Last night was the first time to hear Phoenix J doing her set in Second Life at Cat's Art MusikCircus. She's a singer from the UK and she has a sweet and beautiful voice. She also has a too-small studio with a whole lot of wires all of which are conspiring to do dastardly things. She plays guitar and keys and switches back and forth between them, apologising frequently for any sound from bumping into things. I don't think there's much hope on that as likely there has never been a studio for letting you walk around without bumping into things.
Phoenix J started out her set with cover tunes and she does them in a jazzy / funky way to make them her own. One of her covers that was a particular surprise was when she sang the original version from 1928 and was written in Germany. That was "Mack the Knife." She also distributed the lyrics translated to English which was a nice touch. Phoenix knows ninety covers and she was performing them for the first half of the set. This might get you thinking that tells you about her performance but it doesn't.
In the second half of the set, Phoenix switched over to originals. She told me later she doesn't have any formula as in doing one half covers and one half originals, she just goes with whatever it feels like the audience would like the best. I've always loved originals the best and Phoenix carries you away with hers. There's a very gentle quality to them that is highly-captivating. Hopefully the MusikCircus encouraged her to do more originals than she might have done as experimentation is the biggest theme there.
Her set is a delight and I'm pleased to announce Phoenix J will be performing regularly at Cat's Art MusikCircus. Starting Friday, December 13, she will be playing ever two weeks. This isn't just a plan as it's in the Calendar right now. You can see for yourself using the Calendar tab at the top of the blog.
Here is part of the audience from her show:
Maybe you think that's not a very big audience but actually it was, it's just these ones who were not. They're Tinies and have very much smaller avatars than most in Second Life. They are huge fun, tho, and it's always a riot when Tinies come to a show.
Some things I didn't know about Phoenix J is that she has performed all over the place. There was a performance at the UK Coventry Skydome Arena with fifty dancers supporting her set and she has even performed at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles. She has also won a Best Dance Song award from US Just Plain Folks Music Awards. You can meet Phoenix on her Facebook Wall or you can go directly to her Web site: Phoenix J
I don't usually go into a performer's history but Phoenix J has a lot of it. She was performing with a band called Greenhaus and their history goes back to the 90's. I'm not sure when Phoenix J joined them but she certainly recorded at least one CD with them. It's not just that she performed with them as the reviews of their performances were excellent.
Once again we see a Second Life performer who can crush any idea of getting gigs only in Second Life as Phoenix J has played all over the world.
Voodoo Shilton returned again last night for another sensational set. He was very cool before he started as he knew I had audio troubles last week and he messaged me to ask if that was still the case so we could get it sorted before the show started. That was all fine and he then told me he would start out with a bit of experimentation.
Performance of musical experiments has become the hallmark of Voodoo Shilton's show as it keeps evolving because he's pushing himself in all kinds of different ways. It's not that you wouldn't recognise him if you last heard him a year ago but he sure isn't playing the same material. There's been a tremendous growth and it's not slowing down at all.
Voodoo always has kind of a pensive expression to his face but there's high irony in this as his set is very much about joy. He said last night that a friend had said joy is the essence of music and that's exactly what he wants. It's really not something that's hard to find as you will immediately feel it from him in the way he talks and the way he plays. (There's another article today with quite a bit about Voodoo's saxophone playing but that wasn't really a review of the show: Voodoo and the Synthesizer Sampler)
Someone commented that Voodoo's music was very soothing and surely it is ... but then he gets ripping on something else and it's very exciting. Even so, there's nothing jangling about it. Voodoo is an excellent showman and is very good at keeping the pace of things moving up and down to a very cool pace.
It's the change to Voodoo's music that's the biggest fascination. At first he was playing a lot of jazz covers from Chick Corea and many others. Then he started focusing quite a bit on originals, many of which have a worldly feel through making selections from Africa, South America, or wherever. He's gone from jazz music, to world music, to what is now Voodoo Music in which he will play whatever the hell instrument he likes to get the sound and orchestration he wants.
And Cat and I danced!
Usually I'll go for a close-up for dance pictures of us but this one came from during Phoenix J's set and you can see the Tinies dancing in the background. They were all dancing in-step with each other and they were charming.
Phoenix J started out her set with cover tunes and she does them in a jazzy / funky way to make them her own. One of her covers that was a particular surprise was when she sang the original version from 1928 and was written in Germany. That was "Mack the Knife." She also distributed the lyrics translated to English which was a nice touch. Phoenix knows ninety covers and she was performing them for the first half of the set. This might get you thinking that tells you about her performance but it doesn't.
In the second half of the set, Phoenix switched over to originals. She told me later she doesn't have any formula as in doing one half covers and one half originals, she just goes with whatever it feels like the audience would like the best. I've always loved originals the best and Phoenix carries you away with hers. There's a very gentle quality to them that is highly-captivating. Hopefully the MusikCircus encouraged her to do more originals than she might have done as experimentation is the biggest theme there.
Her set is a delight and I'm pleased to announce Phoenix J will be performing regularly at Cat's Art MusikCircus. Starting Friday, December 13, she will be playing ever two weeks. This isn't just a plan as it's in the Calendar right now. You can see for yourself using the Calendar tab at the top of the blog.
Here is part of the audience from her show:
Maybe you think that's not a very big audience but actually it was, it's just these ones who were not. They're Tinies and have very much smaller avatars than most in Second Life. They are huge fun, tho, and it's always a riot when Tinies come to a show.
Some things I didn't know about Phoenix J is that she has performed all over the place. There was a performance at the UK Coventry Skydome Arena with fifty dancers supporting her set and she has even performed at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles. She has also won a Best Dance Song award from US Just Plain Folks Music Awards. You can meet Phoenix on her Facebook Wall or you can go directly to her Web site: Phoenix J
I don't usually go into a performer's history but Phoenix J has a lot of it. She was performing with a band called Greenhaus and their history goes back to the 90's. I'm not sure when Phoenix J joined them but she certainly recorded at least one CD with them. It's not just that she performed with them as the reviews of their performances were excellent.
Once again we see a Second Life performer who can crush any idea of getting gigs only in Second Life as Phoenix J has played all over the world.
Voodoo Shilton returned again last night for another sensational set. He was very cool before he started as he knew I had audio troubles last week and he messaged me to ask if that was still the case so we could get it sorted before the show started. That was all fine and he then told me he would start out with a bit of experimentation.
Performance of musical experiments has become the hallmark of Voodoo Shilton's show as it keeps evolving because he's pushing himself in all kinds of different ways. It's not that you wouldn't recognise him if you last heard him a year ago but he sure isn't playing the same material. There's been a tremendous growth and it's not slowing down at all.
Voodoo always has kind of a pensive expression to his face but there's high irony in this as his set is very much about joy. He said last night that a friend had said joy is the essence of music and that's exactly what he wants. It's really not something that's hard to find as you will immediately feel it from him in the way he talks and the way he plays. (There's another article today with quite a bit about Voodoo's saxophone playing but that wasn't really a review of the show: Voodoo and the Synthesizer Sampler)
Someone commented that Voodoo's music was very soothing and surely it is ... but then he gets ripping on something else and it's very exciting. Even so, there's nothing jangling about it. Voodoo is an excellent showman and is very good at keeping the pace of things moving up and down to a very cool pace.
It's the change to Voodoo's music that's the biggest fascination. At first he was playing a lot of jazz covers from Chick Corea and many others. Then he started focusing quite a bit on originals, many of which have a worldly feel through making selections from Africa, South America, or wherever. He's gone from jazz music, to world music, to what is now Voodoo Music in which he will play whatever the hell instrument he likes to get the sound and orchestration he wants.
And Cat and I danced!
Usually I'll go for a close-up for dance pictures of us but this one came from during Phoenix J's set and you can see the Tinies dancing in the background. They were all dancing in-step with each other and they were charming.
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