Improvisations on Reality

Thanks muchly for your featurette on my ABNA progress! And yes, I’m cheering you on for next year.

k.G.

My friend and fellow author Lisa Marie Basile put together a spectacular project in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. The project is an anthology of poems, entitled, appropriately, Poems for Haiti – all the proceeds are put to the Haitian relief effort.

As of right now, there had been a similar-magnitude earthquake in Chile, and a similar project may be in the works.

Please support Lisa in this endeavor. The poetry is amazing and it is for a great cause.

More info is found here: the Poems for Haiti blog.

K.G.

I mentioned in the new and revamped About the Author section that I dabble in photography. What I also dabble in, very heavily and definitely for commission, is graphic design.

What I will be doing is thusly: I will create a Hire Me page – or something similar – where I will list my skills. If you would like to hire me to do some graphic design/photography/layout work for you, I’ll have my contact info up.

Since I love my city very much, I will also create a photo gallery page, where I will put photos of NY as I see it.

On a similar note, this involves me getting a new camera. My beloved Nikon Coolpix is 6 years old and is ready to bite the dust. I fell in love with a Kodak while browsing RadioShack (I know – but it’s the best deal I’ve seen so far) and, provided my budgeting mojo is still kicking – which it is – I will invest in it. Of course, any digicam suggestions are open.

Book 2 is coming along swimmingly, and the muse finally deigned to poke at me with the urge to finish out Book 4. It’s slow going and, when the time will come to edit Book 4, there will be a lot of revamping done.  It just doesn’t feel as smooth as, say, Book 3 when I first wrote it. My procrastination doesn’t help much, I am sure.

Until then, the snow is over for a while (I hope, because I am sick of it already), and is melting. It’s messy outside still and will be for a while, but them’s the breaks, as people say.

K.G.

I previously announced a contest of “write me a synopsis” and the winner will receive Books 1 and 2, soon as the latter becomes available for sale.

I am proud to hand the win over to Kaie Driscol, whose synopsis is now on my Createspace blurb, which will carry over into the Amazon blurb.
The runner-up, who will receive Book 1, is Tim Lagace of the NaNoWriMo forums.

Congratulations to my winners!

K.G.

Book 1 made it into Round 2 of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards in YA.

Guys…cross everything crossable.

Now forgive me please while I quietly have a toast of wine and grin like a loon.

And now, we wait for March 23rd, where the winner is based on excerpts. Here. We. Go.

*hyperventilate*

K.G.

Apparently, if you click on my Facebook profile link, it’ll kick back a ‘page not found’. Weird.

In other words, just search for Katherine Gilraine on FB. Or, better, add The Index Series.

Book 2 sooooonnnnn…
K.G.

Dear WordPress,

Now isn’t the time for you to start acting up. Get your act together. Do not time out on me when I’m trying to post something, dammit. My muse didn’t come back from its vacation to get technically glitched.

K.G.

So, back once more with the Artist Spotlight. Unfortunately, offline  life gave me more than one monkey wrench recently and I’ve fallen way, way behind.

This time? Someone I saw in concert relatively recently, and, truth be told, until I saw him in concert, I had no idea that 1. this was his sound and that 2. it was this intriguing. I heard his music before, without so realizing, back in the days of CD 101.9 being the bastion of jazz that it was once for New York, and you may have heard him if you’re a Tina Turner fan.

I refer to Steven Eugene “Euge Groove” Grove.

You may know him from the Tina Turner live shows; he toured with her for a good while. You may also remember him as the tenor sax powerhouse from Tower of Power. I know him from a blastin’-good-time show in Jammin’ in Jamaica 2009. That’s when I acquired his newest release, Sunday Morning, and started digging into everything else. And, for my notorious pickiness with horns, I found me yet another gold mine in the brass section.

Euge Groove's new album, Sunday Morning

Euge’s style is definitely familiar in its sound and rhythms, but unique in its own right. It’s urban, sleek and definitely echoes of ToP in its flow. He combines his own playful originality with music that every variety in his audience can enjoy, particularly in Livin’ Large, where the album kicks off with a cover of Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight. That is a favorite of mine, if it’s played right and in this case? Yes. It’s played right. It’s approachable, funky, flavorful, as I like my horns to be.

The more I listened into Euge’s material on Livin’ Large, the more I noticed a common trait that he shares with another sax powerhouse, Boney James (you can find his writeup here): the horn is used as a voice, rather than just an instrument. Silhouette is definitely such a piece; it tells its own story, its on perspective, though its own lens focus. The intensity rises and falls, inadvertently pulling the listener right along with the music. It’s very much a ToP trait there, and to me, whether in horn, string or key, it’s a mark of a highly perceptive individual, well in touch with his instrument as well as his audience.

The newest release from Euge, which I got my hands on in Montego Bay, is Sunday Morning and is described as Gospel-inspired jazz. The title track highlights the influence perfectly. I also think of it as exactly what it is, a Sunday morning, preferrably one where I wake up late with the sun across my face. An easy favorite of mine, though, is Get Ready. Just the way the notes flow on it is a definite refresher that still doesn’t distract from what’s almost a habitual funk. Not a qualm, but rather an idea – Heather Headley on vocals for this. Her voice and Euge’s horn would combine perfectly on this.

Tenderly is another favorite. Aside from the definite funk in its back-beat, Euge’s tone in it is a bit separate from the rest of the music and is firmly entrenched in the feel in color department. In listening to it, my focus was on the sly, silky, conversational, almost tentative  stylings of the melody. The approach is light, intricate, all the style and feeling of a warm breeze at night. To me personally, the song reminds me of my last night in Jamaica: dining by the water, a completely cloudless sky and a very warm, light breeze that’s perfumed with local floral scents. Light, approachable, sly, and still with his characteristic, funky appeal.

The Gospel influences are clearer on some tracks than others in the album, and it’s balanced well with Euge’s semi-old-school funky style.

Also, congratulations to Euge for having the title track from Sunday Morning climb to the top of the both the Billboard and Mediabase Smooth AC radio charts. Play on!!

K.G.

My editor, Gayle, and I both entered the giveaway for a free room to Jammin’ in Jamaica.

If we win, we take each other. NaNoWriMo will be underway, and we’ll be vegging at the beach, writing, plot-swapping and listening to amazing jazz for a week. I did it solo last year and recommend it to any fellow author/jazz fan/adventurer out there.

Cross your fingers, ladies and gents.

K.G.

So in browsing show schedules, I notice that Jeff Golub is going to be performing at this year’s Spirit of New York smooth cruise series.

Awesome!

I was at four of the last year’s Spirit series and it was phenomenal. Can’t compare with the week-long music cruise, but for someone on a budget and with a lifelong hankering for adventure, it’ll do just fine. The Spirit series was where I saw the Rippingtons and Spyro Gyra live for the first time. Amazing time! Cannot wait to be back and cannot wait who else is in the lineup for this year.

Personally, whom I’d like there is Shilts, Marion Meadows, Nick Colionne, Peter White & Mindi Abair (they had a great turnout last year) and…agh, if the name would come to me; she’s an amazing vocalist that I saw on the week-long cruise in January of 09.

Jeff Golub I’m definitely seeing, no question.

K.G.