Last night I sang with GATO6 at The Elephant Room in Austin to a filled to capacity club! The band sounded amazing and we had a great time.Gato on piano, John Mills woodwinds, Bruno on percussion, Mike Longoria drums, Dennis Dotson trumpet and Glen Schuetz on bass.
Eddie Gomez, Stefan Karlsson and Ed Soph were just here at our jazz venue Casa Karen. This was the trio's fourth time to perform for us, and they played to an absolutely packed house. We all had an amazing time and the trio played unbelievably! George ran cables from his recording studio and got a sensational live recording of the gig so the musical magic has been documented!
My youngest graduated with a masters degree in counseling with a focus on child play study from North Texas in December and we celebrated with a mother/daughter trip to Costa Rica! The two of us were great travel partners and we had an unbelievable time together. Costa Rica is indescribably beautiful. We both fell in love with the country and the people.
Next month we're looking forward to hosting Roseanna Vitro with Mark Soskin and Sara Caswell at Casa and Helen Sung will be featured later in the year.
I'm hoping to get on the road more with a new duo that bassist Paul Unger and I are presently creating. Paul has some crazy attachments to turn off and on at will making his acoustic bass sound like various different instruments, looping and pitz-ing and arco-ing his way into beautiful improvisations woven around the vocals. It's always an adventure and I'm thrilled about the collaboration.
GATO 6 is still one of my favorite bands to sing with and the band has been consistently packing our local jazz venue, Elephant Room, and my group The Suzi Stern Quintet will be back at the Elephant Room and then onto Cezannes in Houston in May with a new configuration of players...Dave Monsch on woodwinds, George Oldziey on piano, Paul Unger double bass and Dennis Durick on drums.
Here's Stefan Karlsson, Ed Soph, me and George Oldziey and on the right Eddie Gomez at Casa.
I had the great opportunity to play with Bill Watrous at The Temple Jazz Festival
George and I have been using the accordion more in our compositions and it's a glorious textural shift in the middle of the gig...I love it! Here's george at our concert at the McNay in San Antonio.
All the Best,
Suzi
