Happy 2013

It's a new year, and its been a while since I blogged anything. I started a new entertainment career 12/31/10 at Rosebud Prime, a fine dining restaurant in downtown Chicago. They called me 12/30/10... Less than 24 hours to get myself together to play a new piano for New Years Eve. Thank you American Music World for the referral!

This opened the door at Rosebud for a weekly position, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. I was told to work up some vocals to break it up a bit. Although this was a bit out of my comfort zone, I was challenged by the request. I started recording some bass & drum tracks for a few of the songs, and played them from my iPhone. By May 2011, I purchased an iPad, and found a software app that allowed me to combine my sheet music (as a PDF file) and audio tracks (as an mp3 file) on one page. This allowed me to leave my music binder at home (although it took a couple of months to feel comfortable about doing so).

After about a year, the manager made some schedule changes, and I wound up only playing once a week (Tuesdays) at Rosebud. This led me to pursue other venues. I now play at many fine dining establishments, in and all around Chicago.

In addition to my working as a jazz pianist/singer, I got a call in the spring (2012) from a well booked cover band to join as their keyboardist. The band is named Midnight. This led to more unfamiliar territory which I eventually embraced. We specialize in danceable music in the R&B, Motown, Classic Rock, Swing, Pop and Jazz Vocal Standards genres. It is composed of six guys, including me. Three of the guys double on horns, so there is a lot of versatility in our sound. I personally enjoy playing the tunes from the band Chicago. All the guys are awesome. Check out the website: http://midnightband.com. We play many festivals and summer events, as well as weddings, private parties, & corporate events... Even as entertainment for the Chicago White Sox!

In the meantime I am pursuing getting my original music placed into television and motion pictures by an organization named Taxi. I have had numerous forwards to movie music supervisors, but as of this writing have made no progress (in a financial sense). I have been primarily writing and recording new songs in the jazz vocal genre, since I can always sing this new material for my entertainment gigs.

As I kept adding new recordings for Taxi, I eventually had a collection of jazz-vocal love songs. I released an album of these recordings called "Night Life" which is now available on iTunes, Google Music, ReverbNation, and most of the other Internet distribution outlets. I'm hoping 2013 will allow me a few media placements with Taxi, which will increase awareness of my product line (songs), and allow an increase of that revenue layer.

That is an update of my new entertainment career over these last two years. It's been a nice creative change from the keyboard manufacturing business. Thanks to my wife, Beth, for supporting my dream, allowing me to pursue a place within the media, while working as a free-lance independent artist!

Btw, I concurrently am still tuning pianos and teaching in my spare time! If you are in the Chicago area, and have need for a piano tuning, please contact me. My home site can be accessed at http://drmidi.com.