Lily Records: News

Have you ever entertained the idea of taking jazz or commercial vocal lessons?
I am now teaching privately and welcome you to join my studio. My private lessons are held at the East Nashville School of Music, a wonderful new music community in the heart of - you guessed it - East Nashville.
Currently, I'm teaching jazz voice at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. My specialities include jazz literature and fundamentals of jazz singing, such as form, rhythm, phrasing and pitch. Lessons are for both instrumentalists and vocalists seeking to improve their understanding of the lyricism of jazz and/or commercial styles of singing. I have studied with a wonderful teacher, Ron Browning, and offer teachings from his lineage as well as from my own stage experience.

Visit: http://www.eastnashvilleschoolofmusic.com/
for more information and pricing. I love and highly recommend the ENSoM, so please stop by their site and pass along the word!

"Youth is not a time in life - it is a state of mind. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair."

Living the Science of Mind, page 177

"An immature mind is a mind that hates itself."
-Byron Katie

Love yourself!

"There is a Life Stream that flows to you, and this is a Stream of clarity, a Stream of wellness, a Stream of abundance... and in any moment, you are allowing it or not. What someone else does with the Stream, or not, does not have anything to do with how much of it will be left for you. This Stream is as abundant as your ideas allow it to be."
-Abraham

Excerpted from a workshop in Phoenix, AZ on Saturday, April 4th, 1998
All Is Well

"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a façade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are."
-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Gordon and friends made their decisions on the Big Phat Jam Contest. Go to http://www.bigphatjam.com to see the winners and read reviews of everyone's performances. Thank you for voting, and thanks to the band for taking the time to review everyone's tracks!

Two original songs from my Playground record have been signed to 2nd Floor Music Publishing with Don Sickler. You can view other music by 2nd Floor at http://www.secondfloormusic.com/sfm.cfm?CFID=13887213&CFTOKEN=80061569

9:13am

Hi everyone! There are lots of new things happening at LR, and lots of new opportunities coming open all the time. We have a full digital studio in-house now, and the music is pouring out. In the past couple of months we've recorded 3 jazz projects - April Caspari, another local jazz vocalist (TBA), and a 2 song demo this week by Rahsaan Barber. Needless to say, we're excited about all of these and can't wait for you to hear them.
http://www.orraziosound.com

An email I received today from Just Plain Folks peeked my interest. Here's a little bit:

"Copyright 2007 Just Plain Folks Productions.
Just Plain Folks Member Population: 41,173
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Just Plain Quotes:

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it." -Robert Heilein

"After the bare requisites of living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone, or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who scribbles on a wall to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do." -John Steinbeck

"There's nothing about music that oppressive commerce can destroy which the human spirit fueled by artistic instinct and desire can't and won't resurrect." -Brian Austin Whitney

My Take:

Why is it that people use fear tactics in just about everything we do in life? Marketing people use fear to make you buy products (you stink, you better get this deodorant or people won't like you... your teeth aren't white enough.. you better use this whitener or you won't get that new job... blah blah blah). Politicians do the same thing. (fear of terrorists, fear of global warming, fear of illegal immigrants, fear of gay people, fear of taxes.. blah blah blah). Many religions use fear to control people as well. Every day we're pelted with so many scare tactics that it's amazing any of us leave our houses. So what does this have to do with music? Everything.

How many times have you heard someone say "the music industry is in decline..." or "the music industry is dying..." or "rock and roll is dead..." etc. It's bad enough we have to live in fear about external factors in our lives all the time. But is it really possible that our ability to create music is dying or dead? To steal a word from my favorite cantankerous magicians Penn and Teller: "BULLSH*T!"

Music is not dead.

Anyone who says any type of music is dead isn't looking very hard. Just because the stuff on the radio doesn't live up to previous stuff on the radio, and the stuff on the mass merchant store shelves doesn't live up to the stuff that was on those same shelves previously and just because the mainstream music venues are featuring live performances that don't live up to years past doesn't mean music is dead. Music has simply moved back out into the community where it was before corporations got involved. It's become viral. It doesn't come knocking at your door gift wrapped from corporate record labels. You have to get off your butt and spend about 30 seconds actually LOOKING for it to find it. It's there. And it's heart is beating fast and strong.

Music is not dying.

When something is dying, it's shrinking, shriveling and slowing way down. Nothing about music is doing that. Perhaps some specific types of commerce are dying, shrinking, shriveling and slowing way down, but that has nothing at all to do with music and never has. It doesn't reflect what's going on anymore than the Presidential candidates we have hoisted on us from the artificially limited 2 party system in the US reflects the best possible people who could be running for office. Why is it we can all see the obviousness of that, but we look to the shrinking funnel of corporate commerce to determine how "music" is doing? Snap out of it.

Music is thriving.

There's more amazing music being made today than ever before in human history. There's more diversity. There's more risk taking. There's more virtuosity. There's more people of all ages making more music in a day than all the people in the world were making combined 50 years ago. Anyone can record radio ready music on inexpensive home recording studios or their computer. Is it all great? Nope. Is it all the stuff you hear on radio or being mass produced by the labels? Hell no. Last year alone we received 350,000 songs in over 80 genres of music from over 100 countries around the world for our music awards. And the fact is that we only got a tiny sliver of all the music that was created, in our case mostly in the US (Check out CD Baby for obvious proof of this). Music is being made and performed in every city around the world in homes that surpasses the sliver of music that is mass marketed. It's there if you care to look for it.

Music will never die.

If all commerce was removed from the music world tomorrow, there'd still be millions of musicians making music anyway because guess what? They're already doing just that now. People who make music do it because they have no choice. It's impossible NOT to make and create music for real musicians and writers. If all the instruments and devices and tools disappeared from the face of the earth, people would still be humming songs, clapping their hands, banging rocks together and making music. Music is always with us as long as we're breathing. It's not going anywhere. It will NEVER die. Tell the scare mongers to bugger off.

Do us all a favor. The next time you're making music, try doing it without a thought about record labels and radio stations and My Space friends and doomsayers who want us to fear the end. Instead, passionately rip into your soul and produce the art in your heart. Don't hold back. Don't try and please others. Don't be afraid you're not good enough or you're doing it the wrong way. Make your music without fear. Then, share it with others without fear. If you do, you'll realize how true all my points above are. If you do, you can join the global musical chorus. If you do, you can single handedly take back the music from those who make a living predicting its demise. If ALL of you do it, we can shut them up once and for all.

But that's just my opinion. I could be right.

Learn, Succeed, Thrive. We're All In This Together!"

A studio and production company specializing in great sounds and a warm vibe - our info is on the contact page of this website.

This is an exciting weekend! Phil Woods is visiting MTSU for their 2006 artist series and will be performing with our jazz band at 7:30, April 8th. Check out the calendar for more details!

http://www.jazzblues.org/

TJBS- Promoting Nashville's Jazz & Blues Community - this month an interview by Courtenay Shipley. Thank you for such a thoughtful interview, Courtenay!

I put some live music online so you can get an idea of what we've been working on. Click on http://www.lilyrecords.com/music.html or MUSIC.

This spring WMOT, Jazz 89.5 FM, is hosting a new radio program of live shows recorded at the Jazz Cave in Nashville. Tom Knox recorded our concert on March 25, 2005 and the highlights of the show will be aired in a one-hour program, Sunday, February 19th at 4pm. The band is Jim White on drums, Derek Jones on bass, Kelli Cox on piano and myself of alto sax and vocals.

If you miss the radio show, they'll be streaming the program all week on http://www.wmot.org. Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy the concert!

Here is the full, live-concert schedule: (4pm Sundays)

* Kirk Whalum - 2/12
* Liz Johnson - 2/19
* Chris Walters - 2/26
* Jeff Hall - 3/5
* Rod McGaha - 3/12
* The Dudleys - 3/19
* Joe Locke/Dick Sisto - 3/26
* Everett Greene - 4/2
* Gene Bertoncini - 4/9
* Connye Florance - 4/16
* Moe Denham - 4/23
* Bruce Dudley & Strings - 4/30

This January I was selected as an alternate for the IAJE Sisters In Jazz Competition. Female college students from all over the world entered, with 5 finalists chosen to perform at the 2006 IAJE conference in NYC. This conference is the largest jazz gathering in the world, and it is truly an honor to be chosen as an alternate. For more information about IAJE (The International Association for Jazz Education) please visit http://www.iaje.org

The Winners, Alternates and Honorable Mentions are:

2006 IAJE Sisters in Jazz Collegiate All-Star Winners -
Caroline Davis, Alto - Northwestern University
Melissa Gardiner, Trombone - University of Michigan
April Boyce - Piano, Universtiy of Cincinnati
Lauren Falls, Bass - Humber College
Lorie Wolf, Drums - Humber College

2006 IAJE Sisters in Jazz All-Star Alternates:
Liz Johnson, Voice - Middle TN State University
Lynn Gruenewald, Alto - Michigan State University
Amy Rempel, Piano - University of Memphis
Vanessa, McGowen, Bass - University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jasmine Jones, Drums - Humber College

Special Recognition and "Honorable Mention"
Shirazette Tinnin, Drums - Northern Illinois University
Anna Webber, Flute - McGill University
Lindsey MIller, Guitar - University of North Texas
Sophie Hassfurther, Tenor - University of Musik, Vienna
Mai Sugimoto, Alto - University of Cincinnati
Barbara Hamilton, Trombone - Manhattan School of Music
Mavis Kashanda Poole, Voice - University of Colorado at Boulder

This is an impressive representation of some of the best jazz schools in the world. Thank you again IAJE for promoting women in jazz and the opportunity to be represented with these fine musicians!
-Liz

Your continued donation is still needed. Please donate to the Red Cross for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina here:
http://www.redcross.org

"As above, so below."

With love and light,
Liz

A well known jazz jock, Dick Crockett in Sacramento, puts out a list of deserving jazzers for the public. Much of it culled from those hippest of the hip CDs he played throughout the previous year! He calls it the 'Twirlie' award, and Playground has been nominated for 2004.
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The list for
FEMALE VOCALISTS:

Angela Hagenbach POETRY OF LOVE Amazon Records
Rene Marie SERENE RENEGADE MAXJAZZ
Karrin Allyson WILD FOR YOU Concord Records
Claudia Acuna LUNA MAXJAZZ
Diana Krall THE GIRL IN THE OTHER ROOM Verve
Records
Patricia Barber LIVE- A Fortnight In France Blue Note
Erin McDougald THE AUBURN COLLECTION BluJazz Label
Lisa Sokolov PRESENCE Laughing Horse Records
Judi Silvani LET YOURSELF GO Zoho Records
Helen Merrill LILAC WINE Sunnyside Records
Susie Arioli SUSIE ARIOLI BAND Justin Time Records
Lenora Zenzalai Helm VOICE PAINTINGS Mid Atlantic Records
Marilyn Harris FUTURE STREET Wrightwood Records
Vicki Burns SIREN SONG Merrymaid Productions
Kerry Linder SAIL AWAY WITH ME Blue Toucan Music
Libby York SUNDAY IN NEW YORK BluJazz Label
Nellie McKay GET AWAY FROM ME Columbia Records
Liz Johnson PLAYGROUND Lily Records
http://www.lilyrecords.com/products.html
Carol Mennie I'M NOT A SOMETIME THING CDM Records
Eden Atwood THIS IS ALWAYS THE BALLAD SESSION Groove Note

I just put up a few tracks from our Live in Studio C session on WPLN. This one was special because Chris Walters and I got to perform some of our original material, including "He's Pete to Me" which we co-wrote about a good friend of ours. His tune "Woman's Greatest Weapon" is also up there. Dig with your ear holes!

Copies of jazz charts are online at All About Jazz. Here we're #43 from #40.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=4330