influences:mystics, philosophers, artists who are innovators, original thinkers, pushers of envelopes, unconcerned with zeitgeist, creators of their own movements, a little off, a tad quirky, self-inquirers, unafraid to tap the unconscious well, willing for and honored by their own
inner fool, nobody's darling as the poet Alice Walker says, and therefore
everyone's hope, the hope of the future, the hope of the continual flowering of
culture, and the hope of eternal beauty, the dark and the light. From Coltrane
to Dostoevsky, with a world of gods and poets in between. Flight,
magnificent flight, do these transformational souls inspire.
If you don't have iTunes, clicking
on this icon will
take you to the iTunes download
page. It's easy!
Hello friends!
And happy summer. I wish you
all the embarking of extraordinary journeys.
For those of you visiting for the
first time, welcome. I'm a singer/songwriter, a published novelist, and an
artist/designer. I have an explorative jazz project, and an alterna-folk
project. I make conceptual art videos from my original music. I dabble in abstract painting and portraitures. I have designed CD covers for
other performing artists and musicians. I have made my actual living by
singing in and around Los Angeles for the past two decades. And it's all
right here on this site, so happy browsing!
Here's the latest:
Though this
opening page usually regards career updates, this first bit of news is more of a
human interest story than anything else.
As some of you may know, I have
spent the past several months preparing to be a kidney donor to a young man who
was enduring renal failure. Months and months seemed to drag on endlessly (we
even changed hospitals in the middle of it all), until finally the date was
set.
On July 22, 2008 I donated one of
my kidneys to 19-year-old Hans San Juan, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the
great news is that the kidney is taking to Hans' body like a champ, and we are
both healing well.
Friends and family have been
incredibly supportive during this time, and have helped to make this experience
even more extraordinary.
Below is a piece of news footage
I am proud to share.
The Spanish-language news station
Telemundo Channel 52 (an NBC affiliate) covered the night before and the morning of the transplant.
Everyone gathered together the night before the big day to hear my group, The
Slow Club Quartet, perform at Jax Bar & Grill. We decided to make it a
party. Telemundo reporter Vicky Gutierrez caught up with Hans and me to talk about this
auspicious occasion, and to bring awareness to the Hispanic community about
organ donation.
This 4-minute video is mostly in Spanish (my part's in English!) and includes a
teaser and two parts, from coverage on July 21 and July 22. Even if you don't
speak Spanish, it's a pretty cool bit of coverage to watch. I hope you'll
check it out.
I've actually written a couple of essays on the
experience. They can be checked out on my Essays page.
And now, back to the always challenging but never uninteresting career!
I was recently interviewed by Barry
Gaston of Moonglow Radio, an NPR jazz station out of Wichita, and we talked of
everything under the sun, interspersing songs from
The Slow Club. He's a wonderful interviewer, and it was great fun.
I am excited and honored to have my
debut novel Trading Fours,
which came out in 2006 on Infinity Publishing,
mentioned in an online article
entitled Jazz Encounters of the Literary Kind.
Freelance journalist John Stevenson of London, England has written and posted an
informative piece about books that came out last year on jazz greats, from John
Coltrane to Lester Young.....and was kind enough to include Trading
Fours, his only example of fiction, in the article.
Jazz fans will find the article
interesting, but I'm hoping you'll all check this one out.
ejazznews.com
And please keep spreading the word
about Trading Fours to all of your literary-minded friends.
After 17 years as a yoga
practitioner, I finally released my first yoga-mindfulness CD Global Yoga,
on Rue de la Harpe Records. Its first week out, it became CDBaby's "Editor's Pick" in the
category of New Age: Energy Healing.
It features beautifully improvised
music by my alterna-folk group The Global Folk, and is a one-hour-plus class
that I've developed, which includes relaxation techniques, Sun Salutations, strength asanas,
chakra work, and meditation.
I'm excited to put this venture
forth, as I believe I have a unique product. Most home-yoga classes are
DVD's, where you're obligated to practice in whatever room your television is
in. Global Yoga offers the freedom to practice anywhere you can take a
boom box.
And in this world of swiftly
accruing noise, industry, machines, and devices which can "distract humanity
from the essence of life," as the painter and poet Jean Arp once said, who
couldn't use a little calming and centering?
I hope you'll check it out.
I've recently established a
new MySpace page that focuses exclusively on my yoga cd, Global Yoga,
as well as other healing arts topics. There are free meditations offered, blogs & essays, and information and referrals that will be regularly updated.
You can access it and check it out without having
your own MySpace page, although you wouldn't be able to leave any public comments or blog comments without joining. But it's free and easy....and
lots of fun. I hope
you'll check it out.
Upcoming on the Angela horizon:
I'm releasing two new CDs this year.
With my jazz group The Slow Club Quartet we have Expressionism,
which will give the music of Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, and Elliott Smith, to name
a few, our own expressionistic stamp.
And with guitarist virtuoso Ken
Rosser, of The Global Folk, we have Music For the Weeping Woman,
a canon of original songs inspired by Picasso's Weeping Women series.
An event combining both CD releases
is in the works for this Autumn.
I'm still
designing covers and layouts for CDs, books, games, etc., the most recent being Shung Wen's
DreamTalk,and Overture Pictures' Mad Money.It's incredibly rewarding to be
allowed a venue to be creative on others' behalf.
The many
personalities of Angela Carole Brown seem to be surfacing simultaneously these
days, just trying their damnedest to ignite some kind of personal Renaissance,
and if I am blessed and humbled I'll have the great opportunity to continue to
share all of the various Angela's with you.
Look for more music, books, and art in the coming year.
Many blessings, and enjoy
navigating,
Angela
"Through
all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist:
