Sarah's Blog

Quick review of gig at Farnborough Jazz Club, UK

The Farnborough Jazz Club have just posted a review of the appearance that my UK band made at their club in September, 2009:

"Last week, Friday 11^th September, we enjoyed a completely different sound from Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Jazz Band. A really hot swinging combo, being pushed along by Sarah’s rocking tenor sax. She sang some great blues numbers too and presented the band with true American-style professionalism, a band we all thoroughly enjoyed and would love to hear again. Sarah last played for us about 18years ago, when we held jazz at Badgers Mount Hotel, although she did not remember the occasion. Soon after, she moved to the US and what a wonderful transformation growing up there has done. Many thanks for your magic, Sarah."

Their website is: http://www.farnboroughjazz.co.uk

I have to say that it was a fantastic gig. For me, the most memorable part was Chris Marchant's playing on the rhythm section solos on the last number, Redwing: his woodblock work was pure Baby Dodds on Ice Cream (you know what's I'm talking about). Oh My God! Annie Hawkins and I were still speechless about it the following day. What a great gig. What a great bunch of musicians for me to have the honour of playing with!

Off on Tour

I'm finishing packing and will be leaving at 3pm for the trip to JFK Airport to catch my flight to London to start my UK tour. I'm really looking forward to the tour and can't wait to spend time with Mum and Dad  and see some of my friends and all the musicians I'll be playing with. Looking forward to, hopefully, some good gigs and, with any luck, get to see some of you who may be reading this blog.
Here I go, Here I go, Here I go!

Getting ready to go to the UK

I'll be hitting the UK at the beginning of September and my focus is looking towards that right now. I'm looking forward to seeing and playing with a bunch of my friends again and, for the first time in a long time, I'll be playing at a UK festival and then hanging out the next day so that I can hear some of the other bands too.

We're on break from school right now and I hope all the students at CCMT are enjoying their time off. My schedule for next term will be Sunday afternoons all term, Wednesday evenings for the last 8 weeks of term and 4 weeks of Saturday afternoons in the middle! Looking forward to meeting some new students and co-teaching with someone I've never worked with before.

For those of you who contacted me about my recent health concerns - all is ok. For those who don't know, I lost some sensation in the entire right side of my head and spent the day at the emergency room at the local hospital getting a CAT scan and bloodwork done. All checked out ok and, since I had the same thing about 10 years ago during a very stressful time in my life, I wasn't really concerned. I've had further bloodwork done and, again, nothing showed up. I've been getting some craniosacral work done from John at work and I think things are resolving. We're putting it down to some muscles that control my jaw getting tight and pressing down on some of the nerves in my face. Bearing in mind that 2 days before the numbness showed up, I'd played at the CT Jazz Festival, this makes sense. Anyway, we're working on it and I think it's getting better. Thank you all for your concern and kind messages and again, there's nothing to worry about.

And I think that's all for now.

Post-Maribo Update

Am back from spending a weekend at the great Maribo festival in Denmark with New Orleans Delight. We played 4 gigs and had a whole lot of fun, including a last gig where we formed Kjeld Brandt's New Orleans All-Stars from the entire personnel of New Orleans Delight and the Hot Five Jazzmakers from Toronto, Canada. That sort of thing can usually turn into a mess, but, thanks to, I have to say, Derek Winter's bandleading expertise and the fact that everyone in the band was seriously listening to everyone else in the band and wanted to play together, it was really good.

It was, as always, a pleasure to play with New Orleans Delight and I can't wait to see them all again, although I don't know, at this point when that will be.

Oh, and another thing - the new cd was released and it is, how do I say this...... gosh-darned good! Looks great and sounds great!You REALLY need one in your collection! :)

Photos and stuff will be forthcoming.

New cd to be released at Maribo Festival - July 17, 2009

I am delighted to announce that my new cd of me and Derek Winters with the wonderful New Orleans Delight will be released at the Maribo Festival on the weekend of July 17, 2009. Details of the cd are available at the New Orleans Delight website:
http://www.new-orleans-delight.dk/cd/Sarah CD/CD Sarah.html

Even though I say it myself, it's darned good! The band is swinging like crazy and every moment is great. I can't wait to see and hear the 'hard copy'!

Craziness .... situation normal!

Just over half-way through the Spring/Summer term at CCMT and one of my classes ends this week. That leaves me teaching on Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons and will allow me to sleep in a little on Sundays! Maybe I'll also be able to catch up on life a little.

Meantime, my new cd with New Orleans Delight is progressing beautifully. The aim was to have released in time for the Maribo festival in July and it looks like we're on schedule for that. And, I have to say, it should be a GOOD one. The draft of the music is fantastic and Kjeld's worked his wonders with the artwork. Liner notes by Derek Winters ain't too shabby either! Can't wait to get my paws on it.

I have a new cellphone, a Palm Pre (which is the Palm's answer to the iPhone). I've been saving up my upgrades, waiting for Palm to come out with a touch-screen phone and I'm happy with it. I keep hanging up on people or not being able to answer their calls in time because I hit the wrong part of the screen, but ...... like I say at the head of this post, craziness - situation normal!

Sarah's British Tour 2009

Here are the details of my British Tour 2009:

Sarah Spencer's Transatlantic Band:

Sarah Spencer (sax and vocals),  Steve Graham (tpt),  Geoff Cole (tmb), Eric Webster (bjo).  Annie Hawkins (sbs), Chris Marchant (dms)

 

Sept 8th –  Bagster House, Shepperton.  8pm – 11pm.  01932 226627

Sept 9th --  Amersham Jazz Club, Beaconsfield. 8.30pm – 11pm. 01296 425188

Sept 10th – 100 Club, Oxford Street.  11.30m – 2.30pm.  020 8894 4218

Sept 11th – Farnborough Jazz Club, Kent.  8.30p,m - 11pm.  01689 6032990

Sept 12th – Sand Bay Holiday Centre, Somerset. Afternoon & Evening. 0845 88 00 211 DAVE DONOHOE replaces GEOFF COLE for this festival.

Sept 14th – Runnymede Jazz Club, Chertsey. 8pm-10.30pm. 01784 431348

Sarah Spencer's Transatlantic Friends

Sarah Spencer (sax & vcl),  Dave Copperwaite (tpt & vcl), Derek Galloway (tmb & vcl), Malcolm Horne (bjo), Jim Swinnerton (sbs),  Bill Evans (dms)

Sept 15th -  Harp Hotel, Albrighton.  8.30pm – 11pm.  01902 756 158

More photos uploaded

The photos of my Danish tour in 2008 have all been posted in the Photo Album area.
Thanks to all of the wonderful New Orleans Delight Creole Jazz Band and their and my fans for these photos and for such a wonderful time. I still miss you all like crazy. Can't wait to see you all in Maribo in July!

New Project

A big new subject! I've had an idea to write a book on stretching. I've known for a few years that I should be writing and now I've come up with an idea. It's very much in the formative stage at the moment (and I won't be spending time on it until I've finished with my prep work for the new term at school) and I don't want to share details yet, but I think I've lined up a great team for my research.

Winter 2009 term over

The Winter 2009 term at CCMT has finished for me. I've been teaching the same group of students at the Groton campus for the past two terms and, although it's great to see them progressing in their massage school career, I now won't see them until their Graduation or, if I'm fortunate enough to be invited, at their Closing Circle. <sniff>
Had a wonderful term co-teaching with Amy Hendry, in whom I feel like I've found a common soul!

Next term looks kind of crazy but I'm looking forward to it. I'll be teaching 3 classes - 2 MT3 classes (one in Westport and one in Newington) and my first AP1 Muscles class (in Westport). Because I haven't taught AP1 Muscles before, I'm spending time preparing at the moment. Hopefully, I'll get it all done before term starts.

Meantime, I'm enjoying having a little more freetime before it disappears in a pretty serious way in May!