Shelter from the Storm, Nina reviews and Stars Lazy Video and flower obsessions.....

Obsessed with flowers. Is that wrong? The beauty of the landscape. I'm about to write about it all and the connection of nature to music for a jazz website, and truthfully, if I don't see some trees and a horizon at least once a week, its a bad week. There's something about air and space, and the things that grow in air and space, that makes all of life a little bit lighter, no matter whats going on in the world. So here's the video for the song Laurence Hobgood, who's soon over to tour with me launching the new Shelter from the Storm album, and I, wrote; Stars Lazy But Shining. The lyric came to me when I was in Long Island at John Mcdaniel's lovely house on the Sound, and my window looked out onto a sky alive with stars. There are deer everywhere, there, and out of the window, dense forest growing. The wind was blowing and the night was alive. I sent the lyric to Laurence and he found the verse fast, and then we worked together on the chorus and middle section, bouncing it all back and forth.

The photos are from several continents, and places that I've loved and visited sometimes a lot - like the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park, where the annual spring azalea display is glorious. There's a glimpse of The Blue Mountains in Australia, which is an utterly extraordinary place. The eucalyptus covered mountains go on forever. Its a holy place to the ancients there, and you can feel it. I've seen Lyre birds on a morning walk on the forest floor, a rare sight.

These pelicans live in St James' Park down the road from me in London, the clock is the mediaeval Astronomer's Clock in Prague, as are the late summer rose gardens. There's some of Central Park and a great view of Manhattan from the Jersey City shore just by Hoboken. A lot of sea views from the Isle of Wight last summer and a couple of fine beaches, one near Chichester, West Wittering and one in Connecticut. There's a little bit of Devon and Dorset, and a little bit of the Nene Valley in Northamptonshire and a country lane near Corby. Some coastal paths and a lot of flowers, particularly bluebell woods - possibly one of the most beautiful things about the British spring.

The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond had a music season and booked the Nina collection, and it was the most wonderful gig. The music was a river and the audience were just beautiful. Couldn't have been a better night and Alex Ramon reviewed it, here -

http://boycottingtrends.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/review-orange-tree-extras-barb-jungr-i.html

Shelter from the Storm is getting great reviews, 4 stars in Jazzwise and a lovely Sunday Times review. They're all posted on the official Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Barb-Jungr-Official-Fan-Page/110503832322572?v=wall&ref=ts

And the tour starts soon. Tickets available still for some shows - we visit Liverpool, London 4 nights at Dean Street's Soho Jazz Club, Newbury (opening night), Corby, Bury St Edmunds, Portsmouth, Maidstone Pizza Express Jazz Club - its all here...

So, there you have it. Flowers, walking, and touring. Thats a spring, if ever I saw one! See you I hope at one of the shows, and the album is everywhere - iTunes, Amazon and Linn Records - all details here

http://www.barbjungr.co.uk

See you at one of these shows....US shows in May on the website soon and already booking at Joe's Pub now -

http://joespub.publictheater.org/en/tickets/calendar/playdetailscollection/joes-pub/2016/b/barb-jungr/?SiteTheme=JoesPub

Happy Spring !

Shelter From The Storm is born into the world!

Its here! Its released on friday, 19th February. Shelter From the Storm, Songs of Hope for Troubled Times, comes into being and can be bought from Linn Records at high definition sound and all other levels of sound, by the way, here

http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-shelter.aspx

Its a plea for Shelter, for us all. Where we find it, and how - how we can exist in these troubled times and find rays of sunshine, glimmers of hope. These things preoccupy me now. In my country I see the dangers of the glittering deceptions of greed and power and what damage they cause. I believe in community. The strength of the bonds that people create and hold together. In the possibility of achievement and hope for all. I believe in equality of opportunity across everything for everyone and in freedom of speech, where speech is used with responsibility for the general good. I believe in access to health care and care for all vulnerable and poor. Now more than ever, we need Shelter from the Storm. The songs are all on that theme. Bali Hai - "some people long for another island, one where they know they would like to be!". The dream of Woodstock shattered and the watchers, watching, All Along The Watchtower. There are three songs written with the beautiful composer and pianist Laurence Hobgood. Venus Rising, Stars Lazy But Shining and Hymn To Nina. I hope you'll enjoy it. There are sound clips on Linn above and I think on Amazon and iTunes.

Here's a clip from The Kate, of Life on Mars live in Connecticut for the upcoming TV PBS series

http://thekate.tv/video/kate-barb-jungr-life-marsspace-oddity/

You can get it from Amazon

http://ow.ly/X6zYB

and also from iTunes

https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/shelter-from-storm-songs-hope/id1067476468?at=10lsGa&app=itunes

and HMV

http://store.hmv.com/music/cd/shelter-from-the-storm-songs-of-hope-for-troubled http://ow.ly/XmBHf

There's a 4 star review here in Jazzwise -

and Alex Ramon's trend setting blog, here

https://in.pinterest.com/pin/425801339749530037/

the tour is coming in March - booking now - some tickets still available

And on wednesday next in case you missed the Nina Simone we are doing it at The Orange Tree in Richmond, its selling fast.

https://www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/barb-jungr-sings-nina-simone

So its all go. Hope to see you at one of these shows - all details for all are on the website

http://www.barbjungr.co.uk

Lincoln Centre Peggy Lee, new video clips and Shelter From the Storm reviews begin

Last week saw the first performance of the Peggy Lee James Gavin show at the Lincoln Centre, featuring jazz legend Rebecca Parris, the glorious Nellie McKay, handsome crooner Spencer Day, lovely Jane Monheit and myself, accompanied by the extraordinary Mike Renzi on piano, Jay Leonhart on bass, Craig Haynes on drums and of course James Gavin who wrote the Peggy Lee definitive biography "Is That All There Is? The Strange Life of Peggy Lee". More about the book, here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/That-All-There-Strange-Peggy-ebook/dp/B00IWUT3VC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453897151&sr=1-1&keywords=james+gavin

We had rehearsals the night before the show with Mike, who had played with Peggy many times, and is widely regarded as one of the best jazz accompanists - currently he works with Tony Bennett, I rest my case. Then all day thursday was rehearsals and sound check at the marvellous Appel Room at Lincoln Centre in Manhattan. We were, I think, all quite nervous-in-a-good-way about the show, especially those of us who had new or tricky songs. It was a fabulous night though, and friends came and shared it with us, and we made new friends and gave Peggy our personal tributes - all of us in our own ways - no one did a copycat or even tried to do that. And James Gavin had done the most wonderful job of firstly conceiving the piece and then making it happen from his mind to the stage. His talk between the songs was splendid and managed the tricky job of being informative and also witty and smart. Here are a bunch of photos from the evening.

L to r Rebecca Parris, Nellie McKay, me, Mike Renzi, Jane Monheit, Jay Leonhart, Spencer Day, Jim Gavin and Craig Haynes.

Behind the stage is Manhattan at night, the full length windows give onto the edge of Central Park. Its a buzz and a half having that behind you.

Here's me doing my thing.

Craig drumming, me singing.

We had a lovely hang out after the show with friends and the band.

Jim Gavin, Jay Leonhart, Mike Renzi and I hang in the foyer.

L to R Nellie, jazz singer Mary Foster Conklin, me and the extraordinary force of nature that is Dr Thelma Reyes.

Myself with Andy Hamingson and John McDaniel

With Richard Hillman and John McDaniel

With Rebecca in our dressing room just before heading into the sub zero temperatures of wintery NYC!

With Dr Thelma Reyes wearing the new necklace.

With the writer and presenter and lovely James Gavin.

Managed to leave New York just before the storm hit and the flights started to be  cancelled and got back to two lovely reviews for the new album, one in Kind of Jazz and one in Boycotting trends, both here. Thank you Matthew Ruddick for this

http://www.kindofjazz.com/index.php/component/k2/279-barb-jungr-shelter-from-the-storm

and Alex Ramon for this

http://boycottingtrends.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/cd-review-shelter-from-storm-barb-jungr.html

The Kate released a very short promo video of the live recording they made which will go out nationally on PBS North America in a few weeks, here -

And there are more videos of 2 short clips of us playing live at the Yamaha showcase in Manhattan with Laurence Hobgood on piano, Wilson Torres on percussion and Matt Clohesy on bass, on the BarbJungrsings Youtube channel, here

https://www.youtube.com/user/barbjungrsings

You can pre-order the album from iTunes and Amazon UK, it comes out on feb 19 in the UK and in April in the States.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shelter-Storm-Songs-Troubled-Times/dp/B0196IPPAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453899449&sr=8-1&keywords=barb+jungr

The UK tour dates are all on the website here

http://www.barbjungr.co.uk

US tour dates will start in May and will be on the website soon, there are 4 nights at Joe's Pub in NYC.

Meanwhile I'm at County Antrim, Northern Ireland on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th January performing Hard Rain with Simon Wallace  on 7th February and 7th February I will be at Crazy Coqs with Davide Mantovani on bass and the wonderful Simon Wallace on piano. All details are at the website link above.

Hope to see you at one of these!

Meanwhile, have fun!

Come Together in New York, frozen weather and fab showcases this weekend!

January in New York can be brutal weather wise and this year is no exception. Of course all my friends and fans in Russia and Canada and indeed the northern US States will be laughing their sides sore when I say this, but I find minus 4 with a wind that tries to eat your bones as you walk down the street, pretty challenging. As always one has to wear ALL ones clothes at the same time and take them off whenever one's inside again. So there's a lot of extra exercise involved in doing that. I am wearing 2 scarves when I go out and a hooded coat. Like a warm ne'er do well.

With Brad Simmons INDOORS NY City January cold snap!

Its way too cold to run in Central Park and when I walked there the very few people I did see running  and honestly they looked as though they were in imminent danger of rapid demise, its not recommended.  One had shorts on. And he was, kindly put, not young. I thought "oh go indoors sweetie and have a cup of tea". Even the park itself looks frozen.

Frozen Central Park

So off we, (John Mcdaniel and I) toddled to do our show at Feinstein's 54 Below. On a night when it was brutally cold, we still had a fabulous audience and a great time singing and playing, and they were a delight and afterwards a lot of folks all hung out together in the bar and chatted. So I was thrilled to find a terrific New York Times review of the show afterwards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/arts/music/review-barb-jungr-applies-her-emphatic-voice-to-the-beatles-music.html?_r=0

With this fab photo of us on stage by Michelle V. Agins.

On stage at Feinstein's 54 Below

And now its off to rehears Shelter From The Storm for the weekend of showcases in New York, which for Laurence Hobgood and I means Yamaha tomorrow and the Hilton on Sunday.

The Gail Boyd showcases this weekend.


So come along if you can. And more from New York next week when I'm at Lincoln Centre with some great singers for Jim Gavin's Peggy Lee showcase.

And you can pre order the new album here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shelter-Storm-Songs-Troubled-Times/dp/B0196IPPAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452854766&sr=8-1&keywords=barb+jungr short: http://ow.ly/X6zYB

Have fun and stay warm!

xxx

2016 looking ahead

Happy New Year, to one and all,

as the Christmas decorations are stashed away for another year, (personally for me they're over by the end of January 1st), and the family return to their corners of the world, work starts up again gearing into what I believe will be a fine year.

I began mine singing yesterday night at the fabulous Crazy Coqs in Central London with Jenny Carr on piano and Dudley Phillips on double bass. We played the Man In The Long Black Coat Dylan show, which I hadn't sung for a while. It was a joy to return to those songs, in that set. And it set the tone for the year.

On February 19th Linn Records release the new album, Shelter from the Storm, subtitled Songs of Hope for Troubled Times. Its a collaboration between the wonderful contemporary pianist Laurence Hobgood and myself and we recorded it last year in New York at Sear Sound, with Michael Olatuja on double bass and Wilson Torres on percussion. The first ever live performance of it will appear on national US TV on the PBS channels in late spring.

Watch a segment of the Kate film, here,

http://thekate.tv/artists/barb-jungr/

Steve Ullathorne took the photographs for the new album,

Photo by Steve Ullathorne

Its available for pre-order here, from Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shelter-Storm-Songs-Troubled-Times/dp/B0196IPPAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452854766&sr=8-1&keywords=barb+jungr

There will be a tour announced shortly to accompany the release beginning in late March with dates at Newbury Corn Exchange, Liverpool St George's Hall, The Apex Bury St Edmunds, The Core at Corby, Portsmouth Guildhall, and 4 nights at Pizza Express Dean Street Jazz Club.

The new website design is happening as I write, so its a big spring coming.

You can keep track of it all by liking the official FaceBook page which has all show details and news all the time, here

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialBarbJungr

Alongside that there are great plans for the Deep Roots Tall Trees Corby project, and a new piece of children for Polka Theatre, which will open in the autumn. The Little Angel Production of Bear Hunt will run in spring in London and tour again in the autumn.

And there are tour dates in the USA and more outside UK plans, to be announced.

I very much look forward to seeing you at some of these shows, and hope for a peaceful and beautiful New Year for everyone, everywhere.

First week New York City Come Together shows….

Autumn in New York and here I am near Central Park which has meant I've been able to walk and run there pretty much daily, and its so beautiful - in the sunshine and out of it, the oranges and reds of the trees and the joy of people and children kicking up the leaves, and all the dog walkers and the dogs in their little tartan jackets and high chic. Beautiful.

The shows at Feinstein's/54 Below went wonderfully and there were some lovely reviews - here

in Broadway World

http://www.broadwayworld.com/cabaret/article/BWW-Review-Barb-Jungr-John-McDaniel-Come-Together-To-Perform-Iconic-Beatles-Songs-With-Eloquence-Sincerity-and-Freshness-at-Feinsteins54-Below-20151029

in Times Square Chronicles, here

http://t2conline.com/stephen-sorokoff-my-view-something-old-is-new-again-barb-jungr-john-mcdaniel-sing-the-beatles-2/#

and photos from the same reviewer, Stephen Sorokoff, are here

http://www.broadwayworld.com/cabaret/article/Photo-Coverage-Barb-Jungr-John-McDaniel-Sing-The-Beatles-at-Feinsteins54-Below-20151030

and finally, Paulanne's review from Theater Pizzazz, here

http://www.theaterpizzazz.com/barb-jungr-meets-the-beatles-in-come-together/

We had a ball with loads of friends joining us for shows, the lists long, but here's Mike Lunoe and Vasily Senin with us after saturday's final show last week.

After the last show with John McDaniel, Vasily Senin, and Mike Lunoe.

On friday we open in San Francisco for 2 nights then Los Angeles for one. Hope to see you there, all details below -

http://www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx

and

http://www.catalinajazzclub.com

and Stop The War Coalition made Train on the Move their song of the month, here - Train on the Move by Jungr/Tomalin of the month on Stop The War Coalition website -

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.…/…/barb-jungr-train-on-the-move

feel free to share that with everyone.

Till them, have a great week.

The Kate TV, St George's Bristol, Chiddingly, Corby and podcasts

Its been a wild, whirlwind of a week and a half and I'm drawing breath but only just to put down my case and washing and get my stage clothes ready again, as in a couple of days I head out to Berlin with Simon Wallace and Davide Mantovani to perform Hard Rain at this lovely German venue -

http://www.bar-jeder-vernunft.de/de/programm-tickets/

And only 10 days ago we played at St George's, Bristol. What a superb night. Great sound and a great gig and a whopping house of people. It was wonderful to be back in Bristol because its been ages, and we found a very good Korean noodle bar with the biggest plates of fun starters - word of warning to singers - probably best not to have the salt and pepper things when you're just about to sing and need all the hydration you can get……

Then it was blood moon super luna night, and we were in the middle of the most glorious countryside - deep Sussex - for the Chiddingly Festival. Again - a great night, a packed house, and a drive back under the most glorious moon I've seen for many a while. So many of us were moon gazing that night - all over the world, as we did since time immemorial. And we were amply rewarded.

"and the moon rose over an open field"

And here's Davide and Simon sound checking in Chiddingly -

Simon Wallace and Davide Mantovani soundchecking

Then I was off to the States to perform for The Kate TV show which will be broadcast in early 2016 all across the USA. So no pressure! We rehearsed at Michiko in New York as usual, the mighty Laurence Hobgood on piano and keys, Wilson Torres on percussion and Michael Olatuja on double and electric bass. Then on wednesday we headed out to Old Saybrook Connecticut - the guys in the minibus with the equipment and me in the back of Gail Boyd's car with her husband the esteemed Walter Beach at the wheel. You can read about Walter's book, (its wonderful) - here

http://walterbeach.com

We stayed at the Old Saybrook Inn and Spa which may be one of the best hotels I've visited recently. The room was bigger than my flat here in London, and the view from my balcony was a slice of heaven. I had the balcony window open all night and drifted in and out of sleep to the sound of waves slapping against the sides of boats, which creaked and heaved in the water as the wind came up. The dawn breaking was worth getting up for, and its not often you'll find me saying that.

Dawn breaking over the Sound from my balcony window Old Saybrook Inn and Spa.

The TV session was a fiery and marvellous experience. I was chomping at the bit to get this new material onto a live stage at last. We'd recorded and mixed already and the album, Shelter From the Storm, will be released on Linn Records in February 2016, with a UK and a US tour in March and May respectively.

Lida Emert did the best markup - honestly, that woman is a star. She listened and then did what I wanted but about ten times better. And was a joy to be with.

Make up by Lida!

 The staff at The Kate theatre in Old Saybrook could not have been more accommodating or kinder. Outfit wise I went for a catsuit. I know. I was talked into it by one of stage clothes shops. They said, "go on, try it" so there I was in a catsuit. To be fair its a French catsuit which meant it was glam and not super tight - it was more Mrs Bloggs goes Paris than Emma Peel if I'm honest. Nonetheless it was glam.

The catsuit after the show…...

Glam is essential. I'm an old school punk glam gal. So it was French catsuit and studded boots. But to the important things - I can't speak too highly of the musicians I am working with. Laurence Hobgood is just a star. That man is a joy to work with. Inspiring, bar-raising, and funny too. Michael and Wilson were a delight all the time, and what is it about musicians and bananas? They love 'em. Potassium must make for good playing…..

Michael Olatuja and Wilson Torres soundchecking at The Kate

Laurence and Michael at sound check

I had a slight jet lag moment with Bali Hai but after couple of false starts we sailed through. It was high tension and high jinx. Laurence described it as "bold". That works for me. Its a bold album. I can't wait for it to come out. Just seen the artwork and love that. Here's a bunch of photos of the filming.

This is what we looked like from the audience…….

After the show we hung out with a bunch of fabulous friends from the O'Neill including Braiden Sunshine who is wowing America on The Voice, and rightly so. What a talented and lovely young man he is.

With Braiden Sunshine after the show

Leon and Anne took us to a roadhouse bar for drinks called if  memory serves, The Monkey Farm. That was something. Good nachos. Good nachos are a wonderful thing. Extra jalapeños. Thats the trick. And the next morning we said goodbye till we meet again for APAP in January and touring in the New Year.

With Wilson, Gail my US manager, Michael and Laurence in the hotel the morning after.

Then it was back to the UK. Sardine time on the plane, so slept little. But returned to find the podcast I did with James Taylor is out. Its about life and music and so on.

http://icmponline.com/podcast/barb-jungr/

And to Corby to do our Deep Roots Tall Trees concert which was a huge success…. photo of the choir and the musicians and I, here…..courtesy of Janet Halsey….

Deep Roots Tall Trees choir with Mark Brennan, George Reilly, Gareth Fuller and I at The Core in Corby

and then to Crazy Coqs to sing Love Me Tender with Jenny Carr on piano and Dudley Philips on bass. And now its off to Berlin. Which is where I started. So, hope to see you at a show soon……meanwhile….I'm off to Berlin! Namaste! See you there.