Biography of Trudy Rushin, updated June 2011

Picture: Taken at Baran's in Dec 2009, by Lavonne Bosman.

Trudy’s passion has always been music. As a child she took piano lessons, and at high school, taught herself to play the guitar - within a year, she had started composing songs. At college, she took classical guitar lessons with the late Neefa Van Der Schyff (early 1980’s), and a few years later enrolled at Jazz Workshop, where she worked with Alistair Andrews and later, Alvin Dyers, discovering her deep love for jazz.

She honed her natural singing talent, taking classical lessons from her mother, opera singer, May Abrahamse (Eoan Group Voice Production Department), and jazz lessons from Sandra Harman (Jazz Workshop), over a period of six years. She also explored aspects of vocal jazz with the legendary Merton Barrow, jazz pianist and owner of Jazz Workshop Music School. She joined his 6-piece vocal ensemble, learning intricate arrangements of jazz standards.

Her first stint at professional music was with highly-talented Cape Town musician, Eddie Petersen. Their duo, “Flipside”, performed at restaurants and private functions, using a combination of live and sampled sounds (1989-1990). After that, she worked as a vocalist with a 9-piece band, “Deadline”, a 5-piece band, “Just Us”, and a trio, “Splash”. In 1993, she did a demo recording of four cover versions with Splash.

In 1997, when she had the opportunity to record some of her own material, she turned to Merton Barrow to assist her with the finer points of the arrangements. The band she chose for that demo recording consisted of: Merton Barrow (keyboards), Alvin Dyers (guitar), Charles Lazar (electric and double bass), Denver Ferness (drums) and Jeff Geffen (husband) on percussion. Shortly after recording the 4-song demo, called “At Last”, she performed with the same band at the 1998 Jazzathon, at the V &A Waterfront.

After the Jazzathon, she dropped off the performing scene for a few years, turning her attention to her family life. At the end of 2000, her marriage to drummer Jeff Geffen ended, and she rediscovered her songwriting passion, composing over twenty songs in the first two years after her divorce.


In March 2003, she returned to the performing world by forming a duo with guitarist, Keith Tabisher, a high school friend. In December 2003, they played at the Adderley Street Night Market, and in February 2004, were joined by Donald Gain, a double bassist. They called their trio “Jazz, etc.” and performed cover versions of jazz standards, folk, pop and South African music. Trudy found it exciting adding some of her originals to their repertoire. They did a 5-month stint at Off Moroka, a restaurant in Adderley Street. After extensive restaurant and other work, the trio reverted to the original duo in September 2006, keeping the name.

In November 2005, through her collaboration with fledgling record label, Dala Flat Music, she did a three-concert series, with multi-instrumentalist, Hilton Schilder, at 38 Special, an alternative art gallery in Buitenkant Street, in the city centre. The series was called Time With Trudy, and was her first venture into concerts exclusively showcasing her original work.

In July 2006, after having done two demo recordings (10 songs each, in 2004 and 2005) with Dala Flat Music, she went into the studio with them, with musicians Hilton Schilder (piano and other instruments) and Eldred Schilder (double bass), to record her debut original album. Various setbacks saw the project grind to a halt after the initial tracks for 16 of her songs had been laid. Some of the recording was done at the SABC studios in Sea Point, and the rest at Audio Lounge, the studio of renowned sound engineer, Dave Subkleve. The dream of completing that album is an unquenchable fire inside of her.

In September 2006, she did another concert of original songs, at Silvertree Restaurant, as part of the Kirstenbosch Winter Concert Series. This time, she was accompanied by Keith Tabisher and Hilton Schilder.

Some other venues performed at, over the years:
Arabella Hotel, Foreshore
Spier Village Hotel, Stellenbosch
Silvermist, Constantia Nek
The helipad (helicopter landing area) at Granger Bay
Strandloper Restaurant (on the beach), Langebaan, West Coast
Mugg n Bean Cavendish, Constantia Village and Paddocks
Fogeys, Muizenberg
Habanero’s, Kalk Bay
Café Paradiso, Gardens
Nassau Hall, Newlands
District 6 Museum

A new, exciting phase of her musical journey began in 2008, when she went back to Jazz Workshop to continue guitar lessons, because in August that year she changed teachers, and this was when she first encountered jazz guitarist and music educator, Wayne Bosch, who not only exposed her to more advanced features of playing the guitar, but taught her to analyse her compositions critically, opening up a whole world of musical knowledge to her. She attributes her love for the blues to his influence on her.

In February 2009, she did her first gig with Wayne, in a trio with bassist Shaun Johannes. In July, she and Bosch landed a weekly gig at Food Lover’s Market, a restaurant in central Claremont, which continued for 14 months. In that time, their partnership grew into The Rushin-Bosch Duo, with their focus set on expanding their repertoire and refining their sound.

In September that year she met up with pianist Onyx Phillips and bassist Bernie Lawrence, and performed with them at the Table Bay Hotel, in the V & A Waterfront.

In December, she and Wayne did a concert, “Music Inside Of Me”, featuring her compositions, at Baran’s Theatre Restaurant, on Greenmarket Square. For this concert, Trudy chose to work once again with Charles Lazar on double bass, and took the opportunity to introduce her son, Nick Geffen, 14 years old at the time, on drums. André Manuel, of Dala Flat Music, recorded the concert.

She did a second concert of originals at Baran’s, also entitled “Music Inside Of Me”, this time in March 2010, with Wayne and Charles, which was once again recorded by André. In April that year, she held a fundraising concert for Haiti earthquake survivors in Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral, featuring a number of poets and musicians. She and Wayne performed two original songs, and their slot was videotaped by Colombian documentary producer, Angela Ramirez.

When Wayne hosted a Guitar Workshop in August 2010, educating and inspiring musicians in the audience on techniques of accompaniment and improvisation, Trudy provided the vocals for his demonstration of different approaches to accompaniment. This workshop was also videotaped.

In September, they played a weekly gig, at Café Adelphi, in Sea Point. That same month, they performed at a Heritage Day concert, as part of NGO Week, as well as at a Heritage Launch at Harold Cressy High School, in Gardens, Cape Town.

December 2010 found her back at Baran’s, doing her third concert of originals there, with three other artists featured in the first half: Diana Ferrus (poet), Megan Francis (vocalist) and Peter LaVey (emerging singer-songwriter). This time, she and Wayne, by now a well-oiled duo, performed one set of her compositions.

The 5-star Myoga Restaurant, in the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, was where she did gigs on New Year’s Eve, with Wayne in 2009 and with guitarist Rudi Byrnes in 2010. In November 2010 and January 2011, she and Keith Tabisher performed at Neethlingshof Wine Farm in Stellenbosch; they also did a function at Crystal Towers Hotel (Century City) in January.

Pursuing her dream, Trudy recorded one of her songs, a samba called, “I’m So Happy Today”, at Little River Studio, in January 2011, accompanied by Wayne Bosch (guitar) and Tony Paco (percussion). A few days later, she uploaded it onto the internet, putting her original material out in cyberspace for the first time. Within a week, her song was played on regional radio (Cape Town’s Heart Radio), and two weeks later, a national station (Radio 2000) gave the song airplay. She is serious about recording a full album of originals and is busy exploring ways to fund the project.

At the end of January, she spent time in Stellenbosch with a group of Luckhoff High School learners, at their choir camp, speaking to them about the role of music in her life, and playing some of her originals. She met up with the young band, Cappuccino (linked to Stellenzicht High School), at the camp, as well.

In February 2011, she accepted an offer to do a weekly solo gig at Don Pedro Restaurant in Woodstock, where she enjoyed a 14-week season, making her mark as a singer-songwriter at this ‘Bohemian’ venue, frequented by artists from various disciplines.

The Rushin-Bosch Duo was hired for a weekly gig at Myoga Restaurant in March, and another one at Doppio Zero (Claremont) in April.


Trudy thoroughly enjoys performing, in collaboration with other musicians, but also as a soloist, singing her own songs. She writes about things that affect her in everyday life, exploring both dark and light emotions. Her songs often have more than just a hint of humour, and audiences respond well to the range of issues and emotions she sings about. Throughout the different stages of her adult life so far, she has found songwriting cathartic, like journalling to music. It took many years before she felt brave enough to play her originals in public, but once she started, she was shocked at the reception her songs got, especially from women, many of whom related strongly to the lyrics. Her love of Latin rhythms shows in her compositions, many of which have samba and bossa nova feels.

Both a realist and a dreamer, she enjoys immersing herself in activities that feed both of these aspects of her personality. A philosophical observer of life, she is also passionate about empowering young and old South Africans, especially people who were raised to feel invisible under the apartheid system. She’s passionate about women finding their voices and speaking out against all forms of abuse. She’s passionate about truth and freedom, both individual and collective. Acutely aware of how precious life is, she believes fiercely in claiming happiness and power in the present. In her songs, it’s clear that she celebrates life and love, personal power and freedom.

She believes in the healing, restorative power of music, and regularly does sing-alongs with community and church groups, focusing on senior citizens.

Blessed with the ability to function well as both a left and right–brain thinker, Trudy prefers managing her own music career, making time for the behind-the-scenes aspects of the industry, doing the administrative tasks and marketing herself. This is consistent with her belief that, if you want things to happen, you have to go out there and make them happen.

Work:
After 25 years in Education and Edu-tourism, with music as her part-time occupation, she is currently self-employed, working with her two passions, Music and English:

Music: Live performances (voice, guitar) in solo or duo format; guitar lessons to adults and children; sing-alongs with groups of people, particularly seniors.

English: Various forms of work include facilitating discussion groups and workshops, as well as proofreading, editing and report writing.

At home: Homemaker, amateur gardener, mother to Nicholas (16) and Summer (12).

Favourite pastimes: Spending time with the important people in her life, playing guitar and singing, writing songs, jamming with other musicians, swimming, walking briskly with her best friend, watching live performances, reading, journalling, blogging, walking in nature, sending and receiving e-mails, online social networking, surfing the internet, watching movies with strong female characters, taking photos, looking at photos, soaking in a candle-lit bubble-bath, and eating anything containing chocolate!

To listen to demo on the internet, go to:
http://soundcloud.com/trudy-rushin/im-so-happy-today-mp3-3

Teaching guitar lessons

Picture: Taken at a duo gig at Food Lover's Market, early in 2010.

This week has had very good energy. In so many ways, life feels different, in a positive, exciting way. I’ve managed to tie up some loose ends, and am closer than ever to achieving some of my goals. Of course, having the October concert as a project to occupy my mind and time is really energizing. This week it’s rained once or twice, so I stayed indoors more than usual and achieved things on the home base that I don’t normally, when I’m out and about. Baby steps, but they all contribute towards making the bigger picture of my life feel like it’s taking shape, heading in the right direction.

Something I’ve accepted about myself is that I thrive on being busy. I actually like working, as long as it’s fulfilling, I feel I’m making a difference, and – this seems to be the key ingredient – I have a lot of autonomy. Teaching guitar lessons satisfies all of those criteria. I love managing my own schedule and planning my days in a way that allows me to meet my family’s needs, as well. I like sourcing the students, which I do through my networks, those of my friends, as well as advertising to the public at large. I love preparing my lessons, drawing up the worksheets, finding appropriate songs and I even like the administrative side of things, keeping my files organised (Virgo!) and updating the records of my students’ progress. Because I like to keep things simple, I’ve tweaked my financial record keeping system until it’s made sense to me, and I now give my students monthly statements that look quite professional.

But most of all, I absolutely LOVE teaching people to play the guitar! Having found something that I love doing, which can earn me money, is a huge thing in my life, and something which has filled my heart with hope. In my case, I’m lucky to have not one, but TWO things I love doing, which can generate an income: live performances and teaching guitar lessons. This year I’ve learnt how hard it is to get gigs, especially at restaurants, during winter. Restaurant owners trim their overheads during the colder months, for survival. One of the restaurants I sang at a few months ago has since closed down – business was just too bad. I need to work out a way to ensure I maximize my gig prospects in the warmer months and keep the guitar lessons going throughout the year, because they would be my main source of income during winter.

Having established that I enjoy teaching people to play the guitar so much, and that my students all seem to be enjoying their lessons, I now have to set my sights on the way forward. I have fourteen active students, three of which I teach privately, with the rest in groups. I now need to increase my number of students. Adding 20 more students is my current goal. With a certain combination of private and group lessons, that should earn me enough to get through the month with, shall we say, dignity. It would mean that, finally, I wouldn’t have to borrow from anyone to meet the demands of life.

I prefer to work with absolute beginners, because I like to teach them before they’ve got into bad habits, especially with posture and hand position. I’ve worked out a system that’s logical and easy to follow, and as long as the student practices, he or she WILL learn every week and WILL be playing a song within the first three to four lessons. I do teach some people who can already play, but I always do a free assessment session with them, to establish if we’d be a good match. I have to find out if they want to learn the style of playing that I teach, and if I’m the right person for them – it might be necessary for me to refer them to someone else. I always tell my students, I can teach them everything I know, and after that they need to progress to another teacher, for more advanced lessons. Because I’ve been playing for 33 years, I think there’s quite a bit I can teach people!

Something that I make a point of, in my lessons, is that I hardly ever play my guitar. Most times, my guitar comes out only when we’re tuning, at the beginning of the lesson, then stays in its case for the rest of the lesson. The student handles his or her guitar for the entire lesson, utilizing the full lesson time to work on acquiring the skill. I’ve had lessons, myself, where I’ve just sat and observed while my teacher demonstrated. While this is sometimes necessary, I keep it to an absolute minimum, because I know how disempowering it feels and I believe that you have to learn physical skills by DOING. Sometimes, for different reasons, students don’t find time to practise between lessons. While this is not ideal, it happens, and it used to happen to me, too. If you have a job, you run a home and take care of a family, it’s easy for a week to go by without your having found time to practise your guitar playing. Even more reason for you to play your guitar for the full lesson time.

I emphasise to students that they should never cancel a lesson because they haven’t practised – it’s like going off your diet after a bad day/week. Playing the guitar is a skill that develops over time, and requires commitment. This includes accepting that you’ll have weeks where you won’t have practiced as much as you’d planned to. It’s the same principle that applies to so many other things in life, and sometimes we need a physical example to learn this life lesson: when you experience any form of adversity or failure, the song says: “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again.”

When I was asked, as a little girl, what I wanted to be when I grew up, I apparently had only two answers, ever: a mother, and a teacher. All these years later, I can say that life has indeed given me my heart’s desire – two of my greatest passions are being a mother, and teaching. Now I need to complete the story, by being the best mother I can be, and developing the professional passion into a successful enterprise, one that also addresses another goal of mine – to make a difference in the lives of previously-disadvantaged people, in post-apartheid South Africa.

I have my work cut out for me. It feels like it’s taken me almost a year to re-discover what I’ve known all along I should be dedicating my life to.

But now I know.

Phew!

So far, so good

I’m normally an extremely patient person, but there are some things in my life right now that stretch my patience so far, I sometimes wonder how much elasticity is left! Breathe in…… breathe out…..

But, on to brighter news!

CONCERT UPDATE:
Today I’m delighted to announce the line-up for my concert on Friday, 7 October:
Wayne Bosch (electric guitar)
Errol Dyers (acoustic guitar)
Hilton Schilder (piano)
Charles Lazar (double bass)
Tony Paco (percussion)

This is such an exciting group of musicians, and I’m over the moon that they’re all on board. I have worked extensively with Wayne, quite a bit with Hilton, a few times with Charles, done two impromptu sets with Errol and worked with Tony on the recording of one of my songs. One thing I can say, though, is that all of them are people I really like, and people whose energy blends well with mine.

There’s a lot to do, both musically and otherwise. One of the next things I have to finalise is the programme for the night. We’re doing two sets of my original songs, and I’m busy with the selection. The next challenge is deciding which combinations of musicians will play on each song. I want to give the audience a memorable experience, so I plan to do as wide a range of styles as possible. There’ll be a bit of all the styles I use – folk, blues, ballads, bossanova and samba, as well as light rock. The thread that will weave the songs together will be their source, their origin – me. My songs tell stories. Each song has its own character - its own feel, its own rhythm, its own colour - and this will be heightened by the different sounds produced by the musicians. At the end of the concert, I hope the people in the audience will feel like they’ve been taken on a magic carpet ride. I know that, being on stage and performing my songs with this particular line-up, will feel that way for me.

Last night I had an exciting meeting with some good friends who’re helping me put the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that will produce a slick event, with all the different aspects covered more than adequately. It’s important for me to consult with more experienced people, to listen to their ideas and to grow my frames of reference.

I’m trying to decide on the name of the concert, and I’m tempted to use one of my song titles, as I’ve done in the past. This step is as important as deciding on the title of a book you’ve written, or the theme for decorating a house. Once I have sorted this out, I can discuss the concept with the designer, and he can start with the artwork for the tickets and the programmes. I wonder if musicians who are hired to play at concerts realize how much behind-the-scenes work gets done, and how much of a risk the producer takes. Those who’ve put on their own events would know.

After deciding on the songs and getting the charts ready, I have to set rehearsal dates. I have to believe that it won’t be that difficult to get 6 of us to the same place at the same time!

Some exciting ideas were shared last night, and I can’t wait to see the different plans fall into place. I fully understand that some things will be easier to achieve than others.

For now, though, I need to focus on getting over this bout of flu, practising my guitar playing until my voice is strong enough to practise singing, and keeping an eye on my checklists and timelines.

So far, so good!

Taking it personally

Written on Monday 25 July 2011

Watching the disturbing video footage, on SATV news last week, of a Gauteng (a province in South Africa) school principal viciously and repeatedly beating a Grade 8 pupil with a piece of garden hosepipe raised a lot of emotions and memories in me. I became acutely aware of how experiences that we try to sweep under the carpet, file away until we can process them “properly” (if at all), can come back to us with even more ferocity, when triggered by something else.

I was taken back to my eighteen months spent teaching English and some other subjects at a nearby high school. I vividly recalled one particular day when I’d gone to the principal’s office, outraged after my class of Grade 8 pupils had complained about an assault by a teacher on one of their classmates. The teacher had thrown him to the floor, hit him with a walking stick and kicked him, shouting obscenities, in full view of every other child in the class! And then, having meted out this brutality, he’d proceeded to teach his lesson.

The principal listened to me, with a neutral but indulgent expression on his face that gave little indication of what his reaction would be. To his credit, I was further humoured to the point where the teacher was called in and the three of us had another meeting. Once again, I pointed out how inappropriate the teacher’s actions had been, how damaging and humiliating for the child and, of course, that it was illegal! I pointed out that the teacher could face a huge fine, at the very least, but that surely he was putting his future as an educator at risk. The teacher was asked to apologise to ME, but that was not the worst part: the principal’s last words to me were along these lines: “Please don’t make too much of this; today it’s Mr X, tomorrow it could be me.”

At that same school, a certain male teacher would boast, in the staffroom, about how he regularly held boys up against the wall and punched them with his fist. I would express my shock and disgust, and warn the teacher that it would take just ONE pupil to get his parents to take legal steps, for his career to be in jeopardy. He would laugh at me and say smugly, “Daai ouers VRA dan vir my ommie kinders to moer!” (Crude Afrikaans for: Those parents ASK me to hit their children!) So you have so-called ‘middle class’ teachers working at township schools, abusing children physically – and, by implication, psychologically – and capitalizing on the ignorance of many of the parents in those communities, when it comes to children’s rights and the overall provisions of our country’s constitution, with its strong human rights emphasis. I often wonder how – and if – those same teachers discipline their children at home, and how they’d react, were their own children to be on the receiving end of such brutality at school. But here’s the rub: most middle class teachers send their children to better schools, where there IS a culture of learning and there IS a human rights culture. Of course, this is everyone’s right. The continuing disparities in education in our country is a completely separate topic, meriting urgent scrutiny by government and other role players. I really wish teachers were as militant about education-related inequalities as they are (justifiably) about salary-related matters.

It breaks my heart to see fellow teachers, with whom I studied and protested, with whom I sat for weeks on end in mass meetings in the early 1980’s, boycotting lectures in solidarity with others engaged in the anti-apartheid struggle in our country, reduced to what so many of them have become. Every single child in our country deserves an excellent education, by dedicated teachers, teachers committed to lifelong learning, themselves, and teachers actively pursuing lifestyles that their charges would want to emulate.

I remember asking a colleague, when I was newly at that school, what he had done over the weekend. He said he’d sat in his garage. “Oh”, I said, “doing what?” “Drinking!” he said, as though I was stupid for not having known such an obvious thing! I bravely tried to steer the conversation towards sobriety. “What else did you do?” I asked, hoping he’d use the cue to redeem himself. Again he looked at me like I was a moron for not knowing what weekends were all about, and said, “Well, when the beers were finished, I went to buy more beers!” “Oh”, I said again, my optimism flagging, “and did you spend time with any of your friends?” “Ya, of course”, he said (by this time convinced there was definitely something wrong with me), “they came over later in the afternoon and brought a case of beer, so we cooled off in the garage.” I seriously deserve a medal for my belief in humankind, as once again I ventured, albeit a lot more feebly, “So, were you guys watching sport?” “No”, he said, visibly exasperated, “we were watching people walk past my house!”

I was hopelessly outclassed. How would I ever attain such enlightenment?

But the incident that the news footage brought to mind even more painfully was something I witnessed a few months ago. At the time, I intended writing to the local newspaper about it, but I never did. Today I want to write about it.

It was round midday one Saturday, and I was driving along the M3, a scenic route through the southern suburbs, to fetch my son at Jazz Workshop Music School. After passing Chart Farm, I followed the curve of the road and started my climb up the hill behind Wynberg Park. About 100 metres ahead of me, I saw a white vehicle (those family-type 4X4s) parked on the left verge of the road, with a man standing outside, doing what looked like knocking something inside the bonnet. As I got closer, I noticed that his arm movements were big and forceful, and thought I’d never seen anyone hit anything in an engine that hard before. When I got even closer, I realised that he was not knocking something in his engine, but that the side door had been slid open, he was holding a belt in his hand, and he was beating, viciously and mercilessly, shouting (in Afrikaans) like a maniac, a small person cowering inside. It was summertime, and I saw a lot of pink skin, so it must’ve been a child dressed in shorts and a t-shirt.

I was driving alone, and I was terrified. At least one other car’s occupants noticed the incident at about the same time, slowed down, like me, but then, like me, continued driving. Traumatised and confused, and feeling I’d let the victim down, I pulled off on the descending side of the hill, now in Edinburgh Drive, and waited for the vehicle to pass, taking out my notepad and pen to write down the vehicle registration number. A vehicle like the one I’d seen drove by a few minutes later, and I wrote down the number, but couldn’t make out whether it was the same person I’d seen earlier. And then a few more similar vehicles drove past and I decided that I’d lost my moment to do the right thing, and that handing in the wrong person’s number and falsely accusing someone could have serious consequences.

I continued driving to town, switched off the radio and thought about that poor child and what his/her life must be like, and how the rest of the day would be for him/her. I thought about that father and child pitching up at a family gathering, a few minutes later, and the child having to pretend that he/she was happy and carefree, as children are supposed to be. I cried and cried. I thought about all the other children in our city, our country, our continent and the world, who have to endure abuse of any kind at the hands of their ‘caregivers’. I thought about the audacity of the man, pulling his vehicle off the side of a busy public thoroughfare and whacking his child uncontrollably, no doubt acting out a script he’d grown up with. What does he do afterwards - put his belt back on, get behind the wheel and listen to the radio? Does he drive in silence, or is the child then subjected to his verbal abuse, his nagging, his ridicule, and his inevitable justification of his actions? The sickest one is, “I’m only doing this because I love you. Someday you’ll thank me for it.” I don’t think so. All that that child wants is revenge, and the hopelessness bleeds onto successive generations.

Someone told me the other day, when I was expressing an opinion about something, “You really need to stop taking everything so personally.”

I’ve never quite mastered the art of turning a blind eye to injustice.

Smattering

Written on Saturday 9 July 2011, 09h00

Sitting at my favourite writing spot at home, squeezing in some writing before the day’s formal demands get hold of me.

Earlier, I was outside, breathing in the new day, when I decided to survey the new-morning glow of the back garden, where I’d done a full-body workout yesterday with a Weedeater. One truth, and only one, descended on me as I stood there: I’m a damned good songwriter! :-)

When it comes to gardening, I’m good at watering, planting the odd flop-proof plant (my garden’s full of Impatiens), sweeping up the leaves and taking photos of the mini-success stories unfolding around me. Other than that, and I say this with no disrespect to my friend who lent me his Weedeater (and shears!), I thoroughly enjoy being in and around my garden after someone else has done the back-breaking work. As soon as I have R200 that doesn’t need to feed my family, my car’s petrol tank or our electricity meter, I’ll PAY someone to clean up the whole place, both the front and back gardens.

Listening to a musician who inspires me in a way that I can only feel, but not adequately express in words – Djavan. He’s Brazilian, from Alagoas, and sings in Portuguese, a language I’m convinced I’m genetically connected to. I understand only a smattering (love that word!) of it, but it sets off something in me that’s hard to describe. NO other language does that to me. In March 2009, when I was in Sao Paulo, I got lost in the city on my very first day. I stood outside a shoe shop, where I was convinced my colleague had walked into and lost sight of her budget, and a few people came up to me and asked me questions, IN PORTUGUESE! I assumed they were asking for directions. It was quite funny, because by then I had learnt a few sentences I thought would come in handy, so I used the opportunity to say, as many times as I could, “Eu fala Ingles” (I speak English). They looked at me disbelievingly, not because the words rolled off my tongue, but because I looked like everyone around me! Funny how visiting that country affected me, my sense of who I am and of course, my love for Brazilian music, especially the bossanova and its close cousin, the samba.

Time to go. I think I’ll move into the rest of my day by showering with Djavan singing Estoria de Cantador.

Early stages of concert planning

With about two and a half months to go to my concert (7 Oct), I have thus far secured my sound engineer, and contacted the three main musicians I want to work with. So far, only one has confirmed that he's both available and interested, and I'm waiting to hear from the other two. Once I've established the line-up, I'll proceed with my concept, because this event will showcase my original material using different sounds, different instruments, different energies combining on stage - quite a different approach to my previous concerts, which featured either a duo or trio for the whole show.

There's a lot that goes into putting on a concert, and I decided to opt for an October date, rather than September (my initial plan), so that I could do it as thoroughly as possible. Once I've confirmed all the important details, (especially the musicians), I'll start advertising. I have a timeline for all my steps, and definitely want the tickets to go on sale as from the beginning of September. My goal is to pre-sell all the tickets. The Nassau seats about 130, which is not an impossible number.

All my expenses have to be carried by me, personally, and earned back in ticket sales, but I would like to explore sponsorship of some kind. I'll need to get that ball rolling soon, as I want the ticket specs to be handed to the printers by the 24th of August, and I want the sponsors' names to be included.

It's funny - long before I even get to the drawing up of the programme, decide which songs to do and with which musician, I have to do so much else! Getting the charts finalised and copied also has to happen before we get to the rehearsal stage.

Right now I have a cold. It was looming for a while, and I thought I could escape it, but here it is - as debilitating as hell. Can't breathe through my nose, starting to look like Rudolph, and feeling lousy. Head hurts, throat hurts, chest hurts like mad, and I suspect my sense of humour will want to elude me for a while.

I'm actually going to a concert at the Nassau Hall tonight, to the monthly jazz concert put on by Cliff Wallis. Tonight it's pop-jazz singer-guitarist Richard Caesar in the first half and a more mainstream jazz band in the second. Should be quite a treat. Of course, I agreed to go before I caught this cold.

Sniff, sniff, sniff.

Concert News

Picture by Lavonne Bosman: Charles Lazar, Wayne Bosch and I at Baran's in March 2010.

I’ve just secured the Nassau Hall, in Palmyra Road, Newlands, for a concert on Friday 7 October 2011. I’m SO excited, because I have fantastic plans for this one - which musicians I want to work with, and how I want this concert to be different from my others.

ORIGINAL CONCERTS TO DATE:
In November 2005, I did a three-concert series, called “TIME WITH TRUDY”, at a quaint art gallery in Buitenkant Street, Cape Town. On each night, I performed two sets of my own songs, accompanied by the magician himself, HILTON SCHILDER, on keyboards, melodica, guitar and some interesting Khoi instruments, including a bow. That series was organized by Dala Flat Music, a record label I’ve enjoyed a positive association with.

In December 2009, I did my next original concert, called “MUSIC INSIDE OF ME”, at Baran’s Kurdish Restaurant on the historic Greenmarket Square, in the centre of our beautiful city. Accompanying me were WAYNE BOSCH (guitar) and CHARLES LAZAR (double bass). As a novelty, and by way of giving him some exposure to the world of public performance, I featured my son, NICK GEFFEN (aged 14 at the time), on drums, on five of the items.

I followed this up with a second concert with the same name, at the same venue, in March 2010. Once again, I worked with Wayne and Charles. Both concerts were recorded by Andrè Manuel, of Dala Flat Music.

I’ve since put together a mini-CD, called “EXTRACTS”, of five songs recorded at the second concert:
1. My Favourite Time of Day (2007)
2. Lucy (2010)
3. Slide Across The Moon (2001)
4. Unafraid to Fall (2007)
5. Wendy Gave Me A Lavender Plant (2006)
Anyone interested in buying the CD should e-mail me at rushintrudy@yahoo.com.

My next concert, in September 2010, was also held at Baran’s, and this time I had other artists doing the first half. This concert was called “MUSIC AND WORDS”. The guest artists were singer-songwriter, PETER LAVEY, vocalist MEGAN FRANCIS and poet, DIANA FERRUS. I did a duo set of my originals with Wayne, and this time we included a few songs we hadn’t performed before. Unfortunately we didn’t record this concert.

So, now that I have a DATE and a VENUE for my next concert, I have my work cut out for me. There are always pros and cons to selecting dates, but I had to work with the availability of the venue, as well as my own time parameters. This date is in the week of the school holidays, so that could rule out some people. The main thing is, I have eleven weeks in which to put it all together. Yay - a lovely project to sink my teeth into! This fuels me.

All I can say is, watch this space…….!