New Music Video: "The Poetry of Groove"!

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www.itunes.com/lisab
www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein
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First Charting for "The Poetry of Groove"

Just found out that "The Poetry of Groove" has been on KVMR's Top 10 CMJ Jazz Chart for the past 3 weeks! This is a great station in Nevada City. Tomorrow we're launching a broader radio campaign, to noncommercial and college radio across the country and beyond, with the help of Twin Vision promotion, who also worked my first CD 10 years ago.

Thank you, KVMR folks!

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www.itunes.com/lisab
www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein
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Lisa B on Grammy Nominating Ballot in 3 Rap Categories: NARAS Members Mail Ballots by 10/2

I'm overjoyed that my new CD and title track "The Poetry of Groove," coproduced and cowriitten with James (Jim) Gardiner of Oakland's Pajama Studios, is on the 52nd Grammy Awards Nominating Ballot for Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album. I'm honored to be joined by Queen Latifah, Mos Def, and many other exciting artists in this genre.

If you're a NARAS member (or if you're not!), please check it out at http://www.lisabmusic.com/cds_books.html. Or write me and I'll send you the mp3!

If you don't usually vote in the Rap field — if you usually hang in the R&B or Jazz or World or Alternative category — this is your chance to wander over to Rap and cast your vote for something creative that draws from those genres. This jazzy hip-hop CD has reminded listeners of such diverse artists as Gil Scott-Heron, Sade, Bob Dylan, Ani Difranco, Grace Slick, Jill Scott, John Coltrane (one tune is based on "Naima"), and Eric B & Rakim. I'm not kidding! I was a poet first, then a singer who released three CDs in the jazz and jazz-soul vein, but in "The Poetry of Groove" I feel I've found a unified sound that melds both poetry and the groove in a unique and memorable way. It's joyful and rich, playful and deep — or at least I hope you find it that way.

Ballots are due in L.A. (NOT postmarked) Oct. 9, so please mail early. Thanks for your support, and for helping achieve the further small miracle of making me one of the five actual nominees in one of these categories!
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www.itunes.com/lisab
www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein
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Isley Meets Bacharach

Reveling in the memory of Ronald Isley singing Burt Bacharach on a great CD I re-heard recently, "Here I Am." One of the most moving vocal records in existence. If maple syrup had a heart and sang rich and sweet. With impeccable control. Every word an authentic expression.

Who knew there was so much heartache and depth in Isley, not to mention Bacharach/David? With Bacharach's gorgeous orchestra & arrangements (& piano). Get it!

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www.itunes.com/lisab

www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein

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11/6/09 Lisa B & Her Poetic Groove Trio at Anna's Jazz Island, Berkeley (and Thanks for Last Saturday at Armando's)

Thanks to the audience and the wonderful folks at Armando's music club in Martinez, Calif., for the great gig — the best of my life! The top-quality sound man and sound system helped all of us soar. It was great to test the improved vocal chops I'd been working toward for the past year and to discover that they really were accessible on the night of the gig. That meant more tones, resonance, range, dramatic capability, musical flexibility, and joy. And Armando's is a fun, authentic, welcoming, relaxed place to play.

The band killed. Bryan Bowman on drums, Jeremy Cohen on electric bass, and keyboardist Ben Flint at the top of his form, plus chiming in on vocals! Someone in the audience also commented on our "witty banter."

I was glad to hear that performing with a couple of instrumental versions of tracks from my new CD (along with Jeremy, in one case) worked well — and was even the favorite of some folks in the house!

And we're ready to do it all again (except differently, as ever) at Anna's Jazz Island in downtown Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, November 6, 2009. Mark your calendars!

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www.itunes.com/lisab

www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein
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New CD Out! Aug. 22 Gig. And More!

ONE. The CD is out! "The Poetry of Groove" is now available — an entire set of playful, poetic rap and sultry choruses over jazzy hip-hop grooves.

It's five tracks of new material in various mixes, and five tracks of remixed and/or remastered spoken-word groove tunes from my previous three CDs.

You can get a physical disk from my website (that means me) at the special sale price of $10.99 — an offer good for the next 10 days: http://www.lisabmusic.com/cds_books.html

And you can get physical CDs, MP3 albums, and MP3 tracks at iTunes, Amazon, or CDBaby. Pretty links are on my site, unadorned ones at the bottom of this email, for you impetuous ones.

TWO. Free tracks. Some of you helped me a couple of years ago by voting for me in the Downbeat Listeners Poll. I promised you a free MP3 track in return. Write me now and remind me that I should send you one, and whether you prefer a jazzy hip-hop, electronica, or world flavor, or even which one you want, if you know!

THREE: CD release gig! Mark your calendars! I'm performing

Saturday, August 22, 8 - 11 p.m.$8 each or $15 for 2
The intimate, great-sound-system, friendly place Armando's
707 Marina Vista, Martinez, CA 94553, (925) 228-6985
(over 21 only)

Drive on out, it's only about 1/2 hour from Oakland and very relaxing. With ace trio Ben Flint on keys, Bryan Bowman on drums, and Jeremy Cohen on bass. Come celebrate with us! New material and old favorites.

FOUR: Your help with reviews and gigs. Please go over to the sites below and review the new CD! It really helps. Also, I'm booking lots of events in the Bay Area and beyond. Contact me if you run a reading or performance series/venue. Thanks in advance!

FIVE: The FREE LisaB app (prototype of Band App!) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I'm excited to be the demo and face of the new Band App! for those i-Things. Perfect for bands and other performers who want to be carried around in your fans' pockets. 

SIX: (I love tunes in 6/8!) Follow, befriend, comment. I'm digging the 140-character genre of Twitter for poetic outbursts and prosaic updates. You don't need a cell phone; just read it on the web. And, who knew?, it turns out Facebook really does feel like an electronic village. Finally, I'm blogging on topics such as teaching poetry to my third-graders, a poignant real-life Father's Day soundtrack, Billie vs. Carmen on "Good Morning, Heartache," and tuning up your own vibration. Lend your responses and link me to your own efforts.

SEVEN: (OK, we're going odd-meter): Finally, my go-getter publicist has pushed me way out of the closet as a clairvoyant reader and healer — not that I hid it, I just didn't blast it to the world. Too late now, thanks to a forthcoming story in a national women's mag! If you're interested in a phone reading/healing, or have questions about it, please get in touch. Happy references available.

Thank you, my darlings! All my best, Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein)

Get "The Poetry of Groove" at:

Lisa-land: http://www.lisabmusic.com/cds_books.html

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=317598375&s=143441

CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lisab4

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Groove-Lisa-B-Bernstein/dp/B002BEXISE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1248759638&sr=1-1

I Rhyme in the Shower

Just told someone I'm a singer-poet. He replied, Does that mean you rhyme in the shower? ;-)

(Appeals to my Groucho Marxian sensibility.)

(I love how "rhyme" is a verb here rather than a characteristic — something I do rather than some aspect of me. Now that I think about it, it's fun to wonder what I rhyme with. Actually, my record label name comes out of a nickname someone had for me that rhymes with my first name: Lisa / Piece of.

On a more poetic level, I rhyme with — orange, ocean, flower, cinnamon, purring, old-style metronome...)

On another note, I'm fighting off a cold and just exhausted myself by taking some online personality tests. How silly! Back to more online prep for CD launch (website, BMI registration, etc.) — being a performing artist means spending more time online than singing or writing!?

Someone on Facebook just suggested I post some of the online test outcomes. OK: I'm an ENFJ in the Myers-Briggs personality spectrum.

And the kind of guy I like: Tough Guy. (All roads lead back to Dad.)

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www.itunes.com/lisab

www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein

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Luckily

I hear Latin percussion in the knocking washing machine, altered chords in the Amtrak whistle, a silent operatic soprano when I say hello to God… in an earlier era, I’d be institutionalized. Luckily, in this one, I'm just a musician and writer.

And I have a mockingbird. I mean, she lives nearby, but I feel possessive about her. She's busy all day long transiting loudly through different bird soundbytes. She invented the soundbyte. She's a Puritan bird, she doesn't take a break. No need for a PA either!

"Bird flying high, You know how I feel." That's the first line of "Feeling Good," the song I'm learning, by Newley/Bricusse. Nice to sing a happy song that's deep. With the refrain, "feeling good." Yes!

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www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein
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Solstice Father's Day: "Tempus Fugit"

After leaving my jazz fan Dad, listened to brilliant bebop beauty of pianist Bud Powell's “Tempus Fugit” (time flees) on this longest day of the year. Nothing like hearing time in a new way, filled with more notes than we knew it had. But bittersweet to feel its fullness stretch out on the road ahead when waving goodbye one more time to my aging folks.

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www.itunes.com/lisab
www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LisaBLisaBernstein
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25 Years of Successful Diabetic Care! Deserves a Poem!

In January was the 25th anniversary of my diagnosis of what used to be called juvenile diabetes, now called Type 1. I'm still healthy!

Diabetes has been a great teacher for me. Here's a poem I wrote a couple of years after the diagnosis. It's published in my book from Wesleyan University Press called The Transparent Body, which you can order from my website http://www.lisabmusic.com/cds_books.html .

For the Wordless Body

Mute

the muscle constricts with thirst.

The scent of citrus in the urine,

sugar leaking

into a film across the eyes.

Morning fills the windowpane,

a lit rectangle to be hungry in. I hurry

past buildings, counting out streets,

a self with words

and a hollowing silence of cells.

Language punctures

the skin.

Slimmer than a pen

the syringe shoots the insulin.

The sweetness of tangerines

lingers in the bloodstream. The injection

combusts it into strength and heat.

Body, christened again

you burn too well, flushed

as an infant and shaking for food.

A frantic mother, I bend to you.

At night I fake the bravado

of a teenage boy pinching

a girl's bare leg,

the needle poised above my thigh.

For years you absorbed what I fed you,

then denied.

Now you try to refuse

the sweet essence that keeps us alive.

So I am vigilant
for the sake of eyesight and limbs,

grateful to have seen this particular death

and to walk away. I forgive us

this defect, the first defection

to the dissolving silence

trailing me like a cloak.

It falls from my shoulders

when my arms rise, awkward

and bare, a child's A

against the light.

copyright 1989 Lisa Bernstein