Tish Oney's Music Blog

A working artist always seems to be adding dates to their concert calendar, regardless of the time of year, but the late summer and fall seem to be crucial times each year to make contact with concert presenters who are preparing their concert seasons more than a year in advance. Currently my DTG Productions intern and I are busily preparing press kits, demo recordings, print materials and more to send to interested concert presenters for consideration. My career in performing a variety of different types of shows makes this process complicated, as I am sending out information regarding my symphony pops concerts (both holiday pops and jazz pops), my jazz trio shows and my solo cabaret shows all at the same time to both large and small venues. I am currently planning a big band show in Spartanburg next spring, a solo piano/vocal cabaret in California next summer, and symphony shows for the following 2015-16 season (among other concerts in the works). Concert presenters interested in ...

Tuesday I premiere my Jazz Seasons show in South Carolina... an iteration of this show appeared twice at New York's Metropolitan Room a few years back and was one of my first forays into solo cabaret. I have found that I enjoy playing and singing in this context--the freedom of performing all by oneself is radically liberating somehow. Don't get me wrong--I love performing with great artists! But the cabaret world seems to welcome a person alone onstage. One of the greatest freedoms of performing in this context is the permission to improvise aspects I would ordinarily leave predictable... meter, feel, texture, tempo, rubato... and for a true improviser like myself, that lack of knowing what will happen is particularly gratifying. This year alone I have premiered four distinct shows: Divas and Masters of Jazz (my latest version of this), The Great American Songbook (with Greenville Jazz Collective), Tish Oney Swings Into Spring , and Jazz Seasons . Last winter I prem...

I am blessed to have the opportunity to do what I love, to share my gifts with others, and to have an outlet like music to express what cannot be otherwise expressed... 'Jazz Seasons' is my latest cabaret show which I'm sharing with my friends and fans in New York City this weekend. It encompasses many things--first, a celebration of seasonal songs from a variety of sources--my originals, classic jazz and musical theater. We'll have jazz waltzes, swing tunes, standards delivered in a bebop style, bossa nova and samba, and the classic ballad. There will be songs that guide the listener through life's seasons--youth, pain, joy, grief... and even a tribute to the one and only singer/poet/lyricist/activist Abbey Lincoln, whom we lost in August. Since Autumn is Cabaret Season , I can't think of a better show to attend! This presentation also marks my first one-woman cabaret show. I'll be singing from behind the piano (on most songs). I have performed this...