Laurel Massé

Gig updates

Hello all -

This is my interpretive dance called "Summer": a rhythm of being very busy, interspersed with periods of lying on the floor in heat-induced stupor. But I have some gigs coming up that I want you all to know about.

This week, starting tomorrow! Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Western and Swing Week. Learn more about this extraordinary musical experience by going to www.ashokan.org and clicking on Ashokan FIddle and Dance Camps. Then reserve your space for next year!

In July I am co-producing CDs for two other artists here in the city, which is fascinating work. Then on Thursday, July 24th, I will be at Stone Mountain Center for the Arts in Brownfield, ME. I sang there last year, and it was a revelation. The venue is delightful, and the owners, one of whom, Carol Noonan, is a highly-regarded folksinger, have done everything they can to create a performance space that is pleasurable for audience and performer alike. And the food is very fine. (Note: this date has been postponed. I will repost as soon as the new date is finalized).

The next day, Tex Arnold and I drive down to New Haven for the start of this year's Cabaret Conference at Yale. This year I am again part of a splendid teaching staff, and will be singing several songs in the faculty concert on Sunday, July 27th.

August will be devoted to practice and planning. I am doing a concert of sacred music at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on 16th Street in Chelsea (Monday, November 17th), as part of their annual PAX concert series. I have not done such a concert for a few years; the last ones were a capella, but this time I plan to  have accompaniment. The concert must be designed, and new arrangements created. I am also  putting together an Advent/Christmas concert (more on that when the tentative booking is confirmed). And Jalala will be rehearsing! Janis (Siegel, Manhattan Transfer), Lauren (Kinhan, New York Voices) and I have a lovely repertoire started, and will be continuing to arrange, rehearse, and refine so as to step into the studio in September as part of jazz guitarist Frank Vignola's new recording.

On Monday, September 15th, I will be making my solo debut at Birdland. I have not sung there since Moxie (Janis, Cheryl Bentyne and I) played sold-out shows there back in 2000. So I am very excited about this upcoming date, and sincerely hope that I will see some of you there.

Finally, on Saturday, September 27th, in Washington, DC, Wendy Lane Bailey and I will be teaching another master class for performers. These classes are genre-free: the basic principles of song interpretation and stagecraft are the same regardless of genre. If you sing jazz, great! Musical theater? Fantastic! Opera? Welcome! Western Swing? Let's dance! Folk? Country? All are welcome. Not so sure about my heavy metal performance chops, but I did meet Ozzie Osbourne back in the Transfer years... For information and to register, write to parkroadmanagement@verizon.net

At the moment, that's the performance news. More to come, my friends... and more kinds of news, too.

Quick gig update

I am singing this Thursday, June 19th, in Norwood, NY, in the bandshell on the village green. This is an outdoor concert in a lovely setting, and it is free to the public. Bring a blanket, bring a chair, bring your children and dogs, and you will feel at home. I remember standing on the stage there, looking out at the folks, and thinking that I was looking at our collective dream of community.
The concert starts at 7, and will be all done by 9 PM.

Dancing on the Air

It was about ten years ago - possibly eleven - that I answered the phone in my home in the Adirondacks to find Jay Ungar and Molly Mason on the line. They were calling to invite me to do a guest appearance on their live radio show, Dancing on the Air. I said yes, drove south on the appointed date, and met these two musicians who, over the course of the next few years, quietly changed my life. A month or two after that show, they called again, this time asking me to teach that summer at Ashokan Fiddle and Dance, their yearly music camp in the Catskills. Again I said yes, though I had decided that I would be singing a capella the rest of my life, though I had never taught singing before, though I had never been to a sleepaway camp in my childhood. That "yes" proved - and proves again every year - to be one of the wisest decisions I have ever made.

How to describe Ashokan? I could speak of the lovely wooded setting, the lake, the stars at night. I could speak of the caliber of the musicianship of the staff (and the campers). Of the dancing every night to live music. Of the wonderful food prepared with fresh ingredients, the greatest of which is love.

Buit what I describe most often, and always with gratitude, is the mutual appreciation that is in the very air. The competitive model of the world is so often discovered to be not very useful. One sighs, one shrugs, one murmurs that nothing can be done. But at Ashokan something has been done: that model has been tossed aside. Instead, campers are encouraged and inspired by a great teaching staff, and applauded for the courage it takes to learn new skills. That staff, all professional musicians and dance teachers, delight in each other's growth and excellence. This means that is is OK to take up a new instrument, to ask for help in a tricky bit of music, to try a dance step, to look like a fool - because in all these one is supported and cherished. This is where I learned that what I thought, as a teenager, is true: competition is not natural. You have to be taught. What is natural is to gather in community and to delight in each others' accomplishments and triumphs, and to grieve over each others' sorrows (for a fascinating theological/philosophical view of the origins of competition and misdirected desire, I recommend Réné Girard's book, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning). Teaching at Western and Swing Week has become the north star of my year, and my reminder that we are all family, and I am looking forward again to being there this summer (for information on dates and on Western and Swing, Northern, and Southern weeks, click here.

Today, I am taking a car ride, leaving the city and driving north to Albany with accompanist/arranger Tex Arnold to make another guest appearance on Dancing on the Air. It has been a few years since my last time on the stage at the Linda Norris Auditorium, and Tex has never been there. I have picked out the songs I will sing, but I know that there will be some last minute additions, and some spontaneous musical combinations that will reflect Jay and Molly's own eclectic musical tastes and their camaraderie, and their belief in the power of music and in people. I invite you to tune in and join us, no matter where you are.  The show is aired on WAMC at 8 PM (eastern daylight savings time) and can be heard online at www.wamc.org.

Metropolitan Room, 1/23 - 28

The tunes are picked, the arrangements written, the set list figured out. The band - Tex Arnold on piano, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Rich de Rosa on drums - has rehearsed. I'm not coughing anymore, and I know what shoes I am going to wear. Tomorrow is the first night of my five-night run at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan (see Upcoming Performances in the sidebar for more info).

For this gig I chose about a dozen new tunes, new to me, at least, thereby throwing a gauntlet down in front of my own feet. I was beginning to feel quite nervous, but when I heard Tex's arrangements yesterday - yes, only yesterday - that nervousness shifted to excitement. They are better than anything I had imagined, and I can't wait to sing them again.

Wish me luck. I hope to see some of you there.

Mark your calendars!

Here is the first heads-up for my January gig in New York. I will be singing at the Metropolitan Room on 22nd St here in Manhattan this coming January 23 - 27, with one show nightly at the civilized hour of 7:30 PM (7 on the 27th). So lovely to go onstage well before my bedtime! Tex Arnold will be accompanying me again, and we are meeting tomorrow morning to start to put the show together. We have some new tunes to look at; right this moment I have no idea what the song list will turn out to be. No idea, none. Stay tuned...

Back to the city

Fresh from a week at Ashokan that culminated in dancing my fool head off to the Texas Playboys - not a recording! Live! - I sang at the Cathedral yesterday morning one day ahead of a cough and a sore throat. I know what this is. It's the natural result of being overwhelmed by joy. The body says,"Captain, she canna take no more", and the dilithium crystals take a little nap, anad I come down with a little something that is enough to keep me quiet for a day or two.

Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp is heaven on earth. I mean something very specific by that, and I have to say it in the language I am comfortable with. It is an experience for me of the kingdom of heaven revealing itself to be right here, right now. Here. Now. Every here. Every now. In every one. That's the real world, and the challenge is to carry it with me, to remember this, and to revel in the accomplishments of my many companions in this life, and to share in their sorrows. And to dance.

I did take a break in my reading; after having devoted two months to the Onegoodbook experiment, I needed to come into something else. So I started Barbara Ehrenreich's Dancing in the Streets, subtitled A History of Collective Joy. But it is really hard to read about dancing when just up the hill you can hear fiddles and a swinging rhythm section calling you to actually dance. So I put it aside till sometime later this summer (after Harry Potter, of course), and am about to re-immerse in scripture. But I am going for the gospels now. The more I read of the Old Testament, the more I long for the good news.

It is going to take me a few days to be posting on a semi-regular schedule. Looking forward...

Sound of Silence

I hve just finished a week of recording as a background and occasional foreground vocalist. The arrangements were very taxing vocally, and so I decided to put myself on complete voice rest when not actually in the studio. No chatting. No phone. Seems like such a little and yet nearly impossible thing, but I know that Janis Siegel sometimes does this, and it works for her.

This "practice" had the immediate effect of allowing me to sing everything that I was asked to, effortlessly and without strain. Instant benefit. A few days had passed before I realized that I was receiving another and greater benefit. I was happier. Everything that had been overwhelming me became manageable. Or smaller. Or not all that important. My own practices seemed to deepen. The cat seemed happier, too.

I think I begin to see that the silence imposed by some religious orders has a luminous side. Something exists in the quiet that is not there in the noise. Or it is, but I don't notice it. I felt as if I was noticing more. More able to pay attention, less distracted. An article in th NY Times about multi-tasking says: The human brain, with its hundred billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections, is a cognitive powerhouse in many ways. “But a core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once,” said René Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University.

I think being quiet gave me one less thing to juggle, as there was no longer an obligation to comment on everything ... or on anything at all. So now I have a new motto: Sing or Shut Up. Would that be Canta aut Tace in Latin? Help me out, Educated Readers!

Of course, tomorrow night I am singing at the Metropolitan Room, and so will have to hope for the gift of honeyed speech between songs. But the next day...

Double Your Pleasure

I am starting to rehearse for my return to the Metropolitan Room (April 3, 10, and 17 at 9:30 PM), delighted to have been asked back, jazzed by being the late show to Annie Ross's early show at 7. Annie Ross! The Ross of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. The cool, swinging vocalise singer with the terrific phrasing, clear crisp British diction and the Balenciaga gown. She is still singing and swinging, and you should all come to hear her. And stay to hear me. I will be singing whatever notes are left after Annie is done.

Metropolitan Room Set List

I Gotta Crow / I’m Flying    Carolyn Leigh / Mark Charlap

On the Street Where You Live  Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe

Seven Years in Four Minutes Medley *** 

Skylark   Johnny Mercer /  Hoagy Carmichael

Lover of High Wire  / Bird Girl    Carol Hall / Steven Lutvak, Kevin Hinshaw

Harlem in Havana      Joni Mitchell

April in Paris / Not Exactly Paris   Vernon Duke, Michael Leonard / Russell George

Heart and Soul *   Frank Loesser / Hoagy Carmichael 

Fascinatin’ Rhythm   George Gershwin

Sweet and Slow  Al Dubin / Harry Warren

Crazy *    Willie Nelson

Blue Rondo à la Turk  Dave Brubeck

Never Never Land   Betty Comden & Adolph Green / Jule Styne

The Blackest Crow ** (encore)   Traditional

57 Octaves Below Middle C  (encore)  Carol Hall & Laurel Massé / Tex Arnold

All arrangements by Tex Arnold except:
* Heart and Soul and Crazy arranged by Vinnie Martucci
** The Blackest Crow arranged by Laurel Massé
*** Seven Years in Four Minutes arranged by Tex Arnold and Laurel Massé

Metropolitan Room

I had intended to write a little every day of the engagement, but found I was too focused each day on the performance that evening. And then, after New Year's Eve, I was simply too tired! But a few days of sleeping late and reading Harry Potter books has had a remarkable restorative effect, and really I have been longing to share...

This was my first long date in New York city since I left the Manhattan Transfer. Strange, isn't it? I performed here in the early 80s (after my car accident and subsequent withdrawal from the Transfer) at a club called SNAFU, and did a weekend at The Blue Note - or maybe just a night - on a split bill with the Phil Woods Quintet, also in the 80s, I think. And then a weekend at Birdland with Moxie in its first manifestation in 2001 (Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne, and me).

But this Metropolitan Room date was a solo run - four nights - and it included New Year's Eve. Worth learning new songs for, and definitely cause for the purchase of new shoes! And, Gentle Reader, I did both.

Some of you have been asking, so I'll post the set list later today.