December 2019 - New Music & Holiday Gigs

Hi Folks -

Just a few updates since our October newsletter:

New Music

We've now posted the rest of Penny playing Carl Friedrich Abel's G Major Sonata on viola da gamba in our project studio. This YouTube playlist contains all four movements (followed by her previous gamba cuts):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVokyubRroOVdVCc8e9cMthJ1tnP88Qe1

And here's a new mix (and obligatory YouTube video) of Slim's harmonica instrumental "64":

https://slimandpenny.com/web/articles/64-rev2/

Jazz Harmonica Summit Videos

Also, for the 10th anniversary of the 2009 West Coast Jazz Harmonica Summit concert, Slim posted all of the cuts from the concert on YouTube, divided into three playlists (28 videos in all):

DVD Feature cuts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVokyubRroOW7i-emxNZnGefaRhA2vnFY

DVD Bonus cuts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVokyubRroOWIeaWeDNg8-mzih1xars1S

Previously unreleased (not on the DVD): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVokyubRroOVpQSAHwkkKb0fX3y5TAsyB

If you'd like a copy of the DVD, we still have plenty left and are practically giving them away -- details are here: http://jazzharmonicasummit.com/

Local Gigs

While our duo is currently gigless and in woodshedding mode (not a bad thing, we're glad for the break), Penny has some cool holiday gigs coming up:

• Alto sax with Cabrillo College Jazz Ensemble (December 6)
• Clarinet with the Cabrillo Symphonic Winds (December 8)
• Viola da gamba as part of The Cherry Trio in Carmel for their annual holiday concert on New Year's Day (sells out each year, so get your tickets early)
• Viola da gamba with "Madregalia!! and the Pastyme Consort" in Monterey (January 4). 

Details for all these events are here: https://slimandpenny.com/web/schedule/
 
That's it for now. Do have a wonderful holiday season in spite of all the craziness :-).

Peace & Love,

Slim & Penny

October 2019 - New Music

Hi Folks -

Wow how time flies when you're having fun (and apparently even faster when you're getting old). Summer's over, the world has gone beyond crazy, and we've been busy woodshedding (delighted to see that Webster's correctly defined the "informal" description of the verb 'woodshed' as "practice a musical instrument"). We've also been doing a bit of recording.

Harmonica Music

Our latest studio tune is an original harmonica instrumental called "Words Can't Explain".

Audio and obligatory YouTube versions are here:

https://slimandpenny.com/web/articles/words-cant-explain/

Viola da Gamba Music

Also, since our last newsletter, we posted the second in a series of video clips from Penny's viola da gamba project studio session from this past June. This one is the opening Adagio from Carl Friedrich Abel's G Major Sonata:

https://youtu.be/Avm6wQHg384

Hoping y'all have a wonderful autumn and that a reasonable level of honesty, integrity, intelligence, and compassion can return to the ruling governments of this fragile world we all have to live in.

Peace and Love,

Penny & Slim

July 2019: New Music and Other News

Hi Folks -

Hope you're all finding creative ways to enjoy this summer during these crazy and unsettling times. We're finding that music is pretty good therapy, highly recommended! 

New Music

Penny brought her viola da gamba into our project studio last week and recorded several pieces which we also captured on video. Here she is playing "My Mistress hath a pritty [sic] thing" by musician, composer, soldier, raconteur and self-proclaimed gentleman Tobias Hume published in "The First Part of Ayres for the Viole De Gambo alone" 1605, London:

Also, since our last newsletter, we recorded and posted another "Birthday Sessions" tune (a second song written for Penny's 2018 birthday). It's a country ditty called "Without You", a tale of a somewhat paranoid and needy husband:

Without You

The Birthday Sessions set on our audio page now includes 9 tunes, almost an entire album's worth. You can also scroll down and listen to either of our previous CDs in their entirety here:

Audio Page

10th Anniversary of the 2009 West Coast Jazz Harmonica Summit

This August will mark ten years since Slim produced this fun event, featuring 8 area jazz harmonicists backed by a terrific jazz trio, beautifully filmed in front of a live audience here in Santa Cruz. We have way too many of these wonderful DVDs still in stock, so we're having a blowout sale while supplies last. US domestic orders are only $3 including shipping. Details are here:

2009 West Coast Jazz Harmonica Summit

Peace and Love,

Penny & Slim

New Music for Earth Day and Other News

Change Happens

With great excitement, I'm happy to announce that I've just retired from my day gig as a software engineer, leaving tons more time for music projects. Needless to say, as a lifelong musician, I've been looking forward to this ever since taking my first full time programming job back in 1991. In my world, programming is big fun but it doesn't hold a candle to making music.

For local folks, I have some less positive news, which is that we've been told there will be no Seascape Village Farmers Market this summer (and so we won't be doing our Sunday gig there any longer). This along with last year's demise of The Beach Break at Seacliff State Park means we have no upcoming duo gigs to announce at this time. However, Penny continues to perform with The Cherry Trio and The Cabrillo College Jazz Ensemble as well as directing the Cabrillo Stroke & Disability Learning Center Choir, while both of us are putting in lots more time in our project studio. 

New Music

Earth Day 2019 is happening this Monday with many events preceding it this weekend. Even if there's no good environmental news to celebrate this Earth Day, we can still make a bit of music and have a laugh at our collective selves, and it's in that spirit that we've added our brand new recording We'll Still Have This Love (which carries a not-so-subtle climate change message)  to the Birthday Sessions set on our website.  Also since our last newsletter, we've added the somewhat autobiographical tune When We Were Young to that set. Both of these new tunes were written for (as well as sung by) Penny for her 2018 and 2017 birthdays, respectively.

Penny and I hope you're all enjoying springtime in good health and remembering to love and care for each other (in addition to Mother Earth!).

Please have a listen here.

- Slim

All our published recordings can be heard at www.slimandpenny.com, and our 2 CDs are on all the popular streaming services.

A New Year and a New Tune

Looking Back on 2018

Putting all the depressing and disappointing issues of the day to the side, Penny and I had a wonderful 2018, enjoying both work and play (sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference!) as we celebrate 45 years of partnership. It has been and continues to be a sweet ride and for that we are eternally grateful for our luck in life.

"64"

As per our usual routine, we’re back in the project studio this winter and have just completed one of the tunes we’ve been working on. I wrote this harmonica instrumental on the occasion of my 64th birthday but was having difficulty coming up with the title so Penny suggested calling it “64” which (if I remember correctly from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) is not the answer to life, the universe, and everything. But neither is this difficult-to-categorize tune (misses the mark by exactly 22), so yeah, perfect title.



Looking Ahead

Here’s to a new year where humankind will hopefully solve at least a few of the difficult problems ahead, and wishing you all a healthy, happy, and productive 2019!

- Slim

All our published recordings can be heard at www.slimandpenny.com, and our 2 CDs are on all the popular streaming services.