Re-cap of the show...I did the very first song I ever learned how to sing "French Heels". Such a fun little song from the B side of the Debbie Reynolds hit "Tammy". Reminds me of my youth. Dressing up in my mothers clothes, high heels and make up. From there we did a bunch of new songs by Blossom Dearie (she is awesome-check her out)...some great old standards by Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn and of course good ole blue eyes Frank Sinatra with "All The Way". Then we broke into new territory doing some original songs from my cd "Labor Of Love" which is available on CD Baby or I Tunes if you haven't picked up a copy-please do. I also sang a brand new song called "Share It With You" that I'm currently in the studio recording to release on my website in the next couple of months or so. That song was a crowd favorite and I'm very happy that everyone loves the song as much as I do! It's a song that is very close to my heart.
Steamers Jazz Cafe was swinging on Friday night! Had a wonderful audience and even viewers that watched online at the streaming show! All the way from Australia to the Netherlands! Thanks for tuning in and being so supportive! A little back story about my story with Tony. When I got out of the music business after my last record deal with A&M went sour, I had moved back to Philadelphia to get grounded again. After 2 years of living the simple life-which included getting a real job for the first time in my life-I got very bored. I moved back to California and I didn't know who to call to find some work singing. So believe it or not-I looked in the phone book! I found an ad for a booking agency for musicians. So I called and spoke to a woman who basically said they didn't book singers-just bands. So after she hung up on me-I called her back and I said "Hey there. I sang with Jellybean Benitez and had a hit in the late 80's and then I worked with Prince and had a Billboard charting single called "On The Way Up" in the early 90's." After that, she heard me out. I told her I was interested in trying out Jazz. Her husband (at the time) she said was a jazz trumpet player and that he was doing a gig at a place called Kikuya in Huntington Beach, CA. that evening and she told me I should go to the club and sit in with him and his band. (I think it was his birthday actually...which is crazy that we did this gig this past week and it was the same week as his birthday!) Well that man was Tony Guerrero. After I sang "Summertime" with his band-the rest was history. I continued singing with him on numerous occasions-KSBR Jazz shows....learning jazz from him and all the wonderful musicians he would call for the gigs. From Bill Cantos to Rob Mullins to Marc Le Brun...Greg Vail to Eric Marienthal...Evan Stone to Matt Johnson...Osama Afifi to Bruce Lett. So many music lessons from all the great musicians in California that made me a much better singer. Come to find out Tony was also a big Prince fan-so I think that's why his wife gave me a shot!!! HA! Thank god I didn't let him down and that he saw something in me that kept my chops alive. It had been over 10 years since our last gig together! Singing with Tony Guerrero again after so many years-was such a blast for me. Matt Johnson was amazing on the drums and also extremely funny :o) The sax player Vince Trombetta (a nice Italian guy from Philly!) and organ player Dave Siebels were incredibly talented and I enjoyed working with them both for the very first time. Tony was in rare form-playing his trumpet and the piano. He worked so hard for me the day of the gig putting together my charts so the band could play my original songs. What a great guy! Thank you Tony. After a successful show-I'm all geared up to do it again and again. So I'm working on getting booked in other venues. I will let you all know the times and dates as soon as I do book something. Here is one of my favorite shots from that night. It encompasses how much fun the gig was. So I expect you all to be there at my next show !!!! I know that I've done pop records in my past and I enjoy singing pretty much anything including the phone book...but after Friday night-I am convinced that my calling is Jazz. I felt so "at home" up on that stage in that type of setting. Relaxed-fun-and creating the sounds of be bop, swing and bluesy jazz. I'm now inspired to write more songs like "Share It With You"...so stay tuned. Love, Elisa P.S. If you haven't joined my blog-please do so, so that I can keep you updated in case something ever happened to Facebook!!! All the changes-you never know!
