Curt Siffert

So, yesterday I thought I would start experimenting with this video stuff. I set up my macbook on a stack of piano books on the corner of my piano, recorded the video (and room sound) through my iSight, recorded the audio through my mixer to my M-Audio microtrack, then used iMovie and Garageband to replace the sound with the mic'd version. Didn't pay much attention to dressing up my set or anything (which I might regret), just pressed record and sang into the mic like normal.

This is me singing I've Got You Under My Skin in my living room. Youtube downsampled the audio so it's in mono (and you can't hear the reverb either), but you can get the full-quality source audio if you're subscribed to my standards podcast.

With my jazz-singing trio and my more progressive trippy trio, helped out by Turmell and Morelli in the first, and Turmell and Morgan in the second, it just hit me - I am in two trios with three Steves.

That was a fun little gig I had last night. My bass-playing friend Steve works at a Starbucks and they were having something of a Christmas party - open to the public, and with coloring books. So Steve asked if I'd be willing to play piano if he played bass, and I said sure - fine with me that it was for no pay since I didn't have any time to prepare for a real gig. It was a bit haphazard, we knew that one gal had designs on singing a couple of Christmas tunes, but no one could supply any music, either.

So, Steve ended up buying a fakebook of Christmas tunes and brought it along. I brought my M-Audio keyboard (the $200 one), my amp, and a microphone. I didn't really have any idea of what to expect. It turned out there were about 15-20 people there (it's a small Starbucks on Barnes and Miller in SW), and when it was time for us to start, everyone kind of turned and looked at us. Not quite background music!

So, we started with Frosty The Snowman, and all the cute barista girls started singing along, and it basically went from there.

Pretty fun overall. I'm glad I wasn't paid, honestly, because there was no preparation, and lead sheets for Christmas tunes aren't exactly the most creative. But I got thrown to the wolves a bit, always a good thing, the attention was very much focused on me and Steve, I did some singing and some crowd interaction stuff which I hadn't really planned on at all, and it turned out that it felt quite comfortable.

Who says I don't play out? I'm playing at a Starbucks tonight in SW with Steve Morgan. It was kind of a last minute thing - Christmas music that I haven't ever seen before, nor rehearsed. Going in truly cold. Should be interesting! I haven't publicized it because it sounds totally low-key and casual, plus... like I said, I haven't rehearsed.

One of the things I have been focusing on lately is my jazz piano skills, particularly in regard to the old songs and standards. I am trying to do more singing too - and so all in all, I'm basically trying to become a cocktail pianist. It feels kind of odd to be aspiring to be a cocktail pianist. I remember before I started getting more into jazz piano, I saw cocktail piano as being a little bit lame. Really! Old people drinking their sorrows away, singing songs no one sings anymore. Now I think it's a really romantic atmosphere, and I kind of like drinking more than I did, too.

I mean, I know how it (theoretically) hooks into my future goals. I learn more jazz piano and I get a richer harmonic palette. I learn more songs and I have more ideas for my own songs. There's a risk, though, to focusing a lot on jazz. A lot of musicians never find their way out.

Nevertheless, I've been happy to have some breakthroughs lately. I was able to sing/play I've Got You Under My Skin at mid-tempo all the way through by myself. What that means is, expanding out all the chords to comping, soloing, turnarounds, bassline, singing... all at once. I'm doing it badly, but I got through it.

And just now, I decided to give myself a recital, which is a step forward. I picked the twelve standards I'm most confident on, and performed them back to back, recording each one. I find it's about an hour of material overall. I'm about to listen to them. Kinda nervous.

By the way, remember that if you're a friend of mine, you can email me to request the username/password to my "Jazz Standards" page. That's where you can hear my jazz recordings, which I post fairly often. I can't make them publicly available because of copyright reasons.

Fun day today - I went to Tony Starlight's to see The Swing Sisters perform this evening. They had a very short break between sets, and their pianist had just ordered a burger. It got delivered right when the set was about to start, and he wasn't about to abandon his burger.

So I got called up on stage to sit in for a song. I was that guy, the "guest pianist" who gets called up from the audience. That just tickled me, I haven't been in that situation before. So it was a lead sheet I hadn't seen before - wow, I don't even remember the name of the tune. We did the head once, then James took the AA and gave me the BA. The combo was pretty tight and we had some good energy rise and fall later in the piece. It was quite fun. I'm hoping I'll get to do some more combo playing in the future.

I also sat in with Quoting Napoleon the other night. They're looking for a keyboardist, and I'm still considering whether I want to be The Keyboardist, but it's a fun opportunity to consider. They're bass, drums, rhythm guitar, electric guitar, and fabulous lead vocals. They've got a great repertoire put together already and are completely receptive to new song ideas, cowriting, and working up songs of my own. It's a little different than the idea of me creating/forming my own actual band, but then again, I'm still working on building up my own repertoire, so it might be a good fit if it helps motivate me to write my own stuff even faster.

We had a great gig tonight at Tony Starlight's.

Deja Nu has been kicking around for a while now. I joined the group (barely knowing jazz piano) about a year and a half ago. We had a good first summer playing down on Alberta for Last Thursdays, but then we started having some personnel changes, and had to relearn a bunch of repertoire.

A year later our personnel was solid again and then it was just a matter of solidifying the rep and finding gig opportunities. We all enjoy doing it for fun and don't relish the idea of landing the backbreaking grunt gigs. I remember months ago I was saying that what I really wanted was just a regular gig at a cushy venue with wonderful people.

Tony Starlight's opened up, and it seemed perfect for us! We went and heard the Bureau Of Standards Big Band. A couple of our members play in that band. We also met and later saw the talented and fetching Swing Sisters - a whole throwback community of show bands is coalescing here in Portland - not quite jazz, but broader - and it's a blast to be a part of.

So after a year of not gigging, save for a warmup charity gig a couple of years ago, it was quite an experience performing on a stage in a classy joint, with a grand piano and lighting. I sang three songs - Mack The Knife, You And Me And The Bottle Makes Three (that song is just crazy and people went nuts), and my favorite was the last song. I've worked up a version of "One For My Baby" - since it's about closing time, I got the privilege of closing out the gig with the song - a lot of people stuck around to the very end. It was me, bass, drums, and sax solo, and there was just a really cool mood in the place at the end of the night - it was late, but also felt full of life. The rhythm section has some good communication and we ended the tune in a way we never have before, completely spontaneously. It was such a cool moment, one I won't forget.

The rest of our songs were sung mostly by Michelle, our true diva/star. She sounded great tonight - she's got a beautiful, broad, trained voice, with amazing versatility. I accompanied Michelle and Tony on a duet of You Don't Bring Me Flowers that was just hilarious - they were both in full Streisand/Diamond costume. Tony also sang Beyond The Sea with us. Other favorite moments were Michelle on Route 66, the ending of Too Darn Hot, and especially Bewitched - I opened the second set just improvising something very distantly related to the tune, while waiting for the other players to come up on stage - we transitioned right into the tune, it built slowly until the end, and just had an amazing feel to it all the way through.

Tony Starlight has a great thing going at his club, and if you're in Portland and haven't checked it out yet, you should. His site (with a hilarious splash page) has a full calendar of events, including his own comedy/music show every Saturday night.

In addition, Deja Nu has already been asked back, and we will be playing there again on September 7th, a Friday night! Make reservations now because our show tonight sold out more than a week in advance!

I will be playing/singing at Tony Starlight's with Deja Nu on August 9th. Make reservations because they sell out fast.

Here's Tony himself singing about his venue.