Radio interviews! WTMD & WPFW

We had a blast recently with two different radio interviews and live performances.  The first was for WTMD 89.7, an amazing station here in Baltimore with Sam Sessa for Baltimore Hit Parade which aired Tuesday June 10 at 9PM and will air again Sunday June 15 (Fathers Day) at 4PM.  The show was edited to perfection and spaced over about an hour featuring 4 of our original tunes and lots of great interview material.    You can stream WTMD here

The second was for Tom Cole of WPFW which aired last Sunday June 8.  You can listen to the archived show by scrolling about 1:05 (an hour and 5 minutes) into the show.  Go to Tom Cole's G-Strings June 8.  That was so much fun!  We had a great response from fans who listened as well.  Tom is just awesome!   

CD's, LP's available!

So excited to finally release our CDs and LPs! Just go to our Bandcamp site to order yours today.    We did our vinyl LP duplication at an amazing facility in Ohio called GottaGroove Records.

Strongly recommend them because they have great attention to detail and they do not outsource their pressing to another country.  Its all made in USA baby!!  Lots of new shows are in the works so please "like" our Facebook page and join our mailing list.  Check our website for updates.  We will be looking for street team members in NC and SC during our mini tour in August.  Also look for us in NYC July 19-22.   Find us on our new Twitter Site and ArtistData.    

UltraFaux is becoming an UltraReality

The final mixes are finally done being mastered and they are sent now to duplication.  Finally time to book show dates at venues all over the east coast!   Here is the new artwork:

Pretty cool huh?  We had a contest on Facebook and these two won as final pieces to use for artwork.  The cover is by very talented Bmore artist Mandy Stafford and the back is by Tomas Drgon (a regular at our weekly Monday gypsy jazz jam session).  The entire layout was done by Saxman and graphic designer on the side, Matt Rippetoe  at Sideman Creative.  I highly recommend Matt for your CD or LP design needs.  

Oh yeah, did I mention we are releasing VINYL!!!!!!!!!  So excited.  I have been wanting to release a record since I listened to Zeppelin and AC/DC on vinyl back in my frustrated days as an adolescent.  The fine folks at GottaGroove Records are doing the duplication.  They are a small operation in Cleveland and everything is done in-house which is rare in that business.  Most places outsource to other countries.  Definitely check these guys out if you want to make vinyl.  They even do a shorter run of 100 which was great for us because we wanted to make it a very special limited edition for our fans.   

I think I am most excited about doing a big CD release party here in Baltimore on June 5 at a place that is near and dear to us, Bertha's Mussels.  They have been hosting jazz shows for over 30 years in Baltimore and they have a sweet upstairs room for private shows that we hope to pack it with family, fans, and friends.  Best part is we get to listen to Jeff Reed Trio afterwards downstairs.  Its like our own after party with one of our favorite musicians performing!  

Can I say enough about our new bassist Eddie Hrybyk!! Wow.  I never thought in a million years that anyone could fill Jake Leckie's shoes.  HUGE thanks to Irene Gonzalez for introducing me to Eddie.   

Speaking of Irene, she and her daughter Monica will be appearing in our upcoming video along with some select folks who donated extra generous amounts to our kick starter campaign and various fun friends plus a few dancers. Yes our secret music video will be shot at our not-so-secret favorite hang out by Baltimore's own world-traveling cinematographer John Benam!!  I am officially freaked out about this thing in a good way.  CANNOT WAIT!  

Also excited about playing in NYC for the amazing Gypsy Jazz lovers there.  We are working on a few different spots throughout the year.  And of course Django In June Festival in Massachusetts.  That will be an absolute blast and great opportunity to hone my skills rubbing shoulders with the best of the best in the world.  It will all culminate one of my favorite groups Le Doigts de l'Homme  performing the final big show.  This will be an ecstatic experience for sure, and one that I will carry with me as inspiration in shows to come!  

Bon voyage - Michael 

Bossalingo @ Germano's in Baltimore!

Bossalingo had such a fantastic time performing at Germano's for 50 attentive fans in Baltimore this past Friday.  Didier Prossaird was able to bring my compositions new depth with his heavily Cuban influenced approach to piano.  Jake Leckie was superb on acoustic bass as was Mike Kuhl on drums.  The sound was phenomenal there and the staff was very gracious.  We ended the night with a wonderful meal of various pasta dishes and red wine downstairs followed by house canoli.  It could not have been better!  Thanks to Cyd and everyone at Germano's of Little Italy!!

Steps Beyond Video complete! NY shows on the horizon! More local music at clubs and cafes please!

Some exciting news to report!  My brilliant nephew Kendall has edited the Bossalingo Steps Beyond promo video with interview segments and footage from our show at Blues Alley!  Kendall has been making films for a few years now and he is only 17 years old!  He is so talented as a drummer and songwriter too.  I went to his studio in Virginia Tuesday to do a final viewing and put the finishing touches on it.  This is going to be so helpful for our promo efforts.  There is simply nothing better than a video to show total strangers what I do.  It has always been difficult explaining the music to others in order to get gigs.  Way easier just to send a link and say "hey check this video out and then we can talk."

In all our years as a band, we have had virtually no video footage or information out on the internet about us.  We have been a collective of performers playing show after show in various places almost inconspicuously as far as the internet world goes.  Crowds have been treated to some pretty awesome moments during our live shows, but nothing has really ever been videotaped.

I was never much for video documentation and still to this day tend to not take photos or record anything other than bits and pieces of musical ideas for song writing.  I am often amazed at how helpful this process can be when I unearth an old long forgotten idea which completes a puzzle piece for a song that has been trying to be born.  I am also thankful I took photos of my daughter because now I can look at how she has progressed through the years.  Still, I favor the present moment and resist this urge to keep track of anything on video or by taking pictures.  I guess its about time I get with the program!

We are looking at a few festivals in NY state and some club appearances in NYC with Arturo by late summer since he lives in Brooklyn (NY).   Right now we are working on a date with Arturo at the lovely Cordelia Street Cafe, which is supposed to be a wonderful place to perform and a great place to see a live show.  There is just nothing like playing original music in New York City on a decent stage with lights and a good sound system.  What a pleasure!

I wish more live venues invested in stage, lighting, and sound.  More cafes and restaurants should favor local or original artists as a standard.  So many places here in Baltimore would benefit from the wealth of talent if they took a stand for original local music.  While there does seem to be a movement in the visual arts (you can see local art posted on many cafe walls, restaurants, and galleries) most bars and clubs tend to cave into the mundane when it comes to music.  There may be a jukebox with all the same old classic rock and rap, a bunch of TV's for sports games and a lousy stage for the occasional cover band that plays on the weekends.  I would really love to see more Baltimore places, particularly in Fells Point and Federal Hill, take a stand, not only for live local music, but for locally recorded original music by filling their jukeboxes and playlists with local artists.  Its almost to the point where we all need to boycott popular music in order to take a stand for art.  Wouldn't it be amazing to walk into a cafe where they only played local Baltimore music??  I think it would make a huge statement and be extremely good for everyone.

Practice Practice Practice & T-Shirts!

Time to buckle down once again and work on the music.  The last few shows have gone well, but there still needs to be some changes made to the arrangements based on what I have learned about the music and how it behaves in a live setting.  I also have some ideas already emerging for new tunes.  I definitely want the group to be able to open up more and explore a more dynamic palette of possibility.  The Latin rhythms are amazing to interact with, but there is more on the horizon and we have only scratched the surface of what this band is capable of doing.  Oh by the way, the T-Shirts that Mike Clark made are awesome!  I cannot wait to sell these at the festival dates.  ~  Michael

Bossalingo at An Die Musik live! Dec.9

I call Baltimore home now since I have been living here for the better part of 7 years, first as a renter moving from neighborhood to neighborhood just about every year, and most recently as a home owner in Waverly.  I have lived in 7 different rental properties since moving here back in 2003.  I first lived in a  tiny efficiency in Charles Village, then moved to a roach infested apartment in southern Hampden, then to a beautiful cottage in Evergreen, then to a lovely townhouse Ednor Gardens where my daughter was born, then to a big leaky apartment in Roland Park, then to a nice place in Hamilton which was too expensive.  My final rental was a tiny house in central Hampden.  If feels great to finally settle down and own a house for the first time in my life.  I am telling you this to offer a little insight into how special it was for me to finally be performing my original music at a fine Baltimore venue for the very first time.  I have been running around this town for such a long time, but I have never performed my music here!  Finally I had the chance to play for a lot of familiar faces at An Die Musik, a premier listening venue, and it was magnificent!

Many of my friends and acquaintances here in Baltimore did not have any idea I even played this kind of music.  Some may have heard me jamming on percussion at a local drum circle or heard me at a friends wedding, but I have never performed this music in Baltimore City.  It took me years to finish much of the music which I had sketched out in notebooks or recorded on my 4 track.  I finally finished recording the new CD Steps Beyond at a wonderful studio called Beat Babies which is just outside Baltimore.  The engineer, Chris Freeland, was instrumental in the whole process.  It was Freeland's talent and efficiency that really allowed us to finish the entire project this past Spring in a matter of weeks.  There are 4 new tracks from the Beat Babies session along with songs from an earlier 2005 session that I did with Steve Steckler of Asparagus Media Studios.  Both sessions comprise the full album called Steps Beyond.  Having that recording in the can put a fire under me to start performing again and I am so thankful for meeting Chris.

I have to admit, I had some uncertainty about who would come to our show in Baltimore.  Bossalingo's first official show at Blues Alley went so well because much of the audience was familiar with the name.  The original Bossalingo band was born on U St. in DC a decade ago where we performed weekly for listeners who were hungry for something different.  So we had a following there and we were even featured on the local radio station, 89.3 shortly before the gig.  Lots of family and old friends were expected at that show as well and they all came in full force!  I was not at all sure of our Baltimore draw and I had absolutely no idea if we would get any new fans here.  In retrospect, I think I had a lot of emotional ties to the show, wanting it to go well, wanting to see familiar faces.  I really had no idea if it would be 2 or 200 and I was so pleased we did well!  The standing ovation at the end helped give us all new confirmation and resolve about our potential here in Baltimore.  We felt the outpouring of love from the crowd which just made us play even better!

I was surprised by the warm response we had at An Die Musik.  Many new faces showed up as well as a lot of friends and acquaintances, including a reviewer from DC named Ken Avis who also provided me with the pictures you see here from the show.  The lineup for Bossalingo was a little different at this particular show because it featured some local talent as opposed to the DC crew.  The fabulous Didier Prossaird took the helm at grand piano and dazzled everyone with his mastery of Latin rhythm.  Jake Leckie, a local favorite, was on upright bass, along with the fantastic Mike Kuhl on drums.  It was thrilling to perform with this particular group and I hope we continue to find occasions to play together as Bossalingo continues to evolve.

I have to complement the staff and owner Henry of An Die Musik.  They were a class act through and through.  What a pleasure to perform there!  We were treated with respect and consideration.  Everything was handled in the most relaxed yet professional manner.  I deeply appreciate working with others who absolutely love music.  These are people who do it for the love of it and we all should make an effort to go to as many concerts there as possible throughout the season.

blessings :: Michael