Tag: janis siegel

artist, jazz, music

An update on the Requinte Trio: you still have time to get involved with this amazing project!

Most of you know, from my past blog, that I recently became involved with the Requite Trio.  Here is the latest update from the  Trio, and everything is going great! In the video embedded below, I am listening on as the group hears the first tracks recorded in the studio a few weeks back.  Spending time in NYC with these amazing artists and being a part of the recording process from the first day in the studio has been a life changing experience! I am honored to be the Executive Producer on the Requite Trio’s new album. It’s your turn to get involved with this amazing project too!! Check out the update from Janis, Nanny, and John below!! 

-Catheryn, Tag UR It! inc. President/CEO

Dear Friends ,
Wishing you a joyous spring season – it’s a time for renewal and rebirth . Nanny,John and I are quite excited about getting closer to our final goal of “birthing ” our first band record.We have about 8 tracks in various stages of completion under our belts including some original lyric collaborations, some Jobim , some Brazilian favorites and one or two standards that we have rearranged “Requinte -style” Joining us on the CD are Leo Traversa on bass, Paul Meyers on guitar, Ben Wittman on drums, Joel Frahm on tenor and soprano saxes, and the Brazilian vocal group Banda de Boca .
One big joyful step forward has been the participation of our Executive Producer , Catheryn McKeever, who we welcomed to NY a couple of weeks ago and who was present at our last recording session. Janis had her over for a home cooked meal and we recorded a special cut for her in the studio .She has been a delightful and supportive presence in the completion of this project and we are very grateful to her. Throughout the next few months we will be posting other short clips of rehearsals and time in the studio which you can access when you become a participant and log into your ArtistShare account. We are back in the studio APRIL 15th and APRIL 22 we’ll be posting clips from those experiences.
As we near our goal, we still have spots open for Gold & Silver Participants. The highlights of this level are delineated on our ArtistShare project page. They included a vinyl listening session with Janis Siegel, a piano lesson with John diMartino,dinner with the band, and a food/walking tour of the West Village. To participate, click the link below:
http://www.artistshare.com/news/?pt=3762Other levels are, of course available and appreciated and we’d like to thank everyone who has already joined us on this creative trip.We could not do it without you .
For those who have not yet joined us, don’t miss out on a chance to experience something unique!Much love & light ,
Janis, Nanny & John
Nanny Assis, John diMartino & Janis Siegel
REQUINTE TRIO
photo by Janis Wilkins
artist, inspiration, music, success

The Human Experience

If you know me well, you know I’m a huge Manhattan Transfer fan. Huge. Since I was twelve. I stopped officially counting how many concerts I’ve been to after 50, and that was years ago. As a twelve year old, I guess you could say the four members of this group were, to me, like the Beatles. I had every album, knew every word to every song, had pictures up in my room, etc. I loved every member of the group, and of course looked up to them.

Me, at age 16, with each member of The Manhattan Transfer
Me, at age 16, with each member of The Manhattan Transfer.

Now that I’m 47, not much has changed, except for maybe not knowing EVERY word… I’ve matured, they’ve matured, and although still together they’ve each branched out to do solo albums and assorted collaborations….

Well, Janis Siegel is branching out yet again with a new collaboration: The Requinte Trio.

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The Requinte Trio is Janis Siegel, world-renowned Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Nanny Assis, and multi-Grammy nominated pianist and composer, John Di Martino. They have created a fan-funded project on ArtistShare.com called “The Requinte Trio Project”, which allows you many ways to participate, and in turn, the rewards are AWESOME. And I should know, I am a Gold Participant. Why am I telling you about it? Because I’m all about the Human Experience…

I grew up hearing “you can’t do that”… “just live with it”… “that’s dumb”… I never heard “hey, you can be whatever you want to be!” or “Go for your dreams!” or “You can do it!” or “Go for the gold!” or “Grab the brass ring!” Nope. I don’t know why. Maybe my Mom didn’t hear it from her parents… 

My Mom never liked going to the doctor. She had a horrible cough. For years. “Go to the doctor!” I’d scream. “Yeah, yeah” was her response. At age 73 she was still working full time… One morning in May of 2012, she said to me “I think I need to go to the ER”… Um, what? Okay…. Stage Four Ovarian cancer. Ten days later, May 16th, two days after Mothers Day, she was gone. 

Yep. The Human Experience. It’s been said we are not human beings having spiritual experiences; rather we are are spiritual beings having a “human experience” on earth. I believe that. And I also feel that I hadn’t been living my Human Experience to the fullest before my Mom died.  Actually, I realized at age 40 that those little sayings, the “just live with it”, etc, were ingrained in my head so well that I carried them into adulthood. Well, fuck that. I realized I had the brains (and the balls) to start my own company, Tag UR It!, in the middle of a recession and have it be a success. I’m living my Human Experience to the fullest now, because you never know what tomorrow will bring, or if you even have a tomorrow… 

Another reminder of living life like there’s no tomorrow is the passing of another important person in my life: Tim Hauser, the founder of my beloved group, The Manhattan Transfer. He passed away last October, the 16th, three days before I was to have lunch with him in his home… 

So back to the Human Experience, the Brass Ring, the Gold, or in my case, the Gold Participant. I treated myself to a trip to NYC for my 40th birthday a few years ago, and fell in LOVE with the Big Apple!!! I’m a perfectionist and very anal, so naturally I studied the map of Manhattan for two months prior and developed a color-coded itinerary for every hour that I was to be in the city. First stop was Birdland, naturally… 

With Janis, December, 2014.
With Janis, December, 2014.

So when I read the “perks” of the Gold Participant, and it included such things as “a vinyl listening session and a food/walking tour of the West Village NYC tour with Janis Siegel”… Brass Ring. The Gold. An amazing new Human Experience. 

There’s no day but today, my friends… You can save up your money for that shiny, new Escalade, or you can spend it on an amazing Human Experience, one you CAN take with you. Join me and The Requinte Trio Project and be a part of an amazing new journey, or find something else that you really love and have been putting off for that “someday”, and do it NOW. Live in the NOW. Create your own outstanding Human Experience. 

Today.

~ Catheryn

Click here to be part of The Requinte Trio Project: http://artistshare.com/v4/projects/experience/344/464/1/6