I am passionate about writing
and whenever I get the chance to do it, I try to punctuate my time with
meaningful writing. I like to flex my words with a pen and add it to a blank
page and create things whether it is poetry, song or whatever writing thing
comes to play. In fact, poetry has been a part of my quiddity even before I
started writing songs.
Often times my mind is thick
with thoughts and ideas, and in my own unique way, I erupt into verse. It restores
me back to life and I am ready to take on the world wholeheartedly.
I must show gratitude to my
sistah gurl, Chynah, who did not see it as robbery to use her platform to extend
kindness towards me. She not only mentioned my poetry collection, And Then
There Was the Music: Poetry and an Essay, but she read two of my poems, “The
Universal Language” and “Make War Not Music” to her large, receptive audience.
Trying out my new camera I got for my computer. The C270 HD Webcam to be exact. I set it up and now just checking to see how useful it really might be to me.
So, why not try it out the best way I can; with my web series Rehearsal Modes of JNote.
This is the 17th edition. I never tried it live before so, this was a trial run.
Would you please watch it and tell me your thoughts. I love criticism because it is helpful for my furtherance.
I practice singing more than piano. I guess I always have. But I liked playign piano; especially for songwriting. I used it to produce my original tune
"Wherever You ARe." If you have never heard it, you can check out my tune here:
I'm not use to all this piano stuff but it's coming to me more and more because I was really using it mainly for writing songs prior to this.
Join my rehearsal and give me some feedback. I take lessons every now and again but this is my practice session one-on-one with my creative space, airing out my musical roar.
Two of my favorite singers in the world share
the same birthday. There has to be some irony in that!
Both put their entire body and soul into
everything they sang and made me want to work hard to not only sing songs I
love, but to understand some of the methodologies and theories behind music and I
am thankful for that.
One of the two is Mariah Carey. She came into
my life when I was in the fifth grade and I became mesmerized with her
instrument. At one point in my life, my entire repertoire was comprised of Mariah
Carey songs. I love her voice and her music. The second is Sarah Vaughan. Her
timbre is amazing, and she just has this incredible way with her voice. My Ipod currently has more Sarah Vaughan tunes in it than any other artist and she is who I listen to the most. Happy
birthday to Mariah Carey and to Sarah Vaughan.
Stephanie Jeannot as Sarah Vaughan
Earlier this month, I wrote a short one-act play which
I entitled “And Then There Were the Ladies of Jazz” which went into production
as a women’s History Month tribute at the Roosevelt Public Library in Roosevelt, NY. I played
the role of both Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan which for me was wonderful
because I was happy to be able to honor two jazz vocalist who I absolutely love
while also sharing some historical data with the crowd before me that I felt
was important for people to know; especially for those who did not know about
the identities of these international women in jazz and how their roles in
music played a role in the racial order or the time.
I want to share a short video clip from the
show, where I rendered a cover of the song that Sarah Vaughan sang which was
somewhat of the Genesis to her career entitled "Body & Soul" which
she sung and won the Amateur Night at the Apollo contest and became who the
world came to know as The Divine One. Hopefully you will watch it and enjoy
what you hear as much as I enjoyed embracing it on stage with Charles Bartlett
on trumpet, Daniel Dalelio on piano, Herb Lewis on Saxophone, Napoleon
Revels-Bey on drums and Rachiim Sahu on bass.
Thank you so much for checking out my blogpost.
Have a phenomenal day!
As we cluster together, I want
to invite you to see me in my essence. With my feet firmly planted on earth, I come to you in hope that you might take the time to water my seed of destiny a bit. May I invite you
to drift into the arms of my video feed on Youtube to watch at least one video+,
and hopefully subscribe to my channel at http://www.youtube.com/sj1and0 .
I think I have flourished a
lot since I put up my first video and it is great to see my own growth and transformation. I have original videos on there. I have cover songs performed in a live setting
on there and lots of other things. I have band videos on there.
Maybe I can get your undivided
attention for at least one minute and maybe you can take me at full value and
check me out. My Youtube channel is
sj1and0 and I not only post but also watch lots of cool videos as well. Let’s
vibe, if you don’t mind.
So! Are you on Youtube? I’d
love to catch a glimpse of who you are. What is your Youtube channel? Can we
follow each other? Hope so! Drop me your handle.
Alright then, hope that this
post invokes good thoughts that knock on the doorstep of your mind. Have a
great day. Peace and love everybody!
