October Newsletter

Several people have suggested that I post my monthly newsletter here at WordPress, so here goes:

Greetings from Jane Ellen’s Official Website!

Dear Friends,

My new album is finally out, and I can’t wait to share all of the information with you!

Flowers in Winter was officially released a few days ago, on October 21st, and preparations are in full swing to make the album available as quickly and easily as possible. Packaged in an environmentally-friendly, retro-style jacket, the CD is selling for only $10 plus postage. Currently, the album may be ordered directly from me or from CD Baby.com. From the JEOW, at www.janeellen.com, there is a banner on the front page which will take you directly to ordering/payment information, a track listing, complete liner notes available for print-out or download, and cover art. A few complete tracks and several excerpts will be posted shortly as well.

If you prefer, you may order directly through CD Baby.com, by going to this address: http://cdbaby.com/cd/janeellen3. CD Baby is hosting excerpts of all 12 tracks, and complete liner information has been posted there as well. Single tracks from the CD will be available by the weekend from my SnoCap store, hosted on my MySpace page (more information below), and it is my hope that the album will begin to be available through iTunes and other digital distributors by mid to late November.

Here is an excerpt from the liner notes that I would like to share with you:

Welcome to my third recording project, Flowers in Winter, a 12-track seasonal album. This offering features six arrangements of timeless Christmas carols along with six original compositions. As on the last album, noted percussionist Ken Battat sits in, this time on two tracks (a jazz trio piece, and a mediæval-flavoured number), while other tracks feature woodwinds, strings, bells, and even harpsichord. The title of the album is taken from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale and calls to mind the idea of beauty found even in the midst of trial and hardship. Although the theme is seasonal, there is clearly an underlying sub-text which speaks to a desire for peace, a cause which is close to my heart. The album was deliberately crafted in the hope that it may be enjoyed throughout the winter season by music lovers of any culture and background.

The traditional carols were selected for being my personal favourites and because each speaks to the overall theme of the collection . . . . Among the original works on the CD is ‘Prayer for Peace’, with an accompanying text by Claire Roth (ASCAP), which was written for a 2007 World Peace Day Concert . . . . ‘One Little Child’ was written several years ago and subsequently published as a choral work for children’s choir and keyboard . . . . ‘Time for Rejoicing’ is perhaps the most exuberant piece on the album . . . . Other numbers written especially for this album are the Elizabethan-flavoured title track, ‘Flowers in Winter’, a reflective piano solo entitled ‘A Child’s Heart’, and ‘Children’s Carol’.

I have always believed that there are far more things which unite the people of the world, and that we share in common, than there are things which divide us. I hope that you will find something in this recording that speaks to you, touches your heart, and brings you a moment of peace.

Lastly, I would like to let you know that I have also established pages with MySpace Music (http://www.myspace.com/janeellenmusic) and Classical Lounge (http://www.classicallounge.com/janeellen). I would most highly recommend Classical Lounge to any composer or professional musician who doesn’t necessarily want to be involved with MySpace, but who is looking for a place to showcase their music and meet other like minded artists in a quality and safe environment – and just like MySpace, it’s free! I’m still blogging as well, and I’m still very happy with the quality of service provided by WordPress for Jane’s Journal, which is at http://janesjournal.wordpress.com/.

If, for any reason, you wish to stop receiving these newsletters, simply reply to any mailing with the word “unsubscribe” written in the subject line. Your wishes will be immediately respected. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, and you wish to join the monthly mailing list, send an email to jane@janeellen.com with the word “subscribe” written in the subject line.

See you in November!

Follow your heart,
Jane Ellen

And now the fun begins

The CDs are here, I’ve had the first release event with another one to come this Saturday, and despite the ongoing need for publicity, performances, trips to the post office, emails, and everything that’s involved in flogging the CDs, an enormous sense of relief has set in. CD Baby will soon have a page up with audio samples for all twelve tracks on Flowers in Winter, as will my website. In the meantime, you can preview a couple of tracks at MySpace, and you can find complete ordering information, as well as download or print out liner notes, by clicking the banner on the front page of my website.

My friend George Gesner (award-winning songwriter, producer, and talent behind the label Blue November Records) is in town, and I’m looking forward to having lunch with him today. I’m excited to be able to hand him a new recording, as well as thank him for the fantastic link to my website I found this morning at Blue November. You should investigate all of the artists at Blue November; not only do they carry George’s music, but that of Jim Barbaro and Frederik Doci.

Moment of glee: India beat Australia in the Twenty/20. Well done, India! Second moment of glee: Doctors Five and Ten will be together for this years Children in Need charity special. The only thing better than this would have been to add Six, or to have had it happen with Nine. If none of that makes sense to you, you’re obviously not a Whovian. And that’s okay, I know there are a few of you who are deprived.

The CDs are ready!

I’ve just had word that the CDs are ready ahead of sched! The mailing envelopes arrived yesterday, and now I’ll be able to get postage quotes and finalise the price list. Then I’ve got to post copies to my distributor, and begin the task of mailing promotional copies. Things are more than manic at present, but I’m far more excited about all of this than I expected to be a few weeks ago.

I’ve just finished updating my page at My Space, and Classical Lounge is the next stop. Soon the new banner will be up on the JEOW as well, along with liner notes available for free download and complete ordering information. Give me a couple of days, and I’ll be back to posting about other things. Promise.

The countdown begins

The CD and jacket are being duplicated as I type. With a little luck, I’ll actually beat the last minute deadline by nearly a week, which means I could have the albums in hand by Saturday. Several people have asked if I get to relax now. Yes, well. Wishful thinking!

Next there are liner notes to be written, which will be available for download from my website; I’ll post the link here as soon as they’re ready. Mailing envelopes have been ordered, and as soon as they arrive I must get quotes for both national and international post. There are web pages to be created as well, but I have gotten a new banner done for the front page:

If I’ve formatted that properly, you should see an animated gif. If I’ve mucked it up, I’ll go back and sort the WordPress code as soon as possible.

The first release event is this Sunday at the regular meeting of the AUUF who, once again, have generously provided the front money for the album’s release. The second event is the following Saturday, October 27th, at a Donor Appreciation Afternoon for patrons of OASIS where I regularly lecture. I’ll be shipping copies off to CDBaby, as soon as possible, in the hopes of getting some digital distribution before the season is over, and of course, I’m hoping to sell enough before the season ends to pay back the major portion of the financing.

And yes, in the midst of all this, I did indeed notice that England beat Sri Lanka on their home turf to win the ODI series. We shan’t discuss the drubbing received in the last match, however.

The Master … almost

I hadn’t realised the Whovian implications until I typed that.

In my stereo, as I type, is the almost final master recording of Flowers in Winter. As soon as I sign off Sid will make the actual master which goes to DeSoto Productions; Jorgie will be really glad to get it since I’m running so far behind sched (although the cover artwork has already been turned in, as of earlier today).

I’ll want to listen very carefully with headphones, but I have to admit that what I’m hearing out of the speakers makes me pretty happy. Here’s a portion of an article being published in a newsletter about the CD, which will give you a taste of what to expect.

Jane Ellen’s latest studio venture, a 12-track seasonal album entitled Flowers in Winter, will be available November 1st. This project features six arrangements of timeless carols and six original pieces written by Jane. As on the last album, noted percussionist Ken Battat sits in, this time on two tracks (a jazz trio piece, and a mediaeval-flavoured number), while other tracks feature woodwinds, strings, bells, and even harpsichord. The title is taken from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, and calls to mind the idea of beauty found even in the midst of trial and hardship.

Although the theme may be seasonal, there is clearly an underlying sub-text which speaks to a desire for peace, a cause which weighs heavily on Jane’s heart. The album has been deliberately crafted in an attempt to be enjoyed throughout the winter season by music lovers of any culture and background. Amongst the traditional selections, you’ll find ageless melodies such as ‘Greensleeves’ (an Elizabethan tune which became known in the 19th century as ‘What Child is This?’), a medley of 16th century carols (‘Lo How a Rose’, ‘This Endrys Night’, and ‘Coventry Carol’), and Franz Gruber’s enduring ‘Silent Night’.

Also included are ‘Good King Wenceslaus’, a call to social justice, as well as ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’, which became famous by way of Dickens’s immortal A Christmas Carol which was in itself a plea for both social justice and our moral obligation to those less fortunate than ourselves. Lastly, Christina Rossetti’s ‘In the Bleak Mid-winter’ (melody by Gustav Holst) stresses the importance and value of each person’s gifts and talents.

Original works include ‘Prayer for Peace’, ‘A Child’s Heart’, ‘Time for Rejoicing’, ‘One Little Child’ (which was formerly published as a choral work for children and keyboard and is re-arranged here for flute and piano), ‘Children’s Carol’, and the Elizabethan-flavoured title track, ‘Flowers in Winter’.

I’ve been so close to this project that at times it’s been truly nightmarish; but despite the album being fraught with obstacles, it looks as if it’s finally going to happen. It’s starting to feel … ever so slightly … like Christmas is on the way.

The end is near …

But wait, that’s a good thing!

Friday’s session in studio was an exhausting marathon, but we got more accomplished than I thought possible. Yesterday the last original piece for the album was nearly completed, which means I need to wrap that up today as well as finish the last carol arrangement. Potentially, this could give me a slight breather before Tuesday’s session in which I could attempt to catch up with the rest of my life.

Cricket-wise, I’m a bit worried by the news that Darren Maddy (Warwickshire, formerly Leics. Foxes) has signed with an Indian league, only because the league doesn’t appear to be officially recognised. Ian Bell is certainly finding spectacular form, and watching him bat with Pietersen is always a treat.

It feels odd to be rabbitting on about my album and the cricket when the world is filled with serious, life-threatening situations. There are people, however, who are blogging about social and political issues far better than I could, and I hope that you will seek out a blog of interest and keep in touch with things outside your own immediate sphere of influence. It’s never far from my mind that I am a citizen of the World – first and foremost. There are many more things that unite all of us, and that we share in common, than there are things which divide us.

Please take a moment …

“May we be free of torture, may there be peace in hearts and minds as our kindness spreads around the world.” — the Buddist monks of Burma

It will only take a moment to join in the international outpouring of support for the citizens of Burma, now under military rule and known as the Union of Myanmar. Current updates on this horrific situation are available on both the Amnesty International UK and AI USA websites.

You can easily take action by joining a direct email appeal to the Foreign Ministry of the Union of Myanmar, or if you’re a US citizen, you can email President George Bush to call for UN intervention. Both AI websites also offer other ways of becoming involved and staying informed.

And the beat goes on

Being in studio yesterday was rather like being in a high-speed, no-holds barred, video game when absolutely everything – and I mean everything – was cooperating to my advantage. It was an incredibly fast-paced 90 minutes, but we laid down an entire new piano piece as well as two instrumental tracks, and edited five other tracks. I’ll be back on Friday, and I can only hope the session will go as well as it did yesterday.

Blog stats are a marvellous thing. Today I noticed that someone hit my blog after a search on Google for Sid Fendley’s email, at Mountain Road Recording. You can reach Sid at MRrecording@aol.com, and believe me, your multi-media needs couldn’t be in better hands. I’m extremely fortunate to have been able to work with Sid on all three of my recordings thus far, and I can highly recommend the entire crew at Mountain Road.

I’ve not been able to listen to any music in the last week or so; that generally happens when composition shifts into highest gear; instead, I’ve been listening to ‘Doctor Who’ audios from Big Finish which are nicely filling the gap. Before it became necessary to take the musical headphones off, however, I was playing a lot of random tracks by The Lucksmiths. They’re one of those amazing bands that are impossible to categorise; even with 306 genres in my database the best I can do for them is “indie”. A quick check reveals that Wikipedia files them under “indie pop”, “retro-pop”, and “anti-folk”. I file Regina Spector under “anti-folk”, but somehow I can’t quite manage to equate The Lucksmiths with her work.

Recently I’ve had a rather surreal vision of an over-sized tag cloud of musical genres enveloping the planet; I wonder if the breaking-point will eventually be reached and we’ll return to using simple tags like “pop”, “rock”, and “folk”, rather than “symphonic metal chamber music”, “baroque pop”, and “Icelandic experimental post-rock”.

The Spirit of Cricket

I’m thrilled that India won the first World Twenty20 Championship (and their first big trophy in nearly 25 years!), but there’s something that thrills me even more than Singh’s brilliant three wicket haul or the nail-biting finish which took us into the last over, and that was the celebratory moment when Dhoni took off his shirt and gave it to a fan. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if in 10 or 15 years that same young man was playing for India, all because a professional player cared enough to touch his life? It’s times like these that I’m reminded cricket is truly, on all levels, the most beautiful game.

I’m in studio tomorrow and Friday, and hope to finish laying down all of the remaining keyboard tracks. There’s still a lot of instrumental parts left to add, as well as editing and balancing before we can even think about the final mixdown, so this is really going to be down to the wire. At this point, release events are scheduled for October 27th and November 4th.

I’m quite certain there was something else I wanted to write, but obviously I’m in the midst of a severe brain cramp. It couldn’t possibly be fatigue …

‘Slow down, you move too fast . . .’

Paul Simon may have been on to something with that lyric, but for now, there doesn’t seem to be much choice in the matter. I’m still here, still alive, but unbelievably backed up . . . or is it, backed against a wall?!

Quick thoughts:

The CD — yes, it’s going to happen, but certainly not in my timeline. However, two premiere events have been scheduled, percussion tracks were laid down on Friday, and I’m recording two days this coming week. A more detailed post will follow, and I’m hopeful a newsletter will be emailed late tonight or early tomorrow. I’m now at the point where I can honestly say I’m excited about the album, despite the fact this project has been fraught with delays, derailments, and difficulties.

Organising my life — that, also, is an ongoing (and at this point, seemingly never-ending) project, and it’s nice to find someone who is discovering and implementing similar techniques. It took a while to get myself down to a single notepad, but the system is working extremely well and has put an end to constantly scrabbling for lost bits of paper containing vital information.

The cricket — Zimbabwe vs Australia, well done (and fond memories of the Banglas in 2005)! India vs Pakistan in the World Twenty20 Cup final: I’m backing India to win. Andrew Flintoff: I’m deeply concerned about his future in the game. Darren Maddy’s career seems to have been anointed by The Kingmaker; I’m hopeful he will continue to have opportunity to play for England. Wicketkeeper woes: two words, Paul Nixon.

There’s a lot more I’d like to write, but I’d best stop for now and get back to scoring a medley for the album. More soon!