FEB 2012
Well the Concert Series is underway! We couldn't have wished for a warmer more encouraging welcome from our first audience in Mayo last Tuesday at the Linenhall Arts Centre. Thank you to all staff at the Linenhall who worked to make it such a success and thank you to Mike Richard's and Gary Browne at www.crcfm.ie, Tommy Morahan at www.westcoastfm.com and Tommy Murphy at www.midwestradio.ie for helping to publicise the event. I sold my first set of CDs!! - so thank you very much to our Mayo audience.
Now we just look forward to Ballina on the 2nd and Wicklow on the 3rd March.
And I am happy to let you know, tickets are now on sale for the April 4 concert at the National Concert Hall. There is an early bookers offer of €12.50 for a limited time before tickets back to €15 so give the box office a call on 01 417 0000 or online on www.nch.ie. There are no booking fees!
*Just a note to say "we are experiencing some difficulty" updating my website but a dedicated album page will be up soon where you can read all the information about the album, listen to tracks, buy the album etc. At the moment the album is stocked at:
Downtown Records, Castlebar,
Zhivago Sound & Vision, Shop St. Galway.
Hotshot Records, Ballina.
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JAN 2012
Happy New Year! I hope 2012 is treating you very well! ....
For me, the past well, some two years work has come to fruition with :
"You Must Believe in Spring" DEBUT ALBUM CONCERT SERIES!!
31st Jan @ The Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
2nd March @ The Ballina Arts Centre, Ballina, Co. Mayo
3rd March @ Tinahely Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co. Wicklow
10th March @ The Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford
21st March @ Dolan's, Limerick
4th April @ The John Field Room, The National Concert Hall, Dublin.
Now I can also tell you the album name. It took me a while to find it ... but actually it was there all the time ...You see the repertoire for this concert and album developed out of my personal response to the climate of negativity over the past few years. Life has taught me that there is always hope and there is beauty, that this is a beautiful life we have here - where there are dark shadows, there is also light. For me, these songs are about affirmation and acceptance. Well just as it says in "You Must Believe in Spring" .....
Beneath the deepest snows, The Secret of a Rose, Is merely that it knows, You Must Believe in Spring!”
The album is called "The Secret of a Rose"
So as I see it - the Concert Series is a celebration - of everyone's time and energy and talent that has gone into creating the album and of this beautiful, baffling life through music. We will be delighted to have you join us - come to as many concerts as you like! Come to all of them if you wish!!! You will be sharing the evening with me and my band - Johnny Taylor on piano, Dave Fleming on double bass, Dominic Mullan on drums. Please contact venues directly for tickets and see www.emilieconway.ie for more information. (Just Btw - does anyone else have trouble uploading info to myspace - I always do :(.... anyway, so my website is more reliable)
Now, I just hope all goes well with the printing and pressing ..
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DEC 2011
Wishing you all a Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas & Best wishes for a fabulous 2012
Thank you from me and my musicians, Johnny Taylor, Dave Fleming, Dominic Mullan, (the jazz guys) Robson Rocha, Dave Mooney, Andre Antunes, (the Brazilian Jazz guys) for all your support of our music this year.
2012 will be an exciting one that will see the launch of my first album. A lot of life has happened since the guys and I laid down the first tracks in Nov 2009 and I am going go ahead and say that makes the music all the richer ...But it is now ready - It's cooked!! Ding!
The launch tour "You Must Believe In Spring!" starts Jan 31st @ the Linenhall Castlebar, then March 2nd, Ballina Arts Centre, March 10th, Wexford Arts Centre. More dates are to be added for Limerick and Wicklow so do please keep an eye on www.emilieconway.ie / www.myspace.com/emilieconway.
Since it is the season of suspense, waiting for what will emerge from winter's darkness and what will appear under the Christmas tree tomorrow morning!!! - i won't yet tell you the album title but yes, it has a lot to do with "You Must Believe In Spring," and hope ...
Nor will I tell you yet where the Dublin launch will be ....except that it will be someplace lovely and I think (and hope) you will like it. ..And that it is on April 4th so if you live in Dublin you can put that in your 2012 diary now!
Just taking a look at the jazz music scene over the past year - It's been exciting with us musicians collaborating to create lots of new initiatives to bring great live music to you at very reasonable prices, sometimes even free! - The Jazz Kitchen, by Edel Meade, The "Jazz Is.... Mini Festival", by Paddy Groenland and The Prime Collective - www,primecollectivedublin.com. Most recently Dennis Wyers has set up the Dublin Jazz Podcast www.dublinjazz.ie - where you will find uploads of music from our most recent projects and up to date gig listings.
A lot of hard work and love goes into all our projects and it is just the best return in the world when we see you at our gigs enjoying yourselves and the music.
Ok, that's it for 2011....
Take care of yourselves and each other and see you in 2012!!!!!!
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NOV 2011
NIGHTHAWKS (THE CHARITY SHOW)
The hugely popular Nighthawks are back for one night of music, comedy, theatre and poetry, all in aid of the Arthrogryposis Association of Ireland.
Nighthawks is a monthly arts club based in Dublin. It is a mixture of different kinds of music, stand-up comedy, short theatre and performance poetry.
The line-up on the night will include:
MUSIC
ENGINE ALLEY (Canice and Brian Kenealy)
EMILIE CONWAY (Jazz Singer)
ENDA REILLY and STEPHEN JAMES SMITH
STAND-UP COMEDY
COLUM McDONNELL
EDWIN SAMMON
SHORT THEATRE
DEATH AND THE BEATLES FAN (Stephen Kennedy’s follow up to LENNON v McCARTNEY)
PERFORMANCE POETRY
COLM KEEGAN
ROSALEEN McDONAGH
Arthrogryposis Association of Ireland Arthrogryposis is a term used to describe a group of conditions with non-progressive multiple congenital joint contractures. As a result of the contractures, there is a limitation in the range of movement of the joints. Contractures are present at birth. In the majority of cases there is multiple joint involvement. The incidence of Arthrogryposis is approximately 3 per 10,000 births.
“Nighthawks succeeds not only because of the range of performers, but also because of the range of experience. The satisfying feeling of discovery is one of the most enjoyable aspects of Nighthawks.” The Irish Times
Suitable ages 16+
Parts of the performance may contain strong language
JULY 2011
You may have heard by now of a v hip new music venture led by vocalist/composer Edel Meade called "The Jazz Kitchen." Every Tuesday, 8pm til 11 at Grand Social (formerly Pravda) 35 Upper Liffey St opposite Ha'penny Briday it showcases the best of jazz, contemporary and world music. There are two bands on every week, the first set starting 8:30 sharp and second set 10pm sharp. Recommended donation is €5. I really feel this is a great initiative by the musicians to introduce audiences to our current projects so do come down and meet the musicians and hear a taste of our music. I am performing "Emilie Sings Elis" with The Brazilian Jazz Trio, first set, and drummer and composer, Bonnie Stewart, presents "Roofio" with her sextet in the second set.
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MAY 2011
"Fine Together"
Sunday May 22nd, 8:30pm
I had promised to remain in hibernation with the album - but this opportunity to get the quartet together and perform in Bewley's this weekend just irresistibly jumped up (like Springtime .....!) And we are just so "Fine Together!" the four of us, that I an glad I did cancel the promised hibernation for a while!
Thank you to everyone who came out for the "You Must Believe In Spring" concerts in Feb and March.
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JANUARY 2011
Happy New Year & THANK YOU! Thank you for supporting my music and musicians throughout 2010 and thank you for your generosity re "Emilie & Edel's Christmas Extravaganza." We raised in total €700 for Dublin Simon Community between ticket sales and audience donations.
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DECEMBER 2010
"Emilie & Edel's Christmas Extravaganza"
In aid of Dublin Simon Community. 9th Dec, Cobalt Cafe
It's being so much fun preparing for this event - esp with all that snow and ice out there! Such a joy to be collaborating on this event with Edel Meade, accompanied and supported 100% by Johnny Taylor and Dave Fleming & Myles Drennan.
Ironically enough the idea came out of a very energetic anti-Christmas diatribe about this time last year over a couple of hot whiskeys!! Not sure how exactly we went from "Down with Christmas by the Two Grinches" to "Emilie & Edel's Christmas Extravaganza" complete with Santa hats and tinselitus - can I put it down to the magic of Christmas?? Anyway, it is great to be doing this event in aid of the Simon community because they do such great work and it is so needed out there this year. All the money will go to them - so if you come out - you can really feel good about having a good time and that your money is really going to help some people who need it.
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NOVEMBER 2010
"Emilie Sings Abbey" 7th & 11th Bewley's Cafe Theatre
Abbey Lincoln (August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010) is long recognized as one of jazz’s most arresting and uncompromising singers for her dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs.
She began her career in 1950s as a sultry nightclub singer and actress, and cultivated an iconic image by wearing of Marilyn Monroe’s red dress from “Gentlemen Prefer Blonds.” However she soon tired of playing as she called it “the pretty card” and like her greatest influence Billie Holiday, also became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1960, Lincoln featured on drummer Max Roach’s “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite,” whom she also married.
In the past 20 years she released several albums of her own metaphorically rich and philosophically reflective .songs on Verve to popular and critical acclaim, with musicians like Stan Getz, Joe Lovano, Kenny Baron, Charlie Hayden, Roy Hargrove, Pat Metheny & more …. This is a debut concert for her material in Ireland.
"How can you have a career and never say anything? To experience it all and not say a word? My songs are observations." Abbey Lincoln.
Abbey Lincoln is one of my main influences. I have been singing her tunes for the past 5 years now - always "Throw It Away" and am looking forward to bringing a whole set of this Ms Lincoln's music to Dublin audiences on the 2 evenings in November. Though she is well known in the States, I think she is not so familiar to Irish audiences. Her songs are affirming and positive and at the same time, keep it real. It will also be lots of fun to sing again with "The Oul' Crew!"
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EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE - "A Time for Love" 28th & 29th Aug
Jazz Standards, Bossa Nova and Traditional from Bill Evans, Johnny Mandel, AC Jobim, Abbey Lincoln & more
The Acousitic Music Centre @ St Brides, 10 Orwell Terrace
Tickets / Info + 44 (0) 131 668 2019
www.accousticmusiccentre.co.uk
http://www.thequeenshall.net/elsewhere/2010/08
www.edfringe.com
"As time goes drifting by,
The willow bends, and so do I.
But oh my friend, whatever skies above
I’ve known a time for spring, a time for fall
But best of all, is a time for love."
Johnny Mandel/Paul Webster
From birth, time becomes our elusive assailant. We think or worry so much about time, not having enough of it, wasting it, wishing for more of it or wishing it away, wondering where it went to, or where it goes to, … No matter what we do with it, it changes us and we are always acting or reacting to it. A few years ago, this thought came to me and I have not been able to forget it:
"Time is love, and love is how you spend your time."
I really believe it is that complicated-simple that present, beautiful, rigorous, ordinary, mysterious, transformative and funny …but this is just my opinion - and it is the inspiration for this concert.
Emilie Conway, voice
Ronnie Rae, Jr, piano
Ronnie Rae Sr, double bass.
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"O Cantador" Emilie Conway Sings Elis Regina
The evocative melodies and grooves of Bossa Noca from Brazil, Aguas de Marco, Garato de Ipanema, Madalena & more.
TRIO June 10th, QUARTET June 23rd 2010
Bewley's Cafe Theatre
Ever since "No Regrets" show back in 2008 when I presented the music of my main female influences/inspirations I have wanted to get back to focus exclusively on Elis Regina.
Elis (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982)achieved nationwide fame at age twenty when she won a festival competition with the song Arrastao. She went on to become one of the most important singers of Bossa Nova and Musica Popular Brasileira. She was outspoken and protested the dictatorship in Brazil at the time. Her nicknames were "furacão" ("hurricane") and "pimentinha" ("little pepper").
I came to this music initially drawn to its evocative and beautiful melodies and their rhythms. But as I began to understand and sing in Portuguese, I realise that what they were writing, Jobim, Lins, de Moraes, Bosco, Caymmi/Motta, Powell, Buarque, is pure poetry; lyrically and musically a beautiful poetry that truly says something about our world, about power and love, about being human. No wonder Elis sang these songs.
"ah eu canto a dor, Canto a vida, e a morte, canto a amor" Caymmi/Motta
That song, "O Cantador," I never came across a song before like this one, that so expresses what it is like to be someone who sings.....It really sums it up for me.
I am accompanied by from Brazil Robson Rocha, guitar and Andre Antunes, drums percussion and from Ireland, Dave Mooney, bass.
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"You Must Believe In Spring"
Jazz Standards from Bill Evans, AC Jobim, Michel LeGrand, Abbey lincoln & more
DUO, March 4, QUARTET, March 11 2010
Bewley's Cafe Theatre
"You must believe in Spring - well of course you must! Michel LeGrand is right - its the most unlikely thing to happen after the cold brittle relentlessness of winter and yet it happens every year!! Little green shoots and tiny fragile flowers... And rain - (some things are a constant) I love the line in in Jobims "Aguas de Marco," "E a lama, e a lama." (It's the mud, it's the mud! yep, spring involves a whole lot of mud!)
But "Aguas" is such a beautiful and fun affirmation of all the aspects of spring:
"And the riverbank talks of the waters of March
Its the promise of life, its the joy in your heart."
Singing in duo, and singing in quartet bring very different things from the music and following our recent recording I wanted to explore and present this. So that is what we will do on these two Thursdays in March: present music about spring and all that the season brings of love, hope, change colour and a lot of rainy, changeable weather through the lens of the duo and quartet.
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Emilie Sings Billie
A 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Life and Music of Lady Day
Bewley's Cafe Theatre, Dec 2009
"This year sees the 50th Anniversary of Billie Holiday's untimely death and in honour of that, I am revisiting "Emilie Sings Billie" with an Anniversary Celebration of Lady Day's life and music. Much is made of the dark side of Billie Holiday but I think to take this focus is to oversimplify and sensationalize. To me, Billie Holiday was a very sensitive very gifted and very independent minded lady about 30 years ahead of her time. She said and sang what thought and felt and that made her controversial. Her honesty and her humanity is beautiful and inspirational and its all there in her music. Joining me in Bewley's on the 2nd Dec will be Johnny Taylor, piano, Dave Fleming, bass and Dominic Mullan, drums. :)"
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"But Beautiful" In love With Jazz In Summer at Bewleys Cafe Theatre, May 2009.
"it's actually 10 years ago this summer since I first really heard jazz, 10 years ago since that first meeting with Kurt Elling, so this show marks a kind of anniversary! I realised, in putting the show together, that my relationship with jazz always seemed to grow particularly in summer so the tagline - In Love with Jazz In Summer, was obvious. And then, I wanted to sing all my favourite tunes, the ones that have come to say what I am learning about life, about love, about this exquisite experience of being on the planet! For me,that tune by Jimmy Van Heusen & Johnny Burke, "But Beautiful" sums it up. I think it is one of the simplest, most beautiful things ever written.
I am delighted to be singing with Dave Flemming, Johnny Taylor and Dominic Mullan."