Soul Sistah

On November 3rd I once again had the opportunity to perform at my favorite jazz bar, Rug Time, Osaka. Again, all the seats were filled, many old and new friends smiling in the audience, with lots of excitement in the air.

This time, however, the band lineup was quite different from my previous performance at the club. One of the frustrations of band managing is that, unless you have a huge pocket and can afford to pay musicians to work exclusively with you, it’s virtually impossible to have the same members at each show.

Since I am, at the moment, an independent (and almost starving!) artist, I have to rely on the session musicians who are available, or gig only once or twice a year in order to retain the original members.

Well, waiting is not an option. Hence, new musicians.

The upside, however, is that new musicians bring new energy, as well as original styles and perspectives that enhance the songs and general performances. This was definitely the case on November 3rd. The frustrations of musicians’ availability and scheduling conflicts were all worth it at the end, with an energetic and memorable performance by the band: the extra-funky Nakamura Fumihiko on electric and acoustic guitar, Yohei Arai on upright bass, Larry Ransome on drums, Susumu Muraji on the steelpan, and the wonderful Mariko Endo on the sax.

By this time, I had also added new songs to the repertoire, and had the audience singing along to my empowerment theme, Moving On, and to my new Japanese/English reggae love song, Ooh Boy. Thanks to everyone who came out, and to my lovely photographers, Gareth and Fabio:-)))

Filed under: Past Gigs（今までのライブ） by soulsistah