From now through January 6th, both my CDs, “The Nearness of You” and “I’m in Heaven Tonight,” will be on sale at CDBaby. The digital versions of both CDs and the physical version of “I’m in Heaven Tonight” will be on sale for $5.
www.sarahdeleo.com now has a video page, featuring two videos from a July 2010 performance at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City!!
Hello friends -
Belated Happy New Year 2011!!
Every year at this time, I write about the year just past, and usually marvel at how quickly it went by. This time though I would like to take a few minutes to revel in the past year, because it was so wonderful!!
It all began in February. I met Allen from Songwriter’s Monthly, and he offered to do an interview of me for the publication. We had a lovely chat, and he wrote a very nice article about me. He is a great writer, and his piece included one of my most favorite quotes ever about my work, “She twirls the melody innocuously like a girl absentmindedly playing with her hair and the subtle shifts in line and phrasing create an arrangement that not only sounds new, but is also perfectly natural and effortless.” How wonderfully lyrical and insightful!! I am so appreciative that he included me in the publication.
Next, also in February, I met Antonio Narvaez Dupuy, a Chilean native living Barcelona. Antonio has his own program on Contrabanda Radio (91.4 FM) in Barcelona, featuring whatever he music would like to play. Not only did he give me my first spins in Spain, but he also presented the first retrospective of my discography anywhere. I am so thankful to Antonio for his support of my work and his friendship.
Then, in April I was chosen to participate in WNYC’s Battle of the Boroughs: Manhattan Throwdown, broadcast live on wnyc.org from The Greene Space. What a fantastic opportunity!! I still can’t believe I was chosen. I found out about this competition on WQXR, and filled out the online entry form (with help from my husband without whom I might not have been able to complete it!!). Then, a few months later they contacted me to ask if I’d like to participate. I can’t even begin to describe the shock I felt once it was confirmed that I was to participate. I am very honored to have been selected, and gratified to have been one of only two jazz vocalists in the competition, which included singer/songwriter, hip-hop, alt rock, world music, and classical acts. I didn’t win, but I didn’t care. I was selected, I participated, and I represented.
Over the summer, I had a nice series of gigs. Once again, Councilmember Brewer’s office invited me to sing at their Make Music New York Day event. It is such a joy to sing at that event and I am so grateful that the Councilmember’s office invited me to participate again for the third straight year. Then, I subbed on a fun restaurant gig – just a quartet hanging out and playing (unfortunately not an environment singers find readily around town nowadays). Then, I returned to my annual out-of-town tryout in Fairfield County for another invaluable gig at SoNo Caffeine. Then, I was selected to participate in the First Annual Iridium Jazz Vocalist festival – my first “major” room appearance!! Thanks again to Scobar Entertainment and the Iridium Jazz Club for this wonderful opportunity. Then, I closed out the summer with another fun gig at a cool venue, the Bubble Lounge. I sang five times over seven weeks and for this singer/primary caregiver of two young children it was both exhilarating and exhausting!!
Before the summer was out, I had another radio first – my first spins in the UK thanks to Aja Allsop at UK Jazz Radio. I am so glad to have met Aja and to now count him among my colleagues. Not only do I appreciate his support of my work, but his radio show has also introduced me to many European artists I was unfamiliar with previously.
Then, in December I got word from my Japanese music contact in California that Ultra-Vybe, Inc. was interested in distributing both my CDs in Japan!! I sent out the first order in December and have already fulfilled a second order!!
All in all, not too bad a year for a woman with two children under the age of four, and in particular after the challenging economic environment in late 2008 through 2009!!
After a wonderful year like 2010, what’s next? Well, not much actually. As much as I love singing, I found it too exhausting to care for my two young children and work on art and business as well. It may seem counter-intuitive given the year I just had, but once again, barring any offers I can’t refuse (like WNYC), I do not plan on doing much performing over the next few years. That said, I do think a lot about singing – the next four recording projects I’d like to do, a performance-only project, and other singing business development – so I hope you will bear with me through these quiet years. I’m really excited about all the projects I plan on working on once my children are a little bit older, and I hope you will be there with me for all of it!!
Wishing you a wonderful 2011!!
Sarah
I am pleased to announce that Ultra-Vybe, Inc. will be distributing The Nearness of You and I’m in Heaven Tonight in Japan.
“The Nearness of You” will be available for sale on CD Baby for $5, starting Thanksgiving week through January 7th (Orthodox Christmas). I hope you will take this opportunity to add my debut CD to your collection or give the CD as a gift to a friend or relative.
Starting now through September 26th, I will be running an “I’m in Heaven Tonight” CD giveaway contest on my Facebook page. For more information and to enter your response for a chance to win a free CD, please visit my Facebook page:
Well, I have to admit this is not recent news, but between the gigs I did this summer and the kids I didn’t get a chance to do this earlier…
In June the New York Times published, “Cabaret: Precarious but Resilient,” by Stephen Holden. The article was in effect the cabaret version of last year’s “Can Jazz Be Saved?” by Terry Teachout, published in the Wall Street Journal. While one can never predict the future, I hope that the venues, which Holden mentions in his article (Carlyle, Feinstein’s), will still welcome standards singers and performers who give intimate, lyrically-focused performances, when I’m older. Obviously, I have my own selfish reasons. However, I feel strongly about standards as our cultural history, and I think that there need to be venues in which standards continue to be performed live. I also feel very strongly about the craft of what could best be described as “cabaret” performance, and believe that there should be a place for this tradition as well, particularly as an alternative to the fireworks/acrobats/dancers spectacle of stadium shows and the vacant stare/closed eyes throughout gig routine that you see with some musicians. I like to be optimistic that this will come to pass, although I am very aware of what the challenges are. I envision a future in which venues such as the Carlyle and Feinstein’s become showplaces for whomever is the nostalgia/cool alt act for the current generation of 60-, 70-, and 80-somethings. When I’m an old lady, I imagine acts like Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Wilco will be playing these rooms. Here’s hoping I’m wrong!!
During the previous month, May, I came across a Yahoo! Music blog post concerning the Sinatra-themed episode of the latest season of American Idol. I don’t watch American Idol, so my comments refer only to the blog post and the corresponding comments. The blogger commented that forcing the contestants into a big band format for this episode did not allow the contestants to sound “current and relevant” and did not allow them to interpret the music in their own style. With all due respect to Harry Connick, Jr., who I think is super cool, I wouldn’t doubt that this was the case. I love the big band sound and I would love to make a big band record, but I do think that the big band sound with reference to standards is sooooooooooooo cliche. There’s no faster way to date this music than to force it into the “big band” box. I know that there are people out there who only want to hear standards this way, but it pains me to think of all the potential listeners who were lost, because they get the impression that the only way to sing a standard is with a big band.
The following comments regarding this blog post were simultaneously enlightening, comical, and depressing to this standards singer. The comments which elicited the most guffaws were the “the copyrights for those songs would be cheaper than for a hit single written in the last five years” and “frankly its just easier to sing older sings that are probably in the public domain” comments. Lower royalties for older songs!?!? Older songs are automatically in the public domain!?!? When I first read these comments, I couldn’t believe how ignorant these people are about the music business. I’ve since lessened my criticism, because I realize that if I wasn’t a standards singer, I probably wouldn’t know that you have to pay royalties to record/publicly perform this music, and that the cost is the same for “California Gurls” as it is for “Our Love is Here to Stay.”
The comments which elicited the most groans were the “Who knows Sinatra songs besides the older generation(no offense)” and “Why not let them sing more current songs so even the audience can reconize the material” comments. Ugh. Ours will probably never be a culture which appreciates art for its intrinsic historic and artistic value, so I know its not even worth thinking about. Ours is a commoditized, commercialized culture with, as I once heard Aretha Franklin say, an “emphasis on youth.” One could make the cynical argument that this American Idol episode was not about how wonderful the songs are or how great Frank Sinatra was, but was in fact just one big commercial for Harry Connick Jr.’s shows on Broadway this past summer. That said, given that there have been other standards/big band episodes during previous seasons of American Idol, there has to be some interest in this genre. If truly no one was watching these episodes, I just don’t think they would repeat this theme. Also, this is a family program, and this music is appropriate for that kind of audience, since it is not lewd.
Thankfully, there were scattered comments in support of this music throughout the posts, such as “If you can sing Sinatra then you’ve got real talent.” My favorite though was “Just like Kelly Clarkson in season one…if you can sing big band…you CAN sing!” To which I say a simple Amen!!
www.sarahdeleo.com has been updated with a new design.
I hope you find it easier, and more pleasing, to view than the prior incarnation.
Pursuing a career in the music business isn’t easy, particularly in a specialty market like standards/jazz. I’m heartened, and blessed, to have the support of so many people, including the Barcelona radio dj Antonio Narvaez Dupuy. In the month of June Antonio did two radio programs featuring my music. On June 14th he played music from my two CDs, The Nearness of You and I’m in Heaven Tonight, during the first hour of his Bona Tarda Noctambuls broadcast. Then, he found out that the following week, June 21st, was my birthday, so he did a special broadcast highlighting singers who influened me – Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Janis Siegel, Sarah Vaughan – and those who I sound much like – Peggy Lee, Julie London – while also playing a few tracks from my recordings. Thanks to Antonio, and all of you. Please listen and enjoy the following podcasts: