Enjoy these videos from the last couple of Live Jazz Mondays. Thanks so much to Austin Cooke for capturing them! The personnel in these videos is myself (duh), François Gravel on piano, and Craig Pedersen on trumpet.
Equinox (A Long Way To Go):
Honeysuckle Rose:
Temptation:
Hello my beauties! My apologies for leaving you for so long without warning. The truth is, I’ve been sick. You may remember when I attended the chronic pain management program at the Ottawa Hospital in January. About three weeks ago I started experiencing extreme versions of my usual symptoms and had to cut way back on everything. For much of the last three weeks I’ve been bed-bound and making sure to do a lot of self care. I watched a lot of Netflix, drank a lot of tea, did my nails a bunch of times, and ate as healthy as I could.
Of course I wasn’t able to stop working completely, and I often felt well enough to work for a couple of hours a day. In that time I taught my lovely students, played my usual Monday night performance, and answered a few emails.
Basically I have suffering from a massive “spoon shortage.” If you are unaware of the Spoon Theory of chronic illness, click here to read The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino. Once you’ve read that, click here to read an excellent article about trying to blog without spoons, written by a fellow spoonie, Emily of Chronically Creative.
I feel like I might be starting on the upswing and heading back into “regular chronically ill” territory, so I’m going to try taking on a little more again. You might see a few blog posts in the mix, but I’m also going to try warming up, and piano practice, and lots and lots of self-care.
Thanks for your support as I cope with this time in my life. If you have some positive news happening in your life I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Share your positivity!
Hello singers! I am very excited to announce that I will be taking part in Alcorn Music Studios’ Singers’ Bootcamp as an instructor! Hooray! Under the direction of Elise Letourneau and alongside my fellow instructor Nicole Ratté we will lead singers (ages high school through adult) through the most fundamental and universal aspects of singing including technique, theory and musicianship. The bootcamp runs from July 7 – 12. Here is a typical day at Singers’ Bootcamp:
9a – warm-ups and voice-building/technique
9:30a – sight reading
10a – repertoire
11a – break
11:15a-12:15p – harmony singing
12:15-12:45p – genre discussion – (topics change daily)
12:45-1:45p – lunch
1:45-2:30p – theory & ear training
2:30-3:15p – elective
3:15-4p – break
4-4:30p – voice-building/technique
4:30-5:30p – repertoire
5:30-7p – dinner/break
7-9p – performances, working with a rhythm section
Sounds exciting, right? If you are in the Ottawa area and you are interested in enrolling please click here for more details. The bootcamp has limited enrolment and admission is on a first come, first served basis, so act fast! Registration deadline is Friday, June 21, 2013.
If you know some who may be interested in this camp you can send them a link to this post or invite them to our facebook event here.
This last week was a lot of quiet time punctuated by small pleasures. I started writing in a new red journal, I drank a lot of tea, I painted my nails this nice fossil colour, I drank a bunch of tea, I saw some great Ottawa-local jazz musicians in concert, I played a brunch gig with my friend Marie-Claire Durand, I practiced piano, I taught some lessons, and I watched a ton of Portlandia on Netflix.
Wow, I can’t believe that’s it! Some weeks you just need to lay low and do the little things that make you happy.
Also, due to the long weekend there will be no Live Jazz Monday tonight at Mercury Lounge, but we’re back next week so see you then!
Here is part 2 of my shoot with Claude Brazeau at the heritage home. Check out part 1 here. Clothes in these four photos were provided by viens avec moi.
We have quote the CD bundle giveaway for you this month! Thanks to the generosity of Toronto-based funk vocalist, Kristin Fung, Toronto-based jazz vocalist Ori Dagan, and New York-based jazz vocalist, Andrea Wolper, I have three amazing CDs to give away to one lucky reader. Hooray!
TO ENTER:
1. Follow the vocalists on facebook or twitter:
Kristin Fung: facebook | twitter
Ori Dagan: facebook | twitter
Andrea Wolper: facebook | twitter
2. Leave a comment below.
And that’s it! giveaway will close at 11:59pm on Tuesday, My 21st and the draw winner will be required to answer a skill testing question. Good luck!
This contest is now closed. Congrats to Betty Ann Bryanton! Stay tuned for more amazing CD bundle giveaways!
I have been enjoying the spring so much I could have summarized this whole week with one photo of my patio set. I think we barbecued every meal of the day this week, including breakfast. But seriously, it’s been a really fun week. Craig and I had musical visitors from Montreal, Joel Kerr and Marie-Claire Durant, staying with us. Craig and Joel rehearsed and recorded for a very special project called It’s A Free Country. They will be releasing the album at IMOO on June 16. I highly recommend checking the show out.
In other news, I started taking some rudimentary piano lesson now that we have an excellent instrument to practice on, I had a wonderful concert on Friday with Mark Ferguson and Joel Kerr. There may be some other news related to that concert but I’m not at liberty to say at the moment… it’s a secret… And also, Craig and I spent time rehearsing with the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative for their inaugural show Collected Soles: A Rhythm Tap & Jazz Music Show.
I wish I had more to report at this time but I’m basically going through the planning phase of my life as we move swiftly through May and closer and closer to the summer. More updates will come though! Stay tuned this week for an awesome CD bundle giveaway 
Join me, Mark Ferguson and Joel Kerr at GIGSPACE in Ottawa tomorrow night for an evening of jazz standards and original songs. Mark and I will be debuting new compositions as well as playing material from our album, Here We Go Again.
Tickets are still available so reserve yours now!
When: Friday, May 10, 2013, 7:30 pm
Where: GIGSPACE, 953 Gladstone Avenue, Ottawa, ON
Tickets: $20, cash at the door or for advance purchase by credit card call 613-729-0693
Accessibility: There are 4 concrete steps up to two doors that open out. Once in the space, venue and washrooms are accessibility. Contact GIGSPACE for more info.
Click here to RSVP on facebook and let me know you’re coming!
I had the most honourable privilege of collaborating with Claude Brazeau the other day. We shot these photos in a beautiful heritage home in Gatineau. This is only part one of the shoot so expect more next week!
Over the last couple of months there have been some great reviews of Here We Go Again around the jazz blogosphere, my press page has pretty much exploded! So many nice things have been said that I wanted to share some of my favourite quotes with you. If you want to read the entire review, just click on the name and publication. Here we go (again!)
C. Michael Bailey, all about jazz:
“Intimate may best describe [Here We Go Again]. Yoxon’s writing and voice are clearly out there with no net. Even on the more up-tempo ‘Just As We Are,’ Yoxon sings as if telling a humorous secret.”
John Book, This Is Book’s Music:
“In songs like ‘There’s Only You’, ‘Have We Been In Love Before?’ and the passionate ‘Drinking Coffee’, you hear someone who sings from personal experience, as if each song is a small note meant to be put up on the wall before its adhesiveness fades and becomes another not-so-distant memory”
“Ms Yoxon has a fine voice – intense and full of clarity and resolve. This is matched by Mr Ferguson’s piano and trombone and together they have certainly created something very special as a debut album.”
Brian Arsenault, The International Review of Music:
“Something [from Here We Go Again] may enter the Great American Songbook, maybe more than one.”
“A collection of original jazz compositions that explore the themes of love and loss, Here We Go Again has torch song clarity with fissures of folk, blues, and Judy Garland-tinged soul.”
That’s it for now! Thank you to everyone who took the time to listen to Here We Go Again and write such thoughtful reviews. If you are interested in reviewing Here We Go Again please contact Kari Gaffney from Kari-On Productions.