May 2013
I’ve been busy this Spring and happy too, with my FIRST EVER ART SHOW…. Although I’ve been painting and drawing all my life, I just began studying a few years ago and loving it. My media are Watercolor and Pastels. To see them, you can check the Paintings tab here on my website or Click the link below for a video my friend (the amazingly talented Sarah James) put together as my birthday gift about my music and paintings together… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehNSgG9ei7A
I also have a new CD coming out in the Fall featuring the amazing pianist and arranger Michael Abene and I playing all my Original songs in Duo. There are some new ones and I’ve added lyrics to some older tunes which re-shaped them. Recording and doing a few gigs was so much fun and Michael is a true Original himself and his amazing re-harmonizations were wonderfully challenging… By the way, we recorded at The Upland Studio in Kingston, NY with John Menegon engineering and I can highly recommend them for any group up to a Quintet, I think!
We are also celebrating the one year anniversary of my mother Miriam’s death anniversary on May 25th and feeling her presence with me in everything I do. In the year since she has passed from her suffering I realize even more how she has influenced my whole being and I am honoring her life in every moment. We had her for 89 years!!!
It’s a pretty full life and one of my biggest joys is sharing life’s experiences with my amazing partner, Joe Lovano. We will celebrate our 20th Anniversary living in our Villa Paradiso (as we affectionately call our home) and our 29th Wedding Anniversary in late September. I am grateful for all my blessings, that’s for sure!!!!
Here is a new video that came through from the Puebla, Mexico E-Jazz Festival that I did with the Amazing Janice Friedman and some wonderful Mexican jazz musicians: Alberto Jimenez, Emilio Colonel and Vladimir Colonel. There is concert footage and Interview excerpts that I hope you’ll enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9aYIAqxHdE
March 2013
Hello dear friends of Music! Spring is almost here, and yet we get so many snow storms in the NY area that it is best to look inward to find Warmth and Calm! Fortunately, I have so many creative interests that I am always busy and finding gratification. I have had a string of wonderful concerts both as a Leader and as a side-person and that really keeps me going! Please visit my Photos and Video's page to see updates!
I was just in Paris and got to meet some wonderful young musicians and teach some private lessons there, and to see some old friends as well. I must admit I also got away from the winter cold and had a few sunshine vacations, too. YES!
These past few years, it was a pleasure to sing the amazing old Standards from my INDIGO MOODS CD released last Spring and travelling all around the country, it was great fun to share the love of music with so many folks! ! If you haven't heard this CD, it's a lovely Trio with Voice, Trumpet and Piano of which I'm very proud! What an amazing repertoire we are so fortunate to have! I continue to add new "old" songs and find new inspiration!
Also, I have a new Recording in the works! This time it's a DUO of my Original songs with the great pianist/arranger Michael Abene. It's a joy to work with Michael's amazing imagination and I have been writing new material and also adding new lyrics to some of my older tunes. I am really enjoying shifting gears into my own material once again and playing with a more open concept of improvisation. I hope to have this CD complete by the end of the summer, for release.
Another big project that has occupied much of my time and energy is that I'm studying Painting for the first time in my life. I have been painting and drawing with watercolor and pastels since my childhood, and this is the first time I am actually studying the composition and perspective and color mixing that is so necessary to incorporate into one's skills. I have been blessed to live in a community of many accomplished artists and teachers and have been the recipient of their generosity. I will have my first-ever show of my works during the month of May, at the Wallkill River School of Art, in Montgomery, NY in the scenic Hudson Valley. The show's opening reception is Saturday May 4th, 2013 from 5 -7 pm and you are cordially invited to see not only my works as the "Emerging Artist" for the month, but also the works of 2 extraordinary and fabulous artists, Mary Sealfon and George Hayes. I have posted some of my early paintings on this website, so I hope you will come to the show to see my newer pieces sometime in May! Visit: www.WallkillRiverSchool.com for more information.
I have some gigs coming up with some amazing NY area musicians and some travelling planned to Denmark and Israel, so I hope you will stay in touch.
Love and Music - Judi
August 2012
Summer just flies when it’s so beautiful out… I just back from a great trip in California playing with some wonderful musicians there. The Northern crew were Harvey Wainapel in trio with Randy Vincent and I up in the wine country at Healdsburg and then as a Quintet down in Oakland with the killing Adam Shulman, Peter Barshay and Jason Lewis. Whew, we had a ball and Harvey’s Bass Clarinet especially knocked me out! Great bands! Then I headed south to LA where my Indigo Moods collaborator, trumpeter Fred Jacobs and I teamed up with the amazing Theo Saunders first with Darek Oles and Steve Hass in Seal Beach and then with Pat Senatore and Kendall Kay at Vibrato’s in Bel Air. A few days later vocalist and educator Cathy Segal Garcia and I hosted a special fund-raiser along with another 8 talented singers supported by Theo and Kendall with Ryan McGillicuddy to honor the great Nancy King! We really grooved on lots of different styles of music and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing and playing with my West Coast cousins!
Heading back east to the homestead, or Villa Paradiso as we call it, I was thrilled that I came home to a very nice Review in DownBeat Magazine of my “Indigo Moods” CD and I took a breather for a few days to enjoy my gardens. Now I’m on my way to Denmark to work with some talented young people in a workshop setting for a week, along with The Fringe, Rebecca Martin and Larry Grenadier, Joe Lovano, Enrico Pieranunzi and others. Nice work if you can get it! Wishing you all a wonderful rest of the month… Stay in touch! And Stay in the music!
July 2012
The launch of my Indigo Moods CD on Jazzed Media has been a whirlwind of activity! I’ve had amazing experiences with both the trio on the recording and expanded groups with bass and drums. We’ve appeared at Trumpets in Montclair, NJ; The Falcon in Marlboro, NY; Blackstone’s in Laconia, NH; The Blue Note in New York City; the Deerhead Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA and Settler’s Inn in Hawley, PA, and I am leaving for a tour in California for 2 weeks in July!
I’ll be appearing in the Bay Area, the Napa Valley wine country, Los Angeles and Seal Beach so if you’re out there I’d love you to come say hello in person! Read the Newsletter for more details. Also I've done radio interviews on the amazing WBAI station down in the tip of Manhattan Island, the Musician’s Show at Columbia University’s WKCR and now going to do the famous “Desert Island Jazz” show at KCSM in San Mateo and also KPOO in San Francisco! So I am grateful to all the wonderful musicians who have helped make these Classic songs come alive and I look forward to seeing you – either in person or on Facebook!
Viva La Musica,
Judi Silvano
June 2012
This has been a challenging month for me. I am celebrating the life of my mother, Miriam who passed away at age 89 on Friday May 25th. She was an amazing person, known and loved by many of my friends because she came out to hear so many gigs! My mom instilled in me a love of the arts which has led me to explore the world and be open to appreciating people and places and I will forever be grateful to her for the love and support with which she sent me on my own journey. Here is a short bio of her life:
Miriam "Mimi" Schwartz Silverman was born on February 6, 1923 in Jerusalem, Palestine to Rabbi Isaac and Ethel Schwartz. She was the fourth (and last survivor) of seven siblings.
Miriam received her nursing degree at Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC, married Arthur Silverman in 1946, moved to Philadelphia, raised 3 children (Dan, Judi and Nita), studied at the University of Pennsylvania, moved back to New York and graduated from City College with a B.A. in anthropology.
She worked at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan as preservationist for their historic graveyards and was a Member of the American Gravestone Society. For two decades, she also immersed herself in the genealogy of both her parents' families as far back as the 17th century.
A strong independent spirit with a love of the creative arts, Miriam regularly attended the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropholitan Opera, Jazz performances, took the extended family's children to the Big Apple Circus and welcomed visitors from all over the world to her apartment on 55th Street and 8th Avenue. She educated everyone about NYC's architectural richness and always said you had to look up so you didn't miss the historical beauty of the city. A mentor to many, her sharp intellect and flamboyant personality will be missed.
October 2011
This is a very exciting time in my life and I am playing in various groups and working on two recordings. The first CD called Indigo Moods will be released April 10, 2012 on the Jazzed Media label and features some of my favorite songs, in a very relaxed piano-voice-trumpet Trio. I am also working on another recording of my original songs that have never been recorded. So please go to the link below for a Newsletter of my activities. Have a wonderful Autumn and I hope to share some music with you soon.
Click here to read Judi Silvano's October 2011 Newsletter.