Sounds of NYC + A Bronx Voice
April 12, 2002

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Hey all,

What a treat. I opened up the entertainment section of Jornal do Brasil last Friday
to see 3 of my friends from NYC listed as sidemen with Jane Monheit (jazz singer).
They were playing at Mistura Fina, a club located about 10 minutes walking from my
apartment. Joel Frahm, Joe Martin and Mike Kanan were the 3. Most of you probably
know that I played a lot with Joel and Joe, especially at Augie's. Joel recorded on
both of my CDs and we went to Spain together for our first touring experience. Mike
and I became friends through Neal Miner and Marc Miralta. I met Jane and the drummer,
Rick, for the first time and loved hearing them.

After being pissed at Joel for about a second (sorry buddy!) for not emailing me
about the visit, I became thrilled with the idea of surprising the shit out of them
at the club. I went down about half an hour before they had to start and nearly gave
Mike a heart attack when turned around to see whom had called his name.

I went to see them play 3 nights in a row and they sounded great. Jane really has
herself a nice band. It was the first time I'd heard NY style (and quality!) jazz in
a long time and it was such a joyful experience. It's so nice to come back to things
you love. I stood there grinning from ear to ear listening to Joel blow. Man, lots of
memories.

The group's manager and the producer at the club wound up using me as a translator
and so I wound up with easy entry into the club (possibly permanent!) and some great
free meals. I willingly and happily became a tour guide for a few days and tried to
give the guys a good taste of Rio without wiping them out (especially since Joel and
Mike already were wiped out!).

I took them to hear samba and choro; ride the cable car up to Santa Teressa to eat
feijoada; see the beach in Ipanema; eat steak in a local place, etc.. A real
highlight was sitting in on a choro gig (same one as last Monday) with Joel. He never
ceases to amaze ... he'd never heard, nor played choro before. He memorized the tune
as he put his horn together and then walked up to the stage and completely blew
everyone mind in the room. Man, it was great to watch! I think the guys in the band
loved him because he really tried to adapt to what they were doing and not just play
a ton of stuff on top of them (not to say he didn't play a ton of stuff!). I hadn't
played music with Joel since 1994, so it was a real treat for me. We also had a
chance to play some duo (pandeiro/sax) in his hotel room ... another treat.

They split for São Paulo on Tuesday and I guess they're back in NYC by now. It was
great to speak English for 3 days and goof around. I think I laughed more in those 3
days than I had in this past year! Can't beat that jazz musician humour!

I almost forgot to mention that Jane and the band received wonderful reviews here in
Rio. Even people who didn't make it to the gig commented on seeing the reviews. It's
a real shame that there isn't more opportunity (affordable opportunities!) to hear
jazz here.

Quick work tidbit. This week I started doing voice recordings in English for a
language course called CCAA. They do in house production of all of their materials
and I got wind of it through a friend. I'm actually being trained/tested right now. I
guess in about a month of so they'll decide if they're going to keep me on. I have
nothing to lose, since they pay me for the training (1/2 of what they normally pay).
The money is actually cool for Rio. It's totally freelance, hit and miss. But they
pay cash after the gig (3 hours long) and if I could get a couple of days a week out
of them it would help a LOT. It's actually hard work... it's not enough to just be a
native speaker. They turn a lot of people away. The director/producer tells me my
lazy NY english will not do. I have to try really hard to have a sing-song voice with
good articulation and lots of projection (mom, guess I should have taken those speech
therapy classes after all!!). I wish I could get a sound clip to send, but it's not
possible. Picture me with a upbeat, singy tone, saying, "JANE LIKES TO SPEAK SPANISH
AND GERMAN". Then the producer says, "No, no, no, it's like this .... ". I have to
stop myself from laughing sometimes. Today was an early call (8:30am) and at times I
wanted to say, "Who gives a FUCK what Jane likes to speak"!!

Anyway, on that classy note I wish you all a very nice weekend.

Seu gringo,
Scott

p.s. Joel, please forward this to Mike and Joe (and send me their email addresses)

Posted by Scott at 10:58 PM