Cindy Douglas

Isn’t this the best time of year?!  So many great songs written about Spring too, one of my favourites is Joy Spring “Isn’t Spring your favourite season, watching the flowers blooming up out of the ground … it’s got me feeling so glad, the day’s are breezy, you’ve got the time to say hello and give a smile”.  A classic be bop tune written by Clifford Brown.  Hope the season is making you smile and your sharing them.

So, excellent gigs at the recent Aberdeen Jazz Festival to a sold-out wonderful audience.  There’s no feeling like it when you feel really connected to your audience and you’re all in it together.

I’ve also had a really special experience hosting a house concert in my new home for the wonderful violinist Jyotsna Srikanth.  This is my first time doing this and what a great way to enjoy music and socialise.  I can’t recommend enough to anyone who might like the idea of bringing together your friends and/or community and provide an opportunity for local or visiting musicians to perform.  In some ways, I think this may be a better way of bringing music to an audience so will be looking into performing at house concerts myself.  Get in touch if you think you might be interested.

Next gig: this Friday 17th April sees me back at Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh in their cocktail bar/bistro on the 4th floor, from 7-10pm.  Look forward to seeing some new and some familiar faces there.

Cindy 🙂

Spring has sprung.  The house martins are flitting around the house & nesting in the eaves.  It’s a busy time for them and for me!

I’ve been busy working on several projects.  First up, Eat to the Beat – the Pop Up Jazz Supper Club.  The launch event at Auchenblae saw the hall transformed into a fantastic cosmopolitan jazz club for the night.  Everyone had such a great time and all ended up on the dance floor by the end of the night, which is not something that happens at jazz gigs very often!  I’m hoping for more of that at our events in Banchory and Birnam next month.  The Banchory event is at the Banchory River Festival and takes place in the Guide Hut, another transformation to perform and no, it won’t be us transformed into girl guides, no matter how hilarious it would be to see the guys in the band dressed up like that!

Second project is my tribute to ‘Lady Day and The Pres’, which will be debuting at this year’s Edinburgh Jazz Festival.  I have the wonderful saxophonist and 2013 Scottish Jazz Award winner Konrad Wiszniewski performing with me.  Further dates are being worked for other festivals this year and next so keep an eye on the gig calendar!  Check out Konrad here:  http://konradwiszniewski.com

Third project was debuted at a special event at Aberdeen Art Gallery earlier this month to coincide with their exhibition on the First World War.  This cataclysmic period devastated Europe and it’s people but led to so many huge social and cultural shifts, one of which was the jazz age.  The American soldiers who fought, introduced jazz to Europe through their military bands attached to the all-black regiments.  The most famous of these being James Reese Europe.  Music from the period and from the years following are featured with, of course, some reference to styles of the time and of today.  It’s been really interesting researching this period.

There are lots of other gigs happening too, so please make sure to check the gig listings and try and get along to something.  If you can bring dancing shoes too, all the better!

Hope this finds you busy but not so busy that you’re not having fun.  After all, what’s it all about if we’re not having fun?!

Hi there

Tickets are now available to purchase online for the first two ‘Eat to the Beat’ events from Eventbrite (www.eventbrite.co.uk).  I’m also trying to organise for local sales of tickets so watch out for updates on that.

Event management is not something I imagined myself getting into but here I am.  I’m learning as I go along and finding that there’s a lot more to it than I’d first thought.  I guess that says something about my nature.  I am rather impatient.  I also know that if I think too much about it and the challenges to be faced, that on balance, I’d decide not to do it!

Saying that, I’m looking forward to it and really pleased with the enthusiasm it’s being met with, with press and radio picking it up and more importantly, from people who are keen to come.

It’s a big risk taking on something like this but the climate for live music, and in particular jazz, is not great and I feel that the onus is more and more on the artist to create their own opportunities for playing and to try and find an audience who are interested in what they have to offer.  Plus, I also feel that we have to work harder to build an audience for jazz.  For some reason many people have a bad impression of what the music is.

So, that’s why I’ve decided on getting into the promoters seat and taking this out into more rural communities.  Hopefully by offering more of an ‘experience’, a night out with food an entertainment, candlelight, etc, people who might not generally come out for jazz, will be more persuaded to.

Of course, as I said, I’m taking a risk.  However, whether it works or not, it’s going to be another opportunity to learn new things!

I’m always keen to hear what people think so please drop me a line if you’d like to share your thoughts.

Best wishes

Cindy

PS:  Please check on what’s coming up by clicking on ‘Shows’.

Sadly, summer holidays are over but it wasn’t really a holiday anyway!  In between keeping my daughter entertained(?!) whilst off school, there were still gigs and other music related things to be done.

Finished my St Andrews course and have my Certificate in Jazz, now tucked away in a drawer.  It was good fun to do and it did what I hoped it would, ie gave me a better grounding in music theory, jazz theory and keyboard skills.  The latter I really have to work at and practice, something else to fit into a busy day.

Sadly, Stonehaven Town Hall Trust decided they couldn’t continue with their monthly Jazz Cafe, due to lack of funds.  A big loss when the whole region has very little jazz going on.  Also, a loss for myself as it was a great regular gig to have but things can never stay the same and when one door closes, another opens … Can’t say much about that at the moment as it’s still in early stages, wouldn’t want to jinx it!

It was nice to be asked to perform at this year’s Edinburgh Jazz Festival which I did with the wonderful pianist Alan Benzie.  I did have this filmed and now have a short promo video on Youtube http://youtu.be/RpOO8LfPQR8.  There should be some more video being posted soon.

I’ve also had some fun doing Jazz workshops for primary age children.  It’s amazing just how easy they find improvising.  Once we become adults, we become so self-conscious and hyper critical that being relaxed and giving ourselves up to the music can be a terrifying prospect.  Once you get over that though, it’s such a wonderful feeling, soaring through the music!

Busy also with writing lots of lyrics.  Several new vocalese pieces are now in the repertoire (Ahmad Jamal’s ‘Night Mist Blues’, Monk’s ‘Bemsha Swing’ and Ron Carter’s ‘Little Waltz’).  I’ve a large number of lyrics too which I need to get music written.  So am now working on finding a musical collaborator.  The objective being a new album.  I hoped this would be finished by the end of this year but, although I like stretch targets, I think getting it done early next year would be an achievement.

Of course, there’s gigging and working on getting more gigs too.  To that end, I’m looking into the house concert idea so if anyone might be interested in that, then please get in touch!

Hope all have enjoyed the wonderful summer and that you’re lives are busy with fun, challenges and those things your passionate about!

Cindy

Hi All

I’m sitting looking out the window and the sun is shining, yeah!  I had a great break in Canada and New York over Easter and was so fortunate to see the legendary pianist Randy Weston who has been an inspiration of mine.  Incredibly, he is now 87 and still has boundless energy and enthusiasm.  Proving what I’ve always maintained that music keeps you young.  That’s what I’m hoping anyway!

Now it’s back to work and reprioritising the very long list of things to do.  I’ve got so many different projects I want to do but there’s nowhere near enough time so my first to do is getting the home recording set-up organised and then, hopefully very soon, I’ll be sharing some recordings done with friends and guests.  Should be fun!

My other to do, is to keep the website more up to date so will be posting updates and links to things I’m interested in at the moment which you too might find interesting.  Please e-mail me if there’s anything you’d like me to share!  (keep it clean and polite though, pls!)

Best wishes

Cindy