Back to the future!

It has been an incredibly long time since I last wrote and much has happened since last November! 

I have returned to my original north eastern home turf in a way. Having been raised in Buffalo N.Y. I'm back to where it all started...feeling familiar but new. 

Our move from L.A. to the Berkshires was a leap of faith and it seems that we made a good call.

We purchased a 125 year old Victorian house that has tons of character and great vibes...and it's a good thing we love her as much as we do because she needs a ton of work!  We are slowly chipping away at what needs to be taken care of with a dream of intimate house concerts at the center of our visualizations.

The Berkshires hosts a lot more jazz than we realized.  The summers open up here and become an active bustling hub for the performing and visual arts.  We chose this area because of that fact but we didn't realize to what extent the arts come alive here once the snow goes away!

Not only do we have John Williams, James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, The BSO at Tanglewood (which is just a walk away from our house), but there's Jacobs Pillow Dance,  Shakespeare and Co., Berkshire Film Fest.,  MOCA and the Clark Art Museums, music at The Mount, Music Mountain Summer Festival with artists like Helen Sung and Sara Caswell;  But the great news for two jazz musicians moving to the mountains is that there are a plethora of venues in Lenox and surrounding towns that have top notch weekly jazz ensembles featured and many outdoor summer jazz festivals supported by The Berkshire Jazz society who have graciously invited me to perform.  

So one of my L.A. buddies asked me last night on a zoom call...

 "On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being moving east was a bad idea and 10 being the best idea greatest move ever...how would you rate your move?"

I think I'd give this move a solid 81/2 and that's only because my children live on different coasts so I miss them terribly and the winters are seriously cold and a bit too long....but no place on earth is perfect right? 

Life has a nice balance here and we're finding a new rhythm.  George loves being professor Oldziey at Berklee driving into Boston two days a week, I love performing with a band again...Covid and a two year shutdown had me forgetting that this is what I love doing with every fiber of my being. We love taking the train to NYC now and then and we adore having people come visit from all reaches of the world...making music with us, eating good food, drinking wine and chillin' on the front porch. 

So on that note, please come share some music with us! Come chill on the front porch!

We will be hosting our first house concert in our old Victorian on Thursday August 25th and if you're in the area or know someone who is, circle the date!  

We will be featuring...

Jazz pianist  Peggy Stern (all the way from Austin) 

and

Bassist  MaryAnn McSweeney (from N.Y.C. and the Berkshires)

Thursday August 25th

7:00 P.M.

Seating is limited

Call for details: reservations, address and parking info. (512) 924-5821

$25 suggested donation

B.Y.O.B  we will provide some snacks!

AND...

 

 

some more Jazz in the Berkshires

The Suzi Stern Group 

at 

Gateways on August 18th 

with

George Oldziey   piano

&

MaryAnn McSweeney   Bass

6:00 to 9:00

51 Walker Street , Lenox MA for reservations and more info:  (413) 637-2532

AND...

Friday, August 19th 

The Suzi Stern Quartet

with 

Paul Ostermayer   sax

Will Carroll   drums

George Oldziey   piano

MaryAnn McSweeney   bass

AT

The Red Lion

Stockbridge MA

30 Main Street

(413) 298-5545  for more info.

 

Stay healthy, happy and thank you for keeping music in your lives! 

                                     

Suzi Stern July Gigs in The Berkshires

Sat. July 16th 

The Suzi Stern Trio 

                                                             

with

George Oldziey * piano

Mary Ann McSweeney * bass

at 

The Gateways Inn 

               

6:00 to 9:00 PM

51 Walker Street / Lenox MA

(413) 637-2532 for more info.

Sat. July 23rd

The Suzi Stern Quintet

At

The Pittsfield Commons

Jazz on the green!  

S.S.Q. 2:00 PM

(Rain date Sunday the 24th)

Suzi is joined by George Oldziey keys / NYC based Saxophonist Paul Ostermayer / Bassist Mary Ann McSweeney / Conor Meehan on Drums.

Bravo to my students!!

 This has been a month of being extremely proud of my talented and hard working students!

Let me boast about three of them in particular!

Kalie Jennings (KJ) blew me away with her commitment to jumping through a million hoops (including taking time off from her studies at Berklee School of Music) to participate and place on this seasons T.V. show "The Voice"  So proud of her on so many levels! She is the real deal! 

Here's a sample of KJ:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xRtwXf2iP0

And then there is the amazing Austin Texas based singer / songwriter pop sensation Susannah Joffee who will be showcasing this evening and several times more this week at SXSW. Catch her sets if you're in Austin this week. She is fantastic!

Susannah: http://www.susannahjoffe.com/

And most recently my improvising rising star Chelsea Chiu who won the Downbeat student best jazz vocals competition! This is huge and well deserved. She worked incredibly hard on tunes by Miles, Monk and Parker impressing my rhythm section and evidently impressing the Downbeat judges as well!

Congratulations to Susannah, KJ and Chelsea and to all of my beloved students who keep applying themselves and reminding me why I love doing what I do!!

Keep singing!  It's good for the heart and soul!

Beautiful Youth!

It's an incredibly clear, sunny day here in Boston today.  

Warm for Feb. anyways. I think I'm acclimating to this northern climate because at 40 degrees it feels balmy.

I took a walk while on a break from teaching some online voice students and I sat down in an inviting courtyard filled with trees and good energy, then I noticed it was one of Berklee's dorm buildings.

I watched young musicians making their way to rehearsals and classes pushing double basses on wheels, cellos and violins strapped to backs...two young men guiding a dolly filled with drums trying to avoid snow mounds on the sides of the street. 

I could feel the focus and excitement of their inspired musical journeys. It was almost visceral. I remember that energy well. It made me smile. The winter light-warm sun and sounds of sparrows anticipating spring...eavesdropping on bits and pieces of conversations passing by me about Bartok and Chick Corea wafting on the air. 

In spite of the insanity of the world right now I felt so full of hope and contentment.

This was outside the dorm. A lovely dedication to Wayne Wadham in the courtyard.

He said "Drench yourself in the torrent of life. Devour and conquer the best and most current technology available to you. Know how great artists achieved miracles with virtually no tools at hand. Then when life confronts you point-blank, shakes you like a leaf in a hurricane-and you survive to relate the experience-you will be equipped to do so in the most empathetic and powerful form possible."

The path at the Charles river this morning.

Along the frozen shore...

Embracing the snow!

 Hello World!

Life has been in such an incredibly interesting flux for George and me. 

We moved from L.A. across the continent 3,000 miles to Massachusetts so he could take a great gig as associate professor of film scoring at Berklee School of Music.  He adores working with so many motivated talented young composers. He comes back from classes inspired and that makes me happy and inspired as well!

Boston got slammed with snow last week but we thankfully missed the storm by one day driving home to Lenox on clear roads. 

I'm super stoked about meeting in person some the amazing people we've hooked up with online involved with Berkshire Jazz and also the Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative.  For now we're just sitting tight and looking into the future when Omicron doesn't make it quite so hard to meet with big groups.  

I'm so grateful for the beautiful mention in Jazz Wax about my collaboration with Denny on Quiet Now as it's brought some interesting new collaborations my way. 

As far as the big move to New England, George and I are both loving the changes in the light and the weather...literally minute by minute here, but we're excited about spring coming!!  It will make the walks in Boston a little more enjoyable for sure! 

That being said, I must admit sitting by a fire in our 110 year old cozy house listening to jazz on vinyl has been lovely. We are feeling extremely fortunate.

Stay warm, healthy and inspired! 

All the best!

Suzi

Here's a few lines from Jazz Wax if you missed it last month:

 

Denny Zeitlin: Back then, singer-lyricist Suzi Stern sent me a cassette after she completed an album on which she wrote lyrics to jazz compositions and recorded them, including Quiet Now. I'm not sure if the album was ever formally released, but I was very impressed, and accepted her lyric for copyright.

JazzWax: What made her Quiet Now lyrics different? 
DZ: I was knocked out by both the lyrics and her voice. She is one of my favorite singers. She combines a deep, sophisticated musicality with a haunting, pure sound and a rich amalgam of strength and vulnerability. She’s a brilliant lyricist, navigating the complex terrain of jazz compositions. Suzi showed me that Quiet Now can be a beautiful love song celebrating the moment of connection, not just the fragility of love.

JW: What did you think?

DZ: I thought the chemistry was very special. The album had limited distribution, but Suzi recently uploaded Quiet Now on YouTube, and I’m very happy to hear it brought back to life.