on". Like I said, there are OTHER things I do well ... love me for those reasons ... it's been a very full week ...

Sunday morn, bright and early, we headed over to St John's Episcopal Church to sing a couple of songs during the service. This has GOT to be one of the most beautiful settings for a church I have ever seen. Juliet's mom was very involved here, as is her step dad Paul, currently. My favorite part was when the pastor asked folks to share what they were grateful for: this 4 year old boy came up and talked and talked and finally shared that he was grateful for money. Who could not like THAT. And I have learned that in Maui the dress is VERY casual. Yes, I was wearing jeans to church. How irreverant.
Kent Stewart joined us for a lovely 5-part arrangement by Greg Murai (adapted from his 6 part arrangement) of Duke Ellington's tune "Come Sunday". Thanks, Kent. We loved singing with you and having the chance to hang out for a couple of days! We also sang "The Water Is Wide", which was completely appropriate.

Then on to grab a lunch that never happened at a restaurant that was supposed to be good, but where they apparently hired servers that had no idea that they actually had to SERVE the food that was ordered. I'm not bitter ... we ended up grabbing something at McDonalds ... then on to set up for our afternoon show at Seabury Hall, a middle and high school. (This is Juliet's alma mater.) Yes, THIS is a photo of the school.

Stephen Haines is the music director at Seabury and was a wonderful host to us. We set up in the theater for our own concert with Mike Buono on drums and Bob Harrison on bass. These guys are fantastic. We had one rehearsal with them on Thursday and this stuff is NOT for the faint at heart. Lots of tempo changes, specific arrangements ... they were awesome. The concert was fun, even with SOME of us having to restart a few times ... hey ... it's live music. We also had a really nice videographer filming us during and after the show, the one and only Tim Wolfe. More promo material! Yay!

Turns out, in addition to my early morning coffee-pot-turning-on fiasco, my Friends have added a forgetting-the-words-and-starting-over reminder to my list ... but hey! I wasn't the ONLY one who couldn't remember how a song went that day ... :-).

I'm not sure where Dave was in these warm-up photos:

When we were finally done with the LONG but musically wonderful day, we headed to the other side of the island for a dinner at a dear friend of Juliet's, Denise and her husband David. They plied us with good food and wine, we watched a slide show of some of the most amazing underwater photography you could ever see. David Fleetham is one of the best in the world. www.davidfleetham.com

We was tired by the time we got home.

Day 6: Not done yet. Oh no. Back to Seabury Hall where we spent 2 hours with the upper school choir (9th-12th graders) then about 40 minutes with the lower school (7th-8th graders). We sang for them, fortunately having been able to leave the sound system set up from the night before. And we worked with the high school choir on some of the music they are learning. Stephen Haines was delightful to work with, and we loved singing for and working with the kids.

All done. Time to take the sound system back to Bruce. He greeted us with "Praise the Lord" ... if you'll remember, at our initial meeting he believed us to be religious fanatics. He'll never forget us now ... we were all giggling about that one for a long time ...

Not much down-time before we headed out to celebrate Paul Janes-Brown's birthday at Hana Hou and listen to The Hula Honeys. Paul's daughter Liz and her husband and one son, Max (don't know where Rocky was), Tom Sewell and his wife Michelle who we are renting a house from during our stay, Paul and us. It was a treat. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect but this was fanTAStic music!!!!! Sweet voices, ukulele and tenor guitar and bass, 3 voices singing jazz standards and hawaiian music ... and the company and food was the best. We were so happy to be there with Paul for his birthday. They asked us to sing, so we did. It was a lovely evening. Juliet demonstrated tying cherry stems into knots inside her mouth and yes, hula happened ...

On a different note, it seems that Juliet and I have a tendency to murder birds while driving. We have heard, since our fateful accidents, that the birds are actually a bit dim around here anyway, but we each have hit a bird with our cars while driving and almost schmushed another on the way to dinner tonight. It's a bit disturbing to all involved ...

Tomorrow ... sleeping in then to the beach ... finally ... then home Wednesday ...

Aloha,

Angie

Maui: Day 4

2009-02-22T01:23:00.000-08:00

Pat Green's Memorial Day. It was a long, tiring and absolutely lovely day. This will be a short journal entry cuz we're up early to sing at a church service then set up for our show tomorrow ... lots of photos tho.

We put together all the food for the gathering in the morning, then over the Makawao Union Church to set up and rehearsal with band: Gene Argel on piano, Doug White on bass and Mike Buono on drums. We sang with the Olinda Chorale for a handful of classical tunes that Pat arranged, and Clayton Logue played the church organ and piano. Angie even had a little classical solo, if you can believe THAT. Many friends of Juliet's family were there to help out, and to tell stories about her dad and to celebrate his life. Our good friend Kent Stewart joined the chorus and we are enjoying his company immensely. He's with us for a song at St John's in the morning as well.

We, as Clockwork, sang a few of Pat's jazz arrangements with the trio and one a cappella tune, and Juliet sang and original jazz tune her dad wrote and for which she re-wrote the lyrics. John, Dave and I just sat there listening and watching her amazing performance, smiling widely the whole time. She rocked. It was a very beautiful tribute to Pat's life and we're so grateful to have been able to be here for Juliet.

Got to sleep ... not feeling very coherent any longer ... here are some more pics from the day, including one of the roosting chicken on our porch.

Aloha!

Angie

Maui: Day 3

2009-02-21T00:58:00.000-08:00

Well, no photos this post ... I didn't bring my camera to the beach and most of the afternoon was spent at Costco and Safeway, which was not an ideal photo op, to be honest.

Juliet, Dave and I got out this morn and headed to Makena Beach in South Maui. John had work to do and has been fighting illness, so he decided to stay back at the homestead. We'll drag him to the beach on Tuesday, which is our next and only opportunity to cool out ... it's only fair that ALL singers get to the beach while we're here.

Makena Beach=a little slice of heaven.

Gorgeous water, no big waves. Perfect for floating around in the swells. Juliet and I were good girls in-training ... walked the beachfront up and down before we went out to play, then floated around in the water for a while as Dave slept on the beach with our stuff. Unfortunately, we had to get back to our chores for the day and could only stay for about an hour or so. Rats. It was tough to leave ...

Our afternoon in Maui: we could have been ANYwhere in world while in Costco and Safeway, and we were there for a long while. Shopping for food and stuff for Saturday's memorial service for Juliet's dad. We're putting together all the food, singing with a chorus and on our own during the service, making sure the sound system is set up in the church, and BIG TIME support for Juliet. It's the main reason we're in Maui. All the other gigs are bonuses in addition to this very important day. We'll ply Juliet with loads of good wine and company when it's all said and done. I'll post pics of the day tomorrow night.

Spent the evening at Makawao Union Church rehearsing the choral music with the Olinda Chorale. It's going to be an especially lovely service in memory of Pat Green. We're singing a bunch of his compositions with the chorale and as Clockwork. He was well-loved, and it's so heart-warming to see how embraced Juliet is here in her hometown.

Back 'home' late, baked a pizza from Costco, drank some wine, checked some email ... got a lot of prep in the morning and then the memorial set up and all.

I know we're in Maui ... it's a stunning place to be ... and we're workin' our little bottoms off ... got a little of what we've been wishing for, I guess. NOT complaining, just taking note that it's a heck of a lot of work, enjoyable as singing may be.

OH, and we seem to have a chicken roosting on the front porch. She has about 10 eggs she's nesting on ... I'll photograph her tomorrow ...

Aloha!

Angie

Maui: Day 2

2009-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

Dave cooks breakfast! I find that to be an awesome thing. Someone is feeding ME. That's the start of a very, very full day for us Clocksingers ... and 4 people, 4 computers. Maybe a bit ridiculous to some of you, but it's our reality ...

So, our first group errand of the day was to pick up the rented sound system in our two rental cars. No small feat, let me tell you. Bruce, the owner of the sound company, greeted us as we walked into his driveway with "Who are you?". Thought we were religious fanatics. Told us we were dressed way too nice for the area. Nope, we said. Just jazz singers. He welcomed us then. Many off-color jokes ensued. We stuffed the entire sound system into our cars and carried on with the day.

I was riding with Juliet in one car which, apparently, has a silent turn signal. In horror, we realized that the turn signal had been on for who-knows-how-long with the guys riding in the other car right behind us. We did get that expected phone call from Dave thanking us for FINALLY turning that damn light OFF. And THEN. It happened again. The guys drove up beside us to let us know we were completely inept. We happily flipped them off and decided to never use any signals as they followed us down the road. Oh, such power we felt at that moment ...

The next event of the day was singing a couple of songs at the Rotary Club luncheon. Juliet's stepdad, Paul Janes-Brown, invited us. It was a lovely lunch at the Culinary School next to the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and we enjoyed the speaker who talked about arts and education.

Then, back to the house for a rehearsal with our rhythm section. Bob Harrison on bass, Mike Buono on drums. These two are fanTAStic. Bob joined us for dinner and then the Mana'o Radio show. I have learned that "Maui time" is VERY relaxed. Very. We got up and running at about 8:20 or so and went for a good hour and a half. Babalou, our host, was just great. We had Bob on bass and when we took a break, Babalou interviewed Juliet about the gigs we have while we're here, and her dad, and he played a couple of tunes from her solo CD. She was brilliant, and I still say that everyone needs to hear Juliet. She should be famous and we'll just sing with her. Find her on www.cdbaby.com and buy her CD. We had a blast doing the radio show. It's the funkiest little radio station I have ever, ever seen ... Babalou and Don (Lopez), our sound tech, were a delight and SO easy to work with. Thanks, too, to Dorothy Betz for hooking us up with the Thursday night team!

After the radio show, we headed over to Cafe Mark Aurel to meet up with Mike Buono and Paul. Loved the trio that was playing, and a fabulous wine list. I would have loved to just sit there for however long, listening to good music and drinking wine (good wine at that!), but we had to get the rental car back to the airport because the brakes were screaming. We sang a tune for the crowd who really listened to us, sipped our wine for a few tunes as the band played, then had to get out of Dodge and trade in the car for another that could actually stop. Fortunately, there is wine at the house ....

It was a very long day, lots of singing, and a good day for this group. Tomorrow ... we hit the beach in the morning for the first time since we arrived. Yay! As Juliet says, she'll turn pink and I'll get tan ... we'll try to walk as much as possible then we'll go find some pretty drinks with umbrellas in them. We rehearse for the memorial in the evening.

Aloha until tomorrow ...

Angie

Maui: Day 1

2009-02-19T00:10:00.000-08:00

Traveling day! "Blue skies smiling at me ... nothing but blue skies do I see ..."

It was a smooth, non-eventful travel day. We are settled in a gorgeous house in upcountry of Maui. Haiku is the town, and it's cooler up here than by the beach. Although, it IS Maui and the rain, as much as we've seen so far, is warm.
Looks like we're REALLY busy through Monday afternoon, but Juliet and I are making time to walk some miles in the mornings. (If you missed this part, we girls are doing a 2-day walk for breast cancer in July so we're in-training. ) Here's a photo of the view from our 'back' door.

Besides paying a fortune for a last minute rental car (yikes), all we have done today is eat ... a favorite pastime ... go to the grocery store en masse, which is an adventure with this group always ... and then we got lost on the roads back to the house. Took us an hour to find the place ... all roads in upcountry look the same at night. Well, we did have a lovely dinner and drinks with Juliet's stepdad Paul Janes-Brown, and a great kick-off to our week in Maui. Dave never fails to make me laugh, and I am so looking forward to making music this week.

Not much to report today, but tomorrow is a very full day. We're on the internet at 8 pm Hawaii time, that's 10 pm Pacific time, Thursday night. Tune in if you can on the internet at www.manaoradio.com.

Until tomorrow night, aloha ...

Angie

New York in January ... BRRRR!

2009-01-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

-by Angie

We went to New York in the chill of winter primarily for the APAP booking conference, which was great and all, but I have to say that our last night in NYC trumped EVERYTHING!!!

The last night we were in New York, we went to Birdland to sit in at Jim Caruso's Cast Party. This is a very entertaining night, with the ever so entertaining Jim Caruso at the helm. He gets a lot of Broadway and Cabaret singers, and I sent him an email about a month before to see if we could sit in. Yup. He sent back a very nice note and there you go.

So ... that Monday night ... it had been a long, long few days of conference, rehearsal and showcase, Angie (me) being VERY tired at this point ... and at some point in the show (~11:30 pm-ish), Jim announces that Jon Hendricks is the house. THE Jon Hendricks???!!! We thought he was joking until Mr Hendricks stood up and then we all couldn't even breathe for about 15 minutes!!!

Well. Needless to say, it was a thrill to be right there at that moment. Jon Hendricks and his daughter, Aria, sang two tunes ... fabulous. And I know that I spent the next half dozen songs reminding myself that I can sing and it was going to be great. BTW, that tune we decided to sing is 4-part a cappella beginning with me alone. Yike.

We got up there, bowed to the Master, and sang our song.

It was beautiful. We were so inspired, and they listened. Maybe because we were so different from every act prior, but I know we sang well and felt great about our performance. The sound guy was fantastic. What a beautiful room!

Here it is: Jon H stood up for us as we ended, ran down to the aisle and was waiting there to hug us all. Loved what we did and MAN!!!!! THAT moment is burned into our beings forever.
I am especially thrilled for Dave and Juliet because I know how Jon Hendricks, especially, has influenced them both in their singing, lyric writing and performance. What they bring to our group is just awesome, and to have happened to be at Birdland THAT night with the opportunity to sing for one of the Masters was amazing.

Seattle in September, and more ...

2008-09-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

-by Angie

It's been a while since any of us have posted, but it's just been crazy busy here in Clockwork-land!

We've spent the summer learning a pile of new tunes, getting ready for gigs in the Bay Area during November and in Seattle this coming December, and spending time at a couple of regional booking conferences.

The whole group traipsed up to Seattle the first week of September for the Western Arts Alliance conference. We spent a day rehearsing with our bassist Clipper Anderson and drummer Mark Ivester then performed for four showcases. We're used to rehearsing in our living room full of sound equipment, so we felt right at home in Mark's living room. Besides networking and shopping Clockwork to presenters in the Western USA, we're excited to have booked two days of recording rhythm tracks at David Lange Studios with Clipper and Mark when we go back to Seattle for a couple of gigs in December. They are playing for us on those gigs, and it's a kick off for our new CD. We expect to get the new CD out by late winter or early spring. We'll post our progress as it happens ...

We had a great time and also got to hear and hang out with M -Pact as they did their showcases. They were awesome, as always.

And, as some of you know, we love to eat together. Our first night in Seattle was Juliet's birthday so we had a FANTASTIC dinner out at a place called Crush.

(Juliet's husband couldn't join us in Seattle, but we saved a seat for him at dinner anyway.)

This is John before coffee the next morning ... breakfast at Etta's and pizza for dinner at Scrumptious Pie ...
The gang left me there for the last couple of days of the conference and I had the opportunity to meet and sit in with the lovely Greta Matassa. Clipper and Mark played for her that Thursday night at Tula's.

If you have yet to hear Greta, check her out! It was a real treat for me.

We'll be back to Seattle in December and looking forward to it!

recording continued ...

2008-03-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in the studio was at Phil Schroeder's fabulous studio in Oakland (No pix, unfortunately 'cuz we was busy ...) We were recording a trio for the LHR-based arrangement that Dave did for "In A Mellowtone" that we're going to use as a demo for conference samples. It's been done already as an a cappella chart on +4DB's CD. The trio was so, so great! Jeff Redlawsk on drums, John R Burr on keys and Phil S himself on bass. Swings like crazy!

Days 3 and 4 ... we're back at Skyline to track vocals on "Mellowtone" and Dave's cool smash of Ani DiFranco's "I Carry You Around"/Chameleon.

Here are John and Dave listening back. Hmm ... I think they like it!!

New York Voices at Yoshi's

2008-03-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday night we traipsed down to Yoshi's in Oakland to hear New York Voices, and it was fantastic. I have never heard them (or seen them) live and it was impressive. If they come through your town you're in for a treat! I don't think they make it out to the west coast very often, and as Darmon Meader said, they'll be back in 2028 without fail!

The night was like a vocal jazz extravaganza. (I don't have any photos, unfortunately, but I'll include links.) We were just in Columbia working with the choirs and there were a bunch of those folks at the show. Kerry Marsh and Julia Dollison came down with the students from Sac State, Roger Emerson was there all the way from College of the Siskiyous, Curtis Gaesser from Folsom High School, and we got to hang out with Phil Mattson and Rita Scholz for the evening. Basically, it was a roomful of friends and the band was awesome and inspiring.

and so it begins...

2008-03-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our first day in the studio tracking with players for our upcoming (and yet untitled) CD. We'll be blogging the entire experience for your enjoyment and so you'll stop asking "When does the CD come out?". Not that anyone is asking this question at the moment, but we're pretty excited about the project just the same. The creative ideas are free-flowing and we've got ambitious plans, so stay tuned.