Happy New Year, everyone! 2010 was an interesting one for me. It would appear I neglected this blog a bit throughout the year, so here's a little recap:
I got the current version of the Geniuses together right at the end of 2009, and we spent this year building something funky and magical together. Like so:
I made a bunch of cover videos; my favorites were One Mo'gin, Empire State of Mind w/Shockwave and Jon Braman, and Billionaire w/Shockwave and UTK.
I re-released my If We Were EP on Bandcamp, and got a bunch of fun new press.
I played a bunch of shows around the country with my boys in Freestyle Love Supreme, including a sold-out show at New York's own Gramercy Theater.
I started a weekly series called The Musicians' List that became a great scene in Queens for singer-songwriters to try out new material and play with each other. Unfortunately, it ended when the venue shut down a few months ago.
I co-arranged, sang, played, and recorded for ukelele rapper Jon Braman's new album, You And Me, due out in 2011, and watched as our regular gig at Pianos grew into The Melting Pot, a genre-smashing melange of hip-hop, folk, soul, and jazz folks getting together once a month to make great music.
I orchestrated a reunion of my old high school chorus, and got to try my hand at choral conducting. Might have to do some more of that.
I did my first California tour, and fell in love with LA. More on that later.
All in all, a great year. But my focus was definitely skewed towards being "out there" - gigging, collaborating, playing in public. In 2011, I'm looking forward to focusing inward again. Sitting at the piano and writing. Making stuff happen in the studio. Exploring ideas I've never worked with before. I'm excited about some of the projects I've got planned for this year. Stay tuned for more!