Light hearted but a little cynical. Grungy guitars and burning solos.

My Sweet Up And Down

A trip to a jungle of imagination lurking just outside the urban doorstep.

Not My Jungle 2

23 rd century dance music. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

All That Glitters

lyrics:

a synthesis of a synthesis
nothing is real anymore

i'm building a computer model to simulate your love
where i can control the input
i can predict the outcome

it's giving me valuable data that i can read in realtime
the way i can make you mine
it's all uploaded online

is this a dream? or can love exist in a machine?
pure and pristine, it seems sometimes love's not what it seems

i've got a love detector that can detect real love
it uses high-powered lasers
to detect the true love particles

but if it does not find them it just keeps on drilling
if you become unwilling
it can result in a killing

don't be afraid, can't you back the claims that you made?
was my trust mislaid? can we finally end this charade you've made

Nothing is Real - Tony Ostinato Featuring Polly Legato

This is my arrangement of Charles Mingus' " Weird Nightmare " Mingus' own arrangement played heavily on the "Weird" and I always loved the beautiful jazz ballad hidden beneath. My "real" alto sax takes the melodic lead.The backing horns are a combination of "real" tenor sax and Synthophone controlled samples contained in my "Dyna Sample Xpression" synth unit. I play all the horn lines. The rhythm section, piano solo, and mix was done by Linwood Bell.

Weird Nightmare

From So Below Deluxe Edition (2018). With Jere Faison (keyboard, sampler), Shelagh Abate (french horn), Duke Levine (12 string guitar), Randy Roos (guitar), John Medeski (wurly & analog synth), Mister Rourke (turntables), Mike Rivard (upright and electric bass, tamboura), Jerry Leake (percussion), Erik Kerr (drums)

So Below Deluxe Edition

Middle Pillar

I sometimes record rehearsals. And oddly (but thankfully), I recorded the first time my friend, Maxim Lubarsky, and I tried this song together. An early winter morning, in a piano room at Berklee, on my phone. He clicks his tongue when he plays piano sometimes :) to keep time. The 'laii laii' part is for an audience to sing with me and harmonize.

Years have passed since this recording, and during parts of this year (2019) I've begun to feel really low. Especially about my voice and my own art. Realizing that for years now, I've become so busy 'doing' music, that I stopped 'making' it - I kinda stopped singing. That sounds weird, perhaps. But it's true. There's so much to music besides the practicing and expressing part that I feel I've somewhat forgotten how to on my own. It frightens me. And makes me very very sad. 

Today, a Thursday, when I woke, I felt compelled to find an old recording. I didn't hate all of it, so I posted a little improv moment I got to try with the one and only Imogen Heap (another story, for another time) with a little caption... 

"TBT to wearing blue and making stuff up with Imogen. My heart was heavy, and I hadn’t wanted to sing all day, and then suddenly... she’s really a beautiful light and spirit ❤️"

A friend (from long, long ago in Delhi) wrote me. "May you always have a song in your heart and soul, and may you always keep singing. After reading on your post that you don't feel like singing it was impossible for me to not reach out and change that." ............ It struck a chord. Deeply. Moved me. Surprised me. 

A few hours later, another friend (also from long, long ago in Delhi) wrote me out of the blue for a totally different reason. And before he went to bed, said, "Send me something you've recorded. " And I said, "I haven't. In forever." And then, I remembered this old voice memo on my phone from way back with Maxim. So I listened to it. And I remembered how it FELT to sing. I began to toy with the idea of letting him hear it. 

And THEN, a dear friend, soul-sister and confidant texted and said she dreamt of me - I was going to have a baby, and I was moving to London. And I had a beautiful pregnancy glow. WOW! Okaaaaay?!?

I realized, maybe it was symbolic. I was birthing (the old/the new) me. The me that used to sing. For joy. No other reason. Simple. It felt good. And it felt right. 

It's time.
To release. 
To grow. 
To unshackle. 
To start anew. 

So here we go. 
Soundcloud created. Aug 29, 2019. 
Raw. Unedited. Unmixed. 
"Spirit Eyes"

-

Maxim Lubarsky, is an incredible pianist from Ukraine. We met at Berklee in Boston many years ago, and we've always enjoyed playing. We had a teeny show coming up, and I suggested we try "Spirit eyes" written by another dear friend and brilliant singer-songwriter, Hannah Christianson. Something about this song and its colors and imagery has always haunted me, drawn me in, made me believe in life, and light, and energy and music. 

Thank you to the angels in my life who helped me start again, afresh. And thank you Hannah and Maxim, for sharing your gifts. Love you darlings. So much.

-

https://www.musicofhannah.com/
https://www.maximlubarsky.com/

-

Spirit Eyes

Written&Piano by Hayoung Noh
Vocal by Annette Philip
Produced by Phillip Ferrell
Recorded/Mixed by Sohta Tsuchiya

The moment/Hayoung Noh, Annette Philip

Elegaic composition for 2 women that raised me Thanks Dorothy and Winnifred !

Dorothy And Winnifred Duet

Can You Feel My Heartbeat

Tip of the hat to two of my favorite artists , Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. The overall vibe and the use of two melodic voices made me think of them. This improvised melodic material is also in the jazz spirit of these two major Jazz artists.

Pat And Lyle

Randy Felts is a retired faculty member ( Harmony Department ) at Boston's Berklee College of Music and Author of "Reharmonization Techniques" ; Berklee Press. Randy plays saxes, flutes, and Synthophone ( midi sax ) and is an active arranger/composer.

All That Glitters

Feltsatronics