And now I know

Picture: Janice De Lilly

On Sunday 15th November, I do the lunchtime gig at Baran's Theatre Restaurant, from 12 - 3, featuring Janice De Lilly (singer-guitarist) as my guest. She has a voice like silk, and needs to be heard by the whole world! This gig is part of the "Spirit Of Cape Town" cultural series I'm hosting at this delightful, exotic spot on Greenmarket Square. It's a Turkish/Khurdish restaurant, set up for dinner theatre, and the ambience is magical! Sunday lunch costs R50 for a main course (lamb/chicken/vegetarian) and the cover charge for the live music is R30. Drop by, if you're in the mood.

And so.... I've finally joined Facebook! Mixed feelings. I must admit, until I start achieving my main aim, i.e. getting my music out there, I'll feel like I've somehow cheated on my blog! I really like blogging, enjoying the fact that I can do it in my own time and ignore it when I get too busy. I honestly find Facebook too time-consuming (says she who's been a member for one whole day!), and part of me resents the fact that I'm expected to answer so many people. I think I have about 26 "friends". Now there's a label I find curious. When I call someone my friend, it encompasses all kinds of elements, like trust, honesty, loyalty and discretion, to name a few. A Facebook friend is just someone you're linked to electronically. Hectic!

And back to blogging:

This weekend, I have THREE gigs. Tomorrow afternoon, I'm singing at someone's house in Constantia/Kreupelbosch. It's a fundraiser for three different charities, including Ons Plek, hosted by Renae Barker. I'm doing it as a solo gig, and it's a "marketing opportunity", i.e. I'm not charging. I believe, like Stevie Wonder says in his incredibly beautiful song, If It's Magic: "there's enough for everyone".

Not everyone has money to give to charity, so you need to give what you can. In my case, I give my music. I've learnt, however, that it's not just enough to appear at these events, and to mention your name at the beginning and end of the gig - you have to leave printed material behind, marketing yourself, because at those occasions, people are relaxed, they're listening to you in an unstressed environment, and they're taking in what you're doing, consciously or not. Somewhere along the line, they might have a need for live music, and you'll pop back into their minds. That's how it works. If I've distributed my contact details, even better. Now that I'm blogging (and collecting friends on Facebook!), even better.

I SERIOUSLY NEED TO PUT SOME AUDIO OUT IN CYBERSPACE!

After that, I head straight for my evening gig at The Food Lover's Market, where I'll be working as half of The Rushin-Bosch Jazz Duo (with Wayne Bosch), from 7 to 10pm. This is undeniably one of the things I'm proudest of, right now. I put a lot of hard work into it, and not just musically - I do the marketing, which never stops, and I also do lots of admin related to the gigs. My personal development is also a big part of what's happening in my music career, because success at anything we do in life can be attributed largely to belief and attitude, skill aside. If I didn't believe in this journey, I'd find one closed door after the other. What's happening is the complete opposite, in fact!

Another fantastic piece of news reached me this week: that our duo has been hired to do New Year's Eve supper at Myoga, a restaurant at the Vineyard Hotel - another of my dream venues! I am so excited! I've been wanting to play at the Vineyard for years, and to get the NY's Eve gig is a major coup! I'm jumping out of my skin with excitement. As soon as I've established details like the cost of the dinner, I'll advertise it on my blog.

I started writing a song, last night, and I'm like the musical version of a nutty professor, when I'm in the process of writing. I feel like I want to drop everything for a few hours/days and just work on the song! This morning I was driving to work, and some new lyrics came into my head. I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, and for once, every robot I got to was green, so I was really frustrated because I wanted to write down the words as they came. It's actually one of those songs that I feel so intense about, it's like I'm giving birth to it. I was so caught up in the lyrics and their implications, that I started to cry. This has happened to me a few times before, but not for a while. When I write these kinds of songs, so close to my heart, I panic about performing them, because I'm so scared I'll be too emotional to sing.

I'm hoping to complete it before my concert on 6 December, so that I can include it. That would be something! It contains a message I need to say at this stage of my life, and it's a wonderful mixture of very necessary words and the new slant to my musical style.

I recently experienced something that reminded me to simply trust my instincts and NEVER to stop trusting them. I got involved with something I had decided, for many many reasons, to walk away from, and I knew I'd learn one of three things: that I'd been wrong to walk away from it; that I could dip into that world occasionally, when expedient; or, that I'd been right to walk away. Sometimes I can only establish by actually doing something how I really feel about it, and this was one of those situations.

And now I know.