Pretty ladies

I'm trying to remember whom I worked with while I didn't update my blog.

In May, my first assignment was Candy Dulfer at Blue Note Tokyo. But she became ill before our interview and unfortunately it was cancelled. I met her a couple years back for the first time and her openness and cute smile just attracted all of us there. I thought it very important to be confident and stay low-profile at the same time when you are successful. She is such a great lady!

After Candy, it was Deantoni Parks, a drummer playing with Me'shell Ndegeocello. He is very different from drummers I have met. He seems very interested in Techno/Electronic music that his way of seeing instruments and music is more from a producer point of view than a musician or a drummer. The interviewer is a good friend of mine Seiji who I've known and worked for years and he himself is a drummer. He was surprised by Deantoni's answers and said, "He really is a new generation drummer." It was very inspiring for him for sure. Me? Hmmm... it was interesting but he seems a bit shy of people although his answers are clear and easy to understand.

Then I worked with this so lovely girl Annekei. She is nothing but adorable! I had so much fun working with her for 3 days and missed her a lot when my work was done. She is a talented jazz singer who I thought sounded like Diana Ross when I listened to her for the first time. Working with someone for some days is totally different from doing an interview only talking about an album or a performance or a career. I love and enjoy it when I find the person is nice and interesting.

She is of course very interesting - what she loves apart from music is philosophy, language and yoga. It was funny when she said that to male interviewers. All of them were surprised and became speechless for a few seconds. They don't seem to know some pretty girls are intelligent... or maybe they don't want pretty girls to be intelligent. A typical male mindset. Boo!! She is never a kind of girl who tries to show her intelligence to impress people. Very open and generous. No wonder I just loved her from the beginning. She came to Japan in June again and I had a chance to work with her again then. As she was busy travelling from Hokkaido to Nagoya for a promotional tour, we didn't have much time to chat. Annekei, let's have dinner next time, okay?

My assignments in June are all ladies including Annekei. First, it was Sliding Hammers. We only had 10 minutes for their interview at a break during a rehearsal. They were busy rehearsing with Japanese college students. Mimmi and Karin were interested in playing with the all young girls big band. And the interviewer Kawahara seemed excited about talking with those girls.

Then Terri Lyne Carrington. I met her for the first time about 6 months ago at an interview for Rhythm & Drums Magazine. She and Esperanza talked about working in the music business as a female player. I've learned Terri is interested in Buddhism there. I also got a book called "The Power of Now" which she said she had been inspired a lot after their interview. I haven't read it through though... it takes me a long time to read and digest such a book.

I knew she would definitely say inspiring quotes from that book so I read it and learned the key points the night before her interviews. It helped me a lot in a way but I wasn't good at explaining those quotes well in Japanese to the interviewers. Thin veneer doesn't work... I proved it.

This assignment, however, was interesting and taught me the importance of being open. Terri seems to keep a certain distance from strangers but she is actually friendly and honest. Not a difficult person at all. This assignment was only 2 interviews done in 1 day but she gave me a hug when we were done with it. If your eyes and mind are closed, you just cannot see the good side of a person. I sometimes find the journalists' egos to manipulate the overall image of an artist based on their favorite images to that person during and after interviews. Perhaps it worked alright in pre-internet eras and still works well for those who want to set a certain image as an artist. I don't know if it's good or bad. Most people I have worked with are much nicer than what I read in somewhere or heard from journalists, editors and label people. You have to see it with an open eye to believe it. Right?

In July, who I met so far is Neil from Soulive and Pharaoh Sanders and had a phoner with Joe Bonamassa. I will talk about them later....

Miki xo