September 23, 2009

On September 1st I left Tokyo and went back to the US, finally giving up, after 2 months, on the idea of staying in Japan and finding a new gig there.  Whatever work there might have been for a foreign performer like me was simply not coming my way.  I went back to my hometown in Connecticut, after a one day stop over in Los Angeles, and considered my options.  Thanks to the wonderful, caring friends I am blessed to have in my life, I had a number of places I could have moved to and lived for a while as I tried to get back on my feet financially.  (My move out of Japan and back to the US one and a half years ago completely drained my bank account and I have not caught up since.)  

One of the offers of a place to live was that of my mother and her husband.  It didn't take me too long to decide that their place was my next stop and I moved down to North Carolina about 2 weeks after getting back to Connecticut.  I am typing this now in their home in the area of Wilmington, North Carolina.  It is very lovely here and I am very comfortable.  They have a rather large home and I am setting up my recording gear in a large, semi-finished attic space.  

There is much work to be done yet as I get settled in and I am excited about getting to know people on the local music scene and getting out to do some playing.

July 28, 2009

I've been here in Tokyo for more than 3 weeks now.  Still no work but have a new connection to an agency in Singapore and I should hear soon, from a different agent, about a hotel gig right here in Tokyo, which is a rare thing at this time due to the economic situation.  I can't hang out here much longer with no income.  I will need to make a move soon.  But in which direction?

I am longing to play music!  I haven't practiced more than a total of an hour since leaving Kyoto more than 3 weeks ago.
Yesterday I went to the big Yamaha store in Ginza and played for a few minutes on an excellent 6 foot grand piano.  The tuning was fabulous and so was the sound and touch.  I walked away from that with pain in my heart!  I also played an excellent accordion at a shop in Ochanomizu.  It was a wonderful instrument made in France.  EXPENSIVE!!!  I dream of owning such a wonderful accordion.  I own 3 accordions and am not happy with any of them!  Ah, the life of a struggling artist.

The economic upset in the world has certainly affected the music business here in Japan.  There are hotels that have chosen to use music school students and pay them very little money rather than hire the much more expensive professional player.  For a foreign musician like me, who needs to have a contract and the work visa that comes with that contract, work is scarce.  There are many foreign musicians here in Japan, especially in Tokyo, who have married Japanese citizens and have a spousal visa, allowing then to work freely, not needing a contract.  With the fairly large pool of foreign players living in Japan and having their spousal visas (especially in Tokyo), there is no great need to bring in players from overseas and deal with contracts, immigrations applications and the rest.  This situation has made things more challenging than they were before the recent economic problems in the world.

I am longing for a home, a studio to work in, some stability in my life, and I am burning to present some original music that has been wanting expression for quite a while now.  Some is already written and the rest is living within me.  I am not even practicing at this point, so songwriting and composing is definitely not happening.

For the first couple of weeks back in Tokyo, I was sleeping in a Manboo Internet cafe most nights and that was not very comfortable.  I was not able to get restful sleep.  Its a great option, though, if you need a place to stay and have little money to spend.  They have showers there and free drinks of many kinds that you can get from the dispensing machines.  Dragging my luggage in and out of the Internet cafe every morning and night was really annoying and difficult.  Fortunately, I found a new place to stay that is a new service offered by the Manboo company.  They call it a "net room office." For 2200 yen (about 23 US dollars) you have the room for 24 hours.  It is large enough to sleep in comfortably (on the vinyl covered rubber foam floor) has a computer, television, air conditioner, tiny sink and a small combination safe in it.  The door has a combination lock on it and I keep my luggage here now.  No more dragging it to the train station every day to put it in a coin locker and then dragging it back out every night!  There is also a washer and dryer and a shower on each floor of the building.  Thank God and the Manboo people for this option.

Again, I can't carry on like this for much longer for financial reasons.  I might be back in the US soon.

Blessings to all,
Al

July 6, 2009

I finished playing at The XIV Kyoto Hotel last week and went up to Tokyo the next day.  The day after that I went to Seoul, S. Korea for two nights and a day and returned to Tokyo with a tourist visa, arriving on Saturday, July 4th.  Now, two days later, I am involved in communicating with friends and business acquintances as I seek a new job entertaining here in Japan.  For whatever reason, Japan is a very comfortable place for me and I really enjoy being here.  Rather than return to America straight away, or look for work in other countries, I am focused on continuing to be here, preferably in Tokyo.  At this point there is nothing on the horizon but I will carry on regardless!

March 26, 2009

My job in Kyoto is going to start a week later than originally scheduled due to a delay in the receipt of the neccesary paperwork for my visa from Japan Immigrations.  I hope this will not
be a problem for anyone.  I am now scheduled to start working on Monday, April 6.

March 22, 2009

One year and one week ago I arrived back in the United States after living in Japan for almost 7 years.  I have been wanting to get back to Japan almost since the day of my return to the US.  I needed a job to take me back there and it finally came through.  I have a 3 month playing engagement at the XIV Kyoto Hotel that is scheduled to start on Monday, March 30th.  

I am very happy to be getting back to Japan.  I have never been to Kyoto and have heard many lovely things about the place.  I should be there during the blooming of the cherry blossoms and that would be very special.  My engagement at the hotel will run until at least the last part of June.  I don't have anything lined up for after this engagement but I am hoping to continue to work in Japan.  I love the country!

December 11, 2008

Though I was feeling very fortunate to have received the steady playing job at Jessie's Villa in Pleasantville, NY, which was based on a 5 night per week performance schedule, I am not playing any nights there at this point, partly by my own choice.  The combination of the restaurant's own special events and those being held by the dance school that rents the banquet room has left only one night of the week, usually, for me to be playing without musical interferance from a band or DJ in the adjoining room.  This month being December and filled with holiday parties and the like, there is a lot going on at Jessie's and I am not going to be there much, if at all, for the rest of this month. My apologies to those who were planning to come by for a visit. Please check back to see what might be on my schedule in the days and weeks ahead. I hope all is well with you!

With my best,
Al

November 10, 2008

I've been back in my hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut for 2 months now and things are going well, thanks to my wonderful friends and family.  I have not gone out to seek even one music job and yet the work has been coming to me, mostly at the restaurant my father plays in.  I have filled in there at Polpo for both my father and two other of the piano players.  This has led to some people hearing me and giving me the job as resident piano player and singer at the restaurant they just opened in Pleasantville, NY, which is about a 30 minute drive from where I am living.  The basic job is Tuesday through Saturday but when there are private parties going on in the restaurant, I will not be playing.  Jessie's Place is the name of the restaurant.  They have a brand new baby grand piano and the place looks very comfortable.  I am told that the head chef is fantastic, so the food should be good too!

There was a job in Macau, China in the air for a short while, along with a 5 member band including singer Alexis Cole but that didn't pan out.  I have nothing in sight that will take me back to Japan at this time but I am enjoying being back in my hometown very much, so I am not complaining.

I have been fortunate to have the time to focus on my original music again and that is a joy.  I am back to work, making money again and all is well.

Stay healthy and positive!
Al

September 9, 2008

Wow...where do I begin?  It's been more than TWO YEARS since I last made an entry on this news page!  Life has been pretty, umm...crazy is not exactly right...challenging?  Somewhat confusing?  Let me quickly inform you that I am no longer living in Japan.  I moved out of Japan almost 6 months ago with the desire to pursue a different kind of endeavor (a spiritual kind of thing.)   I left a country I loved living in, a new relationship with a woman that I'd fallen in love with, and a life that I was greatly enjoying.  And I managed to go broke in the process, as well.  How's that for brilliant?  To put the icing on the poorly baked cake, the thing that I left all I loved in Japan for didn't work out the way I'd hoped it would.  I was back in Los Angeles after almost 7 years in Japan, financially broke and living in the home of a very dear, gracious, and hospitable friend.  Unfortunately, I found that I didn't really like Los Angeles much anymore and after checking out the scene there for 5 months, I moved back to my hometown area of Greenwich, Connecticut on the east coast of America.

I am still broke, barely working now but I am close to my family and long time friends, which I am enjoying very much.  Before completely leaving the subject of Los Angeles, I want to mention that I had the great joy of getting back on stage at The Cowboy Palace in Chatsworth and playing that Country music with some of my musical buddies again.  That was great fun!  Thank you David Reeves Carpenter and Chad Watson for letting me do my accordion squeezing thing with your bands.  I loved it!  A tip of the Stetson to band members Vern Monnett, Robert Heft, Mark Creamer, Milo Tedesco and Jim Salisbury. Wonderful musicians and human beings, one and all.  Playing at The Cowboy Palace is one of my favorite things to do and I was sorry to leave that and all the folks I love in Los Angeles.

Speaking of folks in Los Angeles that I love: every now and then I come upon a musical artist that really moves me.  For example,  a couple of years ago I fell in love with the music of Keren Ann.  While in LA recently, I happened upon the music of Corrinne May while listening to the online music site Pandora.com.  I was deeply touched by her singing and thrilled to learn that she lives and performs in Los Angeles.  I made it a point to get out to hear her, which I did twice, absolutely loving her performance both times.  I had the opportunity to meet and become acquainted with both Corrinne and her very talented composer husband Kavin Hoo.  Musical taste and appreciation is a very personal thing and I don't expect everyone to feel the way I do about Corrinne May's music but I am so impressed with her expression that I want to let people know about her in case they might enjoy her music as much as I do.

So let me back up to the year 2006 when I last made an entry onto this News page.  Toward the end of that year, I ran into a visa problem in Japan that left me out of work for 2 1/2 months.  That really set me back financially and I had to have help to get through that time period.  I was staying in a hotel in Seoul, South Korea, for one month while waiting for a new Japanese work visa application to be processed.  The application was taking an unusual amount of time to get through Immigrations and that was a sign of trouble.  Sure enough, the visa application was rejected and after 28 days in Seoul I flew back to Japan, entering the country with a 90 day tourist visa.  It was another month and a half before I was working again.  I finally received a 3 month hotel lounge gig in Southern Japan.  I was incredibly grateful for that!  

I went to work at the Sheraton Grand Ocean Resort Hotel, a part of the Seagaia Resort in Miyazaki, Japan, which is toward the bottom of the main island of Japan.  I had two wonderful supporting musicians playing with me every night.  That was a lot fun for me since most of my work in Japan was as a solo pianist and singer.  Playing with other musicians was a very pleasant change.  I was playing in the lounge on the top floor of the hotel and there was a musical duo (singer Beilei and her musical partner/producer/ guitarist UJ) playing downstairs in the first floor bar.  They are Chinese, based in Shanghai, and both speak English and French in addition to Chinese.  They are very talented and lovely people and we became close friends, hanging out together most days and evenings, sometimes sharing the stage in our respective work locations.  I had the pleasure of spending time with them back in Tokyo and also in Los Angeles when I got back there 6 months ago.  They had gone to LA to study at The Musicians Institute and it just worked out that I got there before they finished their programs.  I made lots of new friends down in Miyazaki and you can find photos and information about some of them in my scrapbook.

After my 3 plus months performing in Miyazaki, I had a job waiting for me back in Tokyo at The Crest Club in Roppongi.  Having another steady and visa providing job to go to immediately after Miyazaki was a great blessing.  That job lasted for 7 months, ending 5 months earlier than it should have because the club went out of business!  I was able to keep working with the second 6 month visa I had and did some freelancing for a few months. The last several weeks of my time in Tokyo I accompanied Australian vocalist Natasha Farrow at The Tableaux Lounge in Daikanyama.

 And then I flew back to Los Angeles, beginning the process in which I am now involved: working on getting my personal, financial and business life back together and getting back to Japan!

Blessings to all,

Al

 

June 31, 2006

Another month with many hours in my little home studio, most of it spent recording a singer/songwriter demo for a friend. He brought in an acoustic guitarist to play on the track and that gave me something new to work with as I continue to learn the Pro Tools recording software.

I finally finished the addition of drums and bass to the previously recorded original song demo that I wrote about last time. So many hours put into that project! I could have made several new recordings of the song in the amount of time it took me to get that done! It was another good learning experience, I guess.

I am enjoying working with my musical toys very much and believe that it will be only a short while before I am finally at work recording my own songs and doing some more writing. I suffer from the curse of perfectionism and have yet to meet my own demands for a certain level of quality, in my singing in particular. Actually, it has always been the singing that has caused me to give up in frustration in the many attempts in years past to produce something I felt good about. There may be some light at the end of that tunnel,though, (being able to appreciate my own singing) in that I have been making some substantial progress lately.

I had the good fortune, some twenty years ago, to meet a remarkable person who very quickly became like a brother to me . We are both Italian-Americans from the East coast of the United States and are very similar in many ways. Our Italian ancestors even come from the same small area of Italy. When I met him in Venice, California (a part of Los Angeles) he had not yet made a name for himself but he is now one of the most famous voice "teachers" in the world. Gary is not a voice "teacher" exactly. He is a BUILDER of voices using a method of his own devising. The list of his clients include some of the most famous singers in the world, MANY of the most famous singers in the world. I could list some of them here but I won't. If you are interested in learning more about Gary, you can visit his website www.garycatona.com.

Over the years that I have known Gary, he has given me a number of lessons and through our many conversations about singing, singers, the voice itself, and other related topics, I have learned a great deal. Working effectively with Gary's method on one's own, however, is not an easy thing to do but very recently I was reached an understanding of how to work with the method that I did not have before and after only one exercise session using this new awareness, my singing voice made a dramatic jump in quality. This was only a few days ago and I am very excited by the promise that this new development holds out to me. I hope that you will enjoy listening to my (finally) completed recordings in the future. :)

May 31, 2006

Things have been pretty busy around here. This month I produced two singer/songwriter demos for a J-pop artist who has management and is seeking a new record label. For myself, I have been spending many hours adding midi drums and bass to a demo of an Italian song that I co-wrote some years ago with a buddy of mine. We had the style of Andrea Bocelli in mind at the time. We are hoping to place the song with a recording artist or three who sing in Italian. Because there are tempo changes in the original demo and no click track to guide me, it is taking a long time. It has, though, helped me learn a lot more about working with the Pro Tools recording software.

Although I receive many song requests on my gigs, last night was the first time that anyone asked me to play "Crazy" (Patsy Cline's great hit recording, written by Willie Nelson) in the entire three years that I have been playing in piano lounges in Tokyo. I was quite surprised by the request and very happy to play it as it is a favorite of mine. Though it was a Japanese woman who asked for it, I figure the reason she was familiar with it is because she lives in The United States. She and her whole group had come from the US for two days of business meetings in Japan. They all work for one of the major airlines and live in either New York or New Jersey. Nice folks one and all and they really enjoyed our trio's performance at Atago Green Hills where they had come to relax and have a drink. All three Japanese women in the group were involved in the experience of "Crazy." Mika-san requested it. Ami-san cried when I sang it (she said it touched her heart, not because my singing was so painful to listen to) and Mutsumi-san laughed at Ami-san for crying. Fun :)

Another couple of Japanese ex-patriots living in the US came up to Atago Green Hills this month because one of them is a saxophone student of my friend Bill Harris, one half of the very fine horn playing siblings known professionally as The Harris Brothers. Bill had suggested that his student look me up when he was in Tokyo on a business trip and he did, in fact, send me an email and attend one of my performances. I really enjoy this kind of visit from folks from "back home."

This month also marked the first time I had the pleasure of having Andy Hagerman with me on electric bass for one of my trio gigs. Andy is a wonderful bassist, a very nice person AND the digidesign (makers of Pro Tools recording systems) representative for all of Asia. I met Andy four years ago when we were both performing at Tokyo DisneySea. Andy was taking a break from his regular job as a Pro Tools teacher at Full Sail Recording in Florida. While working at Tokyo Disney, Andy met and married his lovely wife Junko, who was playing saxophone in the same band that Andy was playing Tuba for. (It was fate!) They went back to the US together, their daughter was born there and then they moved to Tokyo. It is great to have him here in our network of foreign performers. He's a great guy, a very fine musician and a Pro Tools expert!

Blessings to one and all.

March 30, 2006

Still learning to work on this website. After many hours of messing around (and a couple of phone calls to my friend Christine who built this site) I finally got a photo page up with some shots of the beautiful cherry blossoms down at the Meguro river in Nakameguro. This is such a special time in Japan, when spring is in the air and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. It is a time for combining two of the most favorite pastimes of Japanese people: viewing the lovely cherry blossoms and drinking alcohol. They will call it a Hanami (flower viewing) party but what that really means is "let's sit under (or near) the cherry trees and drink sake!" And why not?

I played a fun gig last week that was particularly interesting because the performance space was the location where the Sumo wrestling matches are held in Tokyo. I had been to the building three times in the past to watch the Sumo matches but never thought that I might one day be playing the accordion in the same spot that the wrestling platform is set up. The other thing that made the gig interesting was that I was only one of six accordion players there that day, along with two saxophone players, three guitarists, a violinist, pianist, two bassists, a drummer, and several vocalists! It was a special event put on by the Hermes company, apparently for their Japanese clients. The featured performer and music coordinator for this spectacular was the French singer and accordionist Patric Nugier, who did a wonderful job. Some of us played solo and some in small groups but the grand finale was ALL of us playing together, with a group of musicians in each of the four corners and Patrick and most of the singers in the center. Fun! But I think the most fun was had in our large dressing room where there was almost constant jamming going on with all those musicians. A wonderful change of pace, that one.

Wishing you a lovely springtime.

Al

January 2, 2006

Happy New Year! Blessings to one and all in 2006.

I was in Seoul, South Korea for a few days last week, taking care of the processing of paperwork for my current Japanese Entertainer visa. There is a part of Seoul known as Inso-dong that I find very enjoyable to visit. This is the most traditional section of Seoul, the equivalent of Asakusa in Tokyo. The place has a very cool vibe with lots of art galleries, artist supply stores, restaurants, outdoor food kiosks, etc. I have been there four times now and I always have a great time when I am there. The food is wonderful, the people are very friendly and I always meet people who can speak English and Japanese besides their native Korean, which makes verbal communication possible. I find it fun to use the few Korean words I know and pick up some new ones too.

My goals for the new year include getting involved with the Japanese record/management/production companies in whatever way that I can. I have recently developed a number of contacts in the Japanese music business and I am hoping to place one or more of my original songs with a Japanese pop artist this year. The bigger goal, of course, is to establish myself as a musical artist here and abroad. It's a big goal, at this point still a dream, but definitely within the realm of possibility, as I see it.

The trio gigs that started a few months ago at the two XEX restaurants have really been fun and they keep getting better as we go along. This month has three trio gigs in it and I am very happy to have that many on my calendar. I hope that this trend will continue and I will be doing more and more trio gigs in the future. I enjoy playing my solo gigs but the trio is really big fun for me.

I had a couple of accordion gigs recently which had me practicing on that instrument almost every day for several weeks. It was good for me to get back in shape on the accordion. I really do love the instrument and I am going to try to keep my playing level up even when I don't have accordion gigs on my schedule.

Bye for now :)

Al

December 3, 2005

Wow, the first time writing some news on the site myself! My dear friend Christine Glade built this site for me with the idea being that I would handle the maintenance. I finally got around to learning something about doing so when I got tired of asking her to update my performance schedule every month. I dug into the program and learned how to do a little bit for myself. I have been updating my performance schedule for the past few months and now I have moved on to actually writing something more. Fun!

My bio has also been updated and I will continue to work on bringing the site to a point of reflecting what is currently going on in my life . It will be a while before I am able to bring the site up to date and so I will write about some of the changes since the site was built.

My site is heavy on the accordion side of my musical expression because that was focus at the time it was built. Since finishing my 16 months of accordion performances at Tokyo DisneySea, however, I have mostly worked as a pianist and vocalist. I do perform on accordion from time to time but it is rare in comparison to the amount of piano/vocal work I do. I intend to represent my piano playing and singing more in the future.

Within a few months of my finish at DisneySea, I was fortunate enough to have been directed to a talent agency that secured a work visa for me and some months after that had gotten to the point where I was working six and seven nights a week. I was this busy for almost two years and it was great for me, of course. But when things changed (as they always do) and I was suddenly looking at only four nights a week of work, I made a decision to let that be as it was. I did not go looking for more work by contacting other agents than the one I had mainly been working with. I felt that it was time to get back to creative work and I began putting together my home recording studio. The income from all the work I had been doing made it possible for me to move from the small one room studio apartment I had been living in to a much bigger place with two bedrooms. One of those bedrooms is now my music studio.

I am very excited by the fact that, thanks to a VERY supportive Japanese friend, I now have a Hammond B3 and Leslie 122R speaker in my studio. I had offered to buy it from my friend, knowing that she hadn't actually played it in many years, but she said that she really couldn't sell it for sentimental reasons and instead suggested that I hire a moving company and have it moved to my place! "Someone should be playing it," she said. Oh, my God. I still look at it in wonder. You B3 fans understand, I know.

It took some months to get the studio up and running,, including the shipping to Japan of the musical equipment I had stored in Los Angeles. At this point the studio is fully functioning with a small but useful setup based around an old iMac running Pro Tools Free for audio and midi recording. Not very sophisticated or high end but I can get a lot done with it, especially for songwriting/arranging ideas and preproduction.

Over the past few years I have had the great pleasure to perform here in Japan with some of my American friends who came to do some shows. They include guitarist Sean Harkness, bassist/vocalist/songwriter Chad Watson and guitarist/singer/songwriter/ Craig Nuttycombe. I will put up some photos and maybe some video of these folks and the shows in the future.

Hair news: Alas, I guess it had to happen at some point. I allowed a hair stylist to talk me into letting her cut my hair short. I got so many compliments on the shorter style that I had to acknowledge that she was right about the shorter style being better for me at this point. I probably will not being going back to my long hair style again. I liked it a lot and will miss it but, with the continual disappearance of my hair due to the dreaded Male Pattern Baldness, it is for the best, appearance-wise.

That's it for now! More to come. Blessings to one and all.

Al DiMarco