Wayne and I at Food Lover's Market, 8, 15, 22 and 29 August!!!

Last night I got confirmation that the duo gig at The Food Lover's Market (FLM) was ours for every Saturday night in August, and today I checked with Wayne re his availabilty. To my delight, he's happy to do the four nights: the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th.

Interesting how some people perceive a regular gig: the restaurant owner expressed his concern that people would become bored with the same band. My response is that that takes a long time to happen, and definitely longer than 4 or 8 sessions. More than that, Wayne and I consciously vary our repertoire, so that we do a fresh performance every time, with only some favourites of ours cropping up more regularly. I like the way we respond to requests - when we have the song in our repertoire, we do it immediately; otherwise, we make sure we've learnt it by the next gig. The staff at FLM love our music, and they usually request songs they like.

Last Saturday, I stretched myself beyond my usual playing capacity, doing a guitar solo in one song and a walking bass line in another. The most important result of stepping out like that, was that I realised how much more focussed I need to be, as a guitarist. Somebody once said, "An essential ingredient of success, is failure". There's nothing like playing really badly in front of an audience to spur you on to work extra hard, so that you can redeem yourself the next time! Haha!

To recap: this coming Saturday, 1 August, it's me with John Russell, lovely guy, lovely guitarist; the next four Saturdays, I'll be working with Wayne Bosch again.

I'm excited about what September holds. I've gone back to the record label I started recording with in 2006, and have started negotiations to put closure on that project. I've also started exploring a whole new recording project..... Watch this space!!!!!

Gigging with guitarists Wayne Bosch (25 July) and John Russell (1 Aug)

I'll be gigging at the Food Lover's Market for at least the next two Saturdays, with all my MIND POWER focussed on the rest of August (and September, October, November and December) as well. This Saturday, 25 July, I'll be working with Wayne again, adding some new stuff that will force me out of my ohsocosy comfort zone and stretch me as a musician (isn't that the whole point?!). Quite a few of my friends will be there (Yay for Payday!!!), and I'm so excited about them hearing us. I'm fascinated by the different elements of ourselves that emerge when we allow them to. I absolutely love working with Wayne, because it's a fresh combination and because he's not only very talented but a really nice guy, a warm, generous-spirited musician, with a huge heart and a sense of professionalism way beyond his years.

The following Saturday, 1 August, I'll pair up with another guitarist, John Russell, whom I met and worked with last year. A completely different individual, quite young, very talented, also a music teacher. I'd love my friends and family to come and hear us, as well. I think one of the great seductions for performers, is that fluidity, that ever-changing, yielding space that allows you to be whoever you choose to be for that particular performance. I could never get enough of that.

So, before I start waxing lyrical about all the other aspects of live performance that lure me, let me remember that this started off as an information-sharing article/post, advertising my gigs!

This Saturday, 7 - 10pm, Wayne Bosch and I
Next Sat. (01/08), 7 - 10pm, John Russell and I
Upstairs at The Food Lover's Market, Claremont, Cape Town

Hey, I almost forgot!!! There's a brand new SATURDAY SPECIAL: 3-COURSE MEAL + A GLASS OF WINE, FOR ONLY R95. But that's not all..... NO COVER CHARGE FOR THE SUPERB LIVE JAZZ!!!!!!

Saturday, 25/07/09: Next duo gig with Wayne

At my guitar lesson today (worked on "So What?" and walking bass line), Wayne told me that he had another gig for 1 August, which means THIS Saturday is very important, because it's my last definite gig with him at The Food Lover's Market, in Claremont. (Details in other posts on my blog.) The owner will give me more August info on Monday. I really want my friends to hear us, because it's such an exciting sound, and I can feel, with every performance, how we're growing.
I've always leaned towards being 'over-organised', (we Virgos don't believe there is such a thing!), and it's such a relief for me to work with a set list at every gig. It means there's more of a flow at gigs, and it also means a lot of thought goes into which song to play when in the programme, when to pick up or calm down the tempo of the evening, when to rest the voice and do an instrumental, and where to slot in the non-jazz items and the originals. I like the way we structure the evening, and I love the freedom I have to give my input as an equal, without being made to feel like my preferences are insignificant. Long story!

Last Saturday, my son, Nick, made two short video clips of us, doing "The Song Is You" and "Don't Know Why". Listening to it made me realise what an interesting time of my life this is, and I'm more eager than ever to record my debut album. I've had this dream burning inside of me for a long, long time. If all my plans work out, I'll be doing a 4-song mini-CD before the end of this year. If you have any ideas about good, affordable recording studios in Cape Town, please add a comment or e-mail me.

Reflecting - The Music Never Ends

Written Sun. 19 July 2009

This weekend, I did another duo gig with my guitar teacher, Wayne Bosch, at The Food Lover’s Market, a restaurant in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. It was our third gig there, and, in many ways, the best so far. There was a bigger crowd and some of my friends came to listen, which always makes the experience more special. Also very special having my son and my Significant Other there, lovingly supporting me.

What I’ve noticed, since starting to work with Wayne, is how my approach to my singing has changed. It’s very interesting, and quite ironic: I’ve spent the last year working on improvisation on the guitar, particularly using the pentatonic scales, and what I’ve sort of got down, at this stage, is the playing of the scales and other exercises, most of them at the desired speed (practise with my metronome), with my intellectual grasp of the theory far more advanced than my execution of the actual techniques of improvisation. Maybe this is not uncommon for someone like me – I tend to live inside my head a lot, and understanding concepts comes easy to me; it’s the time required to practise every day that eludes me. Also, learning and unlearning guitar techniques and habits after playing the instrument for 30 years is not uncomplicated.

But again, if I were to simplify the whole topic, the bottom line is, I need to practise more. Ironic, though, that my singing is evidencing the material learnt, while my guitar playing seems to be taking longer to evolve. Maybe it has to do with how I think of myself: as a singer who can play a bit of guitar. I also think that my singing is something I “work” on all of the time, even when I’m silent – the music literally never ends, in my head. It’s easy for me to work on improvising on a song’s melody at any time of any day, while the guitar requires more of a contrived situation: I need to have my guitar in my hands, I need physical space to practise, and I absolutely need solitude.

I love going to the Jazz Workshop every Wednesday, and having my lesson with Wayne. I love the actual building - an amazing, old, three-storeyed structure in the heart of the city, and a place that holds many memories. Everything about the place makes me feel at home – the smell, the sounds, the cramped reception area (!), and of course the fact that everyone there is, like me, passionate about music.

I’ve worked with different musicians, over the years, and each one has brought out something different in me, especially in live performances. When you work with someone for a long time, you develop a synergy and a smoothness that come with repeated playing together. It’s a comfortable space, and one in which as much growth as stagnation is possible, depending on the headspace of the people involved. It’s also a space where boundaries sometimes get blurred and objectivity gets lost; as in all other relationships, musicians who work with each other regularly have expectations of each other, usually tacit, and not always mutual. Sometimes, despite attempts to keep the lines of communication clear and unambiguous, problems arise, and bands break up.

But, because the music never ends, musicians gravitate towards other musicians, to fill gaps, to connect for the purpose of earning money in the music world, or, most commonly, to simply continue the wonderful journey.

I am thankful for everyone I’ve worked with, especially my first music partner, Eddie Petersen, and my long-term duo partner, Keith Tabisher, who taught me so much, made me laugh, and helped me along my journey.

Right now, I am thankful for having crossed paths with Wayne, a musician and teacher par excellence, and a truly remarkable person. I am determined to enjoy every step of this part of my journey. I believe that there are no coincidences, and that synchronicity is at work.
The music never ends.

Three Hours

On Mon.13th July, for a period of three hours, I experienced something I wouldn't want to, ever again - my Significant Other's whereabouts were unknown, and huge panic was caused when his boss called and alerted me. For three hours, people called each other, involving even relatives of his in Johannesburg. His boss and I kept in touch and updated each other. Someone drove to his house to look for him, someone followed his route to work to check if there'd been a car accident, people called police stations and I asked a colleague to call a hospital (because I was too emotional to talk) - everyone trying to figure out what could have happened, eliminating one possibility after the other.

As we hit the three-hour mark, a very supportive colleague advised me to go home, because I was so distraught, there was no way I was going to get any work done.

I'll skip to the happy ending, and then continue. As I was packing up to leave work, his boss called and said that the mystery had been solved - he'd been at a work-related seminar, which everyone had forgotten about!

For the rest of that day and night, I experienced a shakiness inside that felt like it would never go away. Being unapologetically sensitive and intense, I knew that the physical sensations were just part of the bigger picture. I knew that the experience had been life-altering, and that I'd crossed a bridge. I knew that I'd never be the same, and that only time would tell exactly how the course of my life would be altered by the experience. When my colleague had asked me, after the drama was over, what my greatest fear had been, I'd said that I'd thought he was dead. The intense feelings that I'd been dealing with, in those three hours, were all related to that underlying fear: everything I'd attempted, every new avenue I'd explored, had been aimed at finding SOME other explanation, but underneath it all was a sense of pending doom. People who know me well would call me an optimist, but what I actually do is stubbornly deny that the worst-case scenario exists, until I've exhausted all alternatives. Hence my track record of staying too long in a situation that has ceased to be viable.

The most profound awareness, that morning, faced with the harsh glare of mortality, was of seriously wasted opportunities: a union of compatible souls treated far too lightly; an uncanny, spiritual bond that sets this relationship apart from any other I've had in my life, dismissed as everyday, replaceable, not that special; a Yin-Yang reciprocity, so right, so exciting, even after six and a bit years, assumed into the daily blur, relegated to the banal, taken for granted.

I look around and see so many couples who are simply going through the motions. They celebrate one wedding anniversary after the other, often extravagantly, yet their everyday lives are monochromatic, monotonous, their conversations monosyllabic, perfunctory. In some cases there's infidelity, barely-concealed, secretly applauded by less daring acquiantances. The ultimate soul-destroyer. I see people who have settled for loveless unions for some crazy reason or other. I see people who would rather put up with all kinds of abuse than be alone. I see women stripped of their dignity, passively allowing their partners to privately and publicly humiliate them. I see people giving up their dreams, allowing their flames to be extinguished, all in the name of some kind of socially-acceptable union. People who choose not to shine, because that would make them stand out as different. People who live their lives at half-mast.

I love a man who makes my soul sing, who tells the world about my music and is the one person who constantly nudges me to pursue my dreams, never for one instant doubting me, even when I'm in the grip of that old, counter-productive, childhood-based, misplaced over-modesty, called Self-Doubt. I love a man who walks into a room and lights up my world, who gives me the courage to be myself, and who has walked a long, extraordinarily convoluted but intensely beautiful road with me.

I love a man without whom many things in life would lose their glow. I know that now. Without a doubt.

A good friend told me recently: When you find a fork in the road, take it.

I have found a fork in the road.

Resume' of jazz duo, Trudy Rushin and Wayne Bosch

Jazz duo: TRUDY RUSHIN and WAYNE BOSCH

Trudy Rushin
Trudy has always been surrounded by, and passionate about, music. As a child she took piano lessons, but her true passion was always for singing. At high school, she taught herself to play the guitar. Within a year, she was writing songs. At teacher training college, she took classical guitar lessons with the late Neefa Van Der Schyff (early1980’s), but it was only when she enrolled at the Jazz Workshop, under the tutelage of Alistair Andrews and then Alvin Dyers, that she discovered 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 took lessons with jazz legend, Merton Barrow, exploring aspects of vocal jazz. She joined Merton’s 6-piece vocal ensemble, doing intricate arrangements of jazz standards.
Her first stint in the professional music world was in 1988, with multi-instrumentalist, Eddie Petersen, in a duo called Flipside. Following that, she worked with different bands over a period of 5 years: 8-piece club band, Deadline; 5-piece band, Just Us, and a trio, Splash (with whom she did a 4-song demo of covers, in 1993). Throughout this time, she continued to grow her body of original compositions and perform as a soloist.

In 1997, she realized a dream by going into a studio with some of Cape Town’s top jazz musicians (Merton Barrow, Charles Lezar, Denver Ferness and Alvin Dyers), recording four of her original songs. In January 1998, she appeared with the same line-up at the 1998 Jazzathon at the V & A Waterfront.

In 2003, she formed a duo with guitarist, Keith Tabisher. She also started showcasing her original songs, supported by record label, Dala Flat Music, with whom she recorded two demo CDs (2004, Chocolate Guitar and 2005, New Beginnings). For two years, she and Tabisher worked as a trio with double bassist, Donald Gain. The trio did two live CD recordings, both in March 2006 (Live at the Nassau and Live at Spier Village Hotel). In 2005, she did a series of concerts, Time With Trudy, with keyboardist, Hilton Schilder.
In July 2006, she started recording her debut original CD, with Dala Flat Music and sound engineer, Dave Subkleve. This project was never completed, and is high on her list of priorities.

Wayne Bosch
Firmly established as one of Cape Town’s top guitarists, Wayne studied at MAPP (Music Action for People’s Power) and then at UCT, where he graduated with an Honours Performance Degree in Jazz. He launched his professional music career in 1996, with pianist Gerry Spencer, and was soon taking Cape Town by storm. In 1997, he played to international audiences on the cruiseliner, The Symphony, along with Gerry Spencer and Judith Sephuma. Since then he has worked extensively, performing with musicians like Robbie Jansen, Mark Fransman, Mike Campbell, Esther Miller and Basil Moses. A dynamic and sensitive accompanist, he is noted for his work with French vocalist Deborah Tanguy, San Franciscan singer Opie Bellas and South African award-winning jazz singer, Emily Bruce. In 2004, he formed part of an all-star line-up at a series of gigs at the Olympic Village in Athens.

Best-known for his work as a jazz guitarist, his versatility finds him embracing genres like Afro-Jazz, pop, R&B and Gospel with ease. He enjoys working in different formats, from duo to big band. A sought-after teacher in his private capacity, he has also been teaching at the Jazz Workshop since 1998. He teaches and mentors young learners at various schools, and is part of the Artist Residence Programme of the Western Cape Education Department. He is a key role player in the Arts and Culture Focus Schools in the Western Cape. A regular clinician, he has worked for the South Atlantic Jazz Conference.

Passionate about youth music development, he has worked on community-based programmes, including The Little Giants, Prompt and Tomecy. He continues to lead efforts to establish and develop a music school among impoverished communities in Cape Town.
Wayne can be heard on the following recordings: Goldfish – Caught In The Loop; Emily Bruce – The Love We Share; Esther Miller – Say Hello To Esther; Jazz Potjie (a compilation project, produced by Andreas Wellmann).

He is in the process of compiling a course in music improvisation for junior musicians. In 2000, he won acclaim in the Old Mutual Jazz Encounters Competition, and is a favourite among his peers and the jazz public.


Trudy and Wayne first crossed paths in 2008, when she returned to Jazz Workshop for guitar lessons. After taking lessons with him for seven months, they did their first gig together, appearing with bassist Shaun Johannes at the first “Jazz at the Nassau” concert for 2009. In July, they landed a weekly gig at The Food Lover’s Market, a restaurant in central Claremont, combining their talents to produce a fresh, new sound for Cape Town’s live music scene.

Check out my friend's great blog: http://cybersass.com

My friend, Sandi, has many gifts, not the least of which is her way with words. She's always written in a compelling way, and I love reading her creations. She is a very special part of my life, and has been for about 30 years.

Sandi, I celebrate you and your many talents. My prayers are with you, right now. I am holding you up to the universe, inviting blessings upon blessings. If anyone deserves to be truly and unequivocally happy, it's you.

I love you, Sandi!

Spread the word........!

THANKS to all who came to watch us at our very first duo gig at The Food Lover's Market last weekend! Wayne and I made such an impression, that we'll be doing THREE hours every Saturday in July, instead of two. Catch us if you can!

Please spread the word:
EVERY SATURDAY IN JULY, 7-10PM
UPSTAIRS AT THE FOOD LOVER'S MARKET
CORNER VINEYARD & DREYER ST, CLAREMONT

TRUDY RUSHIN & WAYNE BOSCH (jazz duo)
Trudy and Wayne's recent collaboration is an exciting addition to Cape Town's live music scene. Combining their guitar and vocal talents and performing experience, they do a range of jazz covers and other favourites, as well as a selection of their original music. The restaurant itself has a lovely atmosphere, with really friendly staff, and the music is just the perfect cherry on top of their delicious meals (and to-die-for desserts)!

Give it a try ....... you might just become a regular!

Please pass this along your e-mail networks! Muito obrigada!

(Cool quote from my diary: The best thing about life is that it happens one day at a time.)

Live your truth!
Trudy

This blog site is still under construction

Hi!

It's Thursday, 2 July 2009, and I'm at an internet cafe. I've taken a week's leave, to be home with my kids and to just take a break. Excited about Saturday's gig with Wayne.

Just to say, there's a lot I need to learn about blogging, especially about making the layout of my rather lengthy articles more reader-friendly, more attractive. Also want to learn to upload soundbites, so that I can share my origial music with the world.

So, while I'm learning,....... this site is very much iunder construction. Give me just a leetle time, and I'll be flying as a blogger!

Thanks to Gopal Ramasammy-Cook and Sandi Schultz for encouraging me to blog. Now all I need is the internet at home!!!!

Take care!
TR