Billy Boy

 Here we are in our 43 week at Capital Kitchen here in Melbourne Australia. It's a busy and groovy cafe as you can see by people walking through the camera shot constantly.
My piano player , Tom Hanssen, who I just think is fabulous, loves Bill Evens, so I have been doing my best to learn as many of his tunes as I can. It's really important that your band  likes the material you pick, (as well as each other). The boys in my quartet get to do a fair amount of instrumentals too. I'm hoping that keeps them happy. So this week I'm posting "Waltz for Debbie" which is a gorgeous song that I love doing.

It was in between hot and cool so I wore a silver sequined trapeze top I found on sale at Saba http://www.saba.com.au/ with a cute take on the boyfriend jacket, (although I'm not wearing the jacket in this clip) by The Edge-Supertrash (doesn't that say it all!) The sleeves are very intricate and a great piece to bring down the bling just a little. This was from THE OUTNET   http://www.theoutnet.com/
The shoes are Robert Robert from Myers. I don't know why I can always find them in my size and on sale. (I really am going to start my Ebay store soon!)

I Used to Be...

It took me a very long time to learn to write charts for the band especially a jazz lead sheet for my original stuff. But, I'm getting better at it and since we've had no time to rehearse I thought I would throw the band this song I wrote and see how they did. When I record it, I'd like to add flute into it but after hearing the boys and what they did with it I'm pretty happy with it. Here are the lyrics and I've posted another jazz classic (Everything happens to Me)  below. Oh, and I'm wearing a cute little Armand Basi rust colored ruffled dress with a little bolero and a pair of adorable Sam Edelman platforms. I promise that I will open my Ebay store soon!

I USED TO BE © 2010

Written by Connie Lansberg

I USED TO BE YOUR GIRL

YOU USED TO BE MY WORLD

MY WORLD HAS COME APART      

I HAVE A BROKEN HEART

MAYBE IF I SIT STILL

AND KEEP MY EYES CLOSED TIGHT

AND I DON’T TAKE THOSE PILLS        

THEY GIVE TO US AT NIGHT

THEN MAYBE I’LL SEE YOU   

LIKE I DID TODAY

LOOKIN’ BEAUTIFUL      

AS THE DAY YOU WENT AWAY

I USED TO BE YOUR GIRL

YOU USED TO BE MY WORLD

MY WORLD HAS COME APART      

I HAVE A BROKEN HEART

 I WHISPER IN YOU EAR  

YOU DON’T SEEM TO HEAR

THERE’S SOMETHING IN MY HEAD     

BUT NOTHING IN MY BED

I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE     

I NEED TO FEEL THE SUN

BUT I SHOULD RUN AND HIDE

MY HEART’S COME UNDONE

I USED TO BE YOUR GIRL

YOU USED TO BE MY WORLD

MY WORLD HAS COME APART      

I HAVE A BROKEN HEART

Hitting the High Notes

I don't have any film from NYE because it was just Tom Hanssen and myself playing for a captive audience at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club. I got to sing every ballad I know. It is a bit harder though without bass to keep us in time. We did all right though.  I know that sometimes I do get very lazy about actually practicing my scales and exercises so to motivate myself I bought Cari Cole's warm up exercises. I found them to be very worthwhile as they brought back things I knew but had forgotten.  I highly recommend them if you want to quickly improve your tone and control. Here's the link: http://www.caricole.com/
I was hoping that APRA, our collection body in Australia would bring her out here for a workshop.

Now, I wanted to take a close up of the fabulous, well I can only call it a bib, that I got from one of my favorite on line shops, Shopbop.com, but  I dropped my camera and broke it! Very upsetting. I shall just have to describe it and you can see it in this weeks' video.

It is a oblong shaped bib covered in amber and brown beads that ties around your neck to create a front piece for any plan top or dress you might be wearing. I did a little alteration on it though. I sewed the cloth tape ties together so they were at a certain level and I took the excess and sewed them on either side to turn it into more of a string vest. I think you can see it in vid. Made it much more comfortable to wear since it's rather heavy. The piece is from a designer called Haute Hippie which you'll find at Shopbop and Polyvore. I teamed with my Basikke (pronounced basic) harem pants and a silky little top from Aus label Basque. It was extremely hot that day and it's always hard to dress up when it's hot.
Here's Both Sides Now with my A team band. Once again, this is a very busy and popular cafe so it's always noisy!

Oh Holy Crap!

Alice and Olivia Sequined tank Dress

This gorgeous and comfy dress is from http://www.shopbop.com/ a great site that has world wide free delivery! If you can find something on sale in your size it's really worth it. The picture doesn't do the rich deep olive color justice. I wore it with a little Free the People cropped hoodie and a pair of Steve Madden wooden sandals also from ShopBop.
Now, I was dared to post this church song and I had a massive migraine during this gig  (I missed the next gig and Christmas entirely as it lasted four days) which means I missed the last opportunity to bring out the sparkles. (Except for NYE) but since it will a hundred and ten degrees that day....
Here's my little attempt at Oh Holy Night. Try and find Stan Walker doing it! We are at opposite ends of the scale. He is utterly amazing.
Have a great NYE!

Ring a Bling Bling

My sequined legging came in the mail on Friday in time for my gig so I had to rethink my outfit for that evening. I wasn't sure if the leggings that I found on ideeli.com                      http://www.ideeli.com/closed    
(I'm sorry, I don't remember how I became a member)  were going to look any good but because they have un-sequined strips down both the inside and out side leg, they look great.  Ideeli doesn't ship overseas (damn them!) so my mother who lives in Ca. sent them over for me. I could have gone very rokstar with the look but this is a jazz gig so instead I put a sheer Cohen et Sabine http://www.cohenetsabine.com.au/  black scooped neck dress over the pants and it soften the look right up but still great for the Christmas shows we've been doing. I found the dress on Ebay and had yet to wear it. Mind you, some boots and long t-shirt, a frilly vest and Ring a Bling Bling! Cool.My clip this week is Have Yourself a Merry Christmas. Pete my drummer had to leave early so we did it as a trio which was lovely.

123,223, 323,423!

We're doing Christmas shows at Cap Kitch 3 days a week up until Christmas Eve and it isn't until you do that many Christmas songs in a row that you realize most Christmas tunes are in 3/4. Waltzes.  I'm going to spend 2011 writing my own! Just so we can swing.
Still, I can't complain because I get to pull out my collection of 60's to 80's fully sequined and beaded dresses that I rarely get to wear.  The one I'm wearing in the video is a lovely deep blue. I did discover though, that they are very uncomfortable to sit on for any length of time. The Cap only has metal stools and since so many Christmas tunes are slow I decided I would sit for these gigs. But it hurt after a while! So for this tune, I'm standing. I love this tune,
What are you doing New Years Eve? Diana Krall does it and Ella.
Enjoy!

Sequined Insanity

I'm just mad for sequins. Not great big gawdy sequins, but dark gold and bronze.
I found this little number on a little site called Modnique:
http://www.modnique.com

Not a great deal of good clothes but when they do they're a good price. The only drawback is that the items take at least six weeks to arrive. Supposedly this little dress, and I use the term lightly as it really is a long top, was designed by Lindsay Lohan.
I surprised tht I found one that would fit!!
Here's a live version of my cover of the song Crush originally by Jennifer Paige.