Motown, Berry Gordy, Mary Wilson, Laurence Hobgood and Shelter From The Storm.

Its been a week. Preparing for the tour which starts this coming Wednesday, with the extraordinary and brilliant Grammy winning US pianist Laurence Hobgood, who has literally just flown in, Italian double bassist Davide Mantovani, percussionist Oli Savill and I playing at the following - Newbury, Bury St Edmunds, Liverpool, Maidstone, Oldham, and  with 4 nights at Soho Jazz at Pizza Express Dean Street and with 2 more dates at Portsmouth and Corby in early April. Its full on. Here is all the info in case you missed it

And we'll be playing this.....

And this

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

And all the rest of the album and a couple of new songs.

So last week was a quiet week because of all the learning, but in the middle of it I was invited to the opening night of Motown The Musical by Kathryn Kirton my radio agent, and she and I sat through the show and stood at the end clapping when the most extraordinary thing happened. Berry Gordy himself came on stage and as if that wasn't enough,  he was followed by Smokey Robinson! Everyone cheered for quite a while before we all pulled our coats over our glad rags and traipsed to the party at 100 Wardour Street which was the usual first night affair with red carpet wilting in the rain and disgruntled bouncers standing about looking morose in the cold, Soho damp night air. Inside we went.  Cocktails were clutched by TOWIE look likies and various other swish first night party lovers. "I wonder if Berry Gordy will come to this?" I mused. "If he does he'll be in the VIP area" said Kathryn, knowingly. "So will we" I said and off we marched, into said area, where I found myself standing next to an absolute Goddess of a woman whom I was pretty sure I recognised. "Do you know Jim Gavin?" I asked her. "Yes" she said. "You do his Lena Horne? I just did his Peggy Lee concert" I said, "Barb?" Yes. Hi. Its Mary, isn't it"? I said, and found myself hugging a Supreme! Honestly that could easily have been enough for me. Mary Wilson? You have to be kidding me. I got excited when my old mate from Stockport, Jelly, (now sadly in the great bar in the sky) saw Diana Ross go into McDonalds on the Kings Road with her kids. And here's me, not only standing beside, but chit chatting to, a Supreme! I remember hearing "Where Did Our Love Go" the first time Tony Blackburn played it on Radio 1 in the morning as I was preparing for school in sunny Stockport. You don't forget that intro, ever. Thats one of the great pop intros of all time.

Mary Wilson and I. I'm the one looking mad with joy.

So when Berry Gordy appeared I knew I had to seize the carpe diem moment or regret it forever. Wiggling through the surrounding hordes and bouncers and protectors I managed to get in front of him and have a few minutes of conversation, and a photograph. And he couldn't have been nicer to this crazy woman politely pushing in front of him and besieging him with tales of his music in the Northwest when we were growing up in a little miserable mill town. He hugged me. I was on fire with joy.

With Berry Gordy legendary founder of Tamla Motown, in London

For anyone who grew up when I did, and that includes my great mate Mari Wilson (the other one, the one from Neasden, I've got the full set now, Mari and Mary Wilson) and for all my school friends, and musician mates of my age, Tamla was something else. To have had it as a backdrop to your teenage life, to know why Psychedelic Shack and Ball of Confusion were important, why Marvin went political and the Supremes sang Love Child.....this man brought all those great vocalists and songs to the world, to say nothing of the musicians and the arrangements and the joy of it all. And I'm aware, of course, of course I am, that in order to do that, at that time when America was still segregated and Dr King was leading the Civil rights Movement, he maybe had some problems he maybe solved his own way. And all I say to the criticisms is this. Look what he achieved, look what he gave to this world. Look what he did for African American music across the globe. This man's a legend. And for a minute, we chatted. Because I get to meet a lot of people, some pretty damn famous. But every so often you get to meet one of life's game changers, and thats a privilege beyond compare.

So, off I go now to rehearsal, and how I hope to see you at one of the upcoming shows, because here  I am working alongside some of the best musicians in the western world. Come fly with us. And have a great week.

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.