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Posts Tagged ‘Jazz’

A Floetic Night With The Floacist…

In Daily Musings on May 15, 2013 at 1:24 pm

Today I introduce my very first guest writer on Maylana’s Closet.  I am proud to introduce Ms Althea Anderson, who is a prolific writer in her own right.  Ms Anderson hails from East London in England, and is one of the original Sylista’s who ever entered my life, because she is also my big sister.  Below in her own words, Althea describes in beautiful detail, her night at the Jazz Cafè while, attending the performance of The Floacist. 

Blog Family, please welcome Ms. Anderson to the blogging stage.

Natalie Stewart ~ Floacist

I have heard it said, that there are angels who walk the earth in the form of man.  The gift they possess, enlightens us on a daily basis; ensuring that we constantly look for the good within, they help us to remember our true purpose on this earth, which is to “Know Thyself” and be all we are supposed to be.  One such angel is called Floacist.

On Sunday 28th April, my sweetheart and I had the pleasure of attending the only concert in London, her first on home soil in 7 years, I might add! For now I will leave you with just one word PHENOMINAL!

Who is she?  A quick induction for you: Originating from South London, singer, songwriter, and poet Natalie Stewart, the original member and founder of the group Floetry, invited her friend Marsha Ambrosius on stage to perform with her.  The combination of poetry and singing was an immediate success, and with that Floetry was born.

A hop skip and jump to the U.S., and two successful albums were released.  “Floetic”  in 2002 and “Flo’Ology” in 2005, both with memorable tracks “Say Yes” and “Supa Star” being the chart toppers. With the parting of ways in 2006, Stewart formed a production company producing successful plays, and threw in some acting of her own.  Metamorphosing into Floacist, with two beautiful albums; “Floetic Soul” in 2010, and “The Floacist Presents – Floetry Re-Birthin 2012. We now fast forward to the Jazz Café in London.

Ladies in heels; guys with beautiful locs, and cameras poised in anticipation; the atmosphere was electric as I gazed around.  Being a scribe myself (I love that description), I was anxious to witness a true priestess in full flow.  A roaring introduction, synchronized with 3 backing singers, bongos, piano and guitar bring her to the stage.  Opening with ‘Children of the Sun’ everyone connects, the journey begins…  “Slow Down” eases us along our way, as we absorb the words of wisdom, and melody…  Everyone starts swaying “doodaadoodaaadaaada…” Speechless!  Fantastic!  Time travelled and 9.15 p.m. turned into 11.00 p.m. Encore!

Floacist’s gift of rhetoric is breath-taking, poetry was created in its purest form, from the soul, blessings were had…  Consider me blessed!

Guest Blogger ~ Ms. Althea Anderson

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Happy Birthday Ella…

In Daily Musings on April 25, 2013 at 6:53 pm

Photo of Ella Fitzgerald

The original First Lady of Jazz, would have celebrated her 96th birthday today.  Happy birthday Ella, you brought so much soulful rhythm to the world.   Ella Jane Fitzgerald was a true jazz legend

I love today’s Google Doodle, celebrating her birthday.

ella_fitzgeralds_96th_birthday-1212009-hp

 To learn more about the life of Ella Fitzgerald click here

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Friday Ramblings…

In Daily Musings on March 23, 2012 at 12:44 pm

Evy's springtime buys!

It has been an extremely short and busy week so, I haven’t been able to post as much as I usually do.  After my 3 hour doctor’s appointment on Wednesday ( I thought I’d be there for at least 45 minutes tops) where the doctor actually forgot about me. and had me sitting in the exam room for about an hour.  I did not leave my 3pm appointment until 6pm after being sent for an unexpected CAT Scan downstairs, where I waited another hour!  As you can imagine I was not happy!  This pretty much upset my equilibrium for the rest of the week!  I had to have a cocktail after that disaster.

A Razza-Tini after being forgotten about in the doctor's office, I deserved this!!

I hope you’ve all had a good week, it’s Friday and the weekend is here!! It’s supposed to be 85 degrees in DC today and off course 60% chance of rain tomorrow and Sunday… Oh well.  I was hoping to take pics of the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin, I guess we’ll see.  I will post about my afternoon in  DuPont Circle next week.  In the meantime, here are some random things which came across my path and peaked my interest.

My IG friend Evy posted the featured photo above of her cute spring trench and bejeweled shoes on Instagram. Shoes: Adrienne Vittadini “Sapphire” ballet flats, which she picked up at Marshalls.  I’ve seen these flats online and they are pretty expensive but Evy  was able to land a pair at a great price.  Trench by LEN in Minnesota.  This coupling is the perfect colour combination for spring 2012. It’s all about mixing your pinks, yellows, purples and greens and everything in between!

Another IG friend, “Flymanran” posted a pic of his tats. The detail is amazing, I can’t imagine sitting through that on a continuous basis!!  Beautiful work.

Amazing body work!

I just downloaded the album ‘Black Radio” by Robert Glasper which was released last month.  Absolutely fantastic!! Get it!! If you love  jazz with some funk, a little rap, neo soul with smooth jazz  thrown in for good measure, then this is the album you must buy.  Robert is a multi talented artist, who decided to create this concept album with its urban vibe to give jazz more flavour, which he felt was lacking.   I understand this is a departure from his usual material, he really hit the right chord here.  Well worth the download price.  I promise you will have this album on repeat.  Our favourite artists’ are at their artistic best on this album,  i.e., Erykah Badu, Bilal with Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def who is now going by the name of Yasiin Bey (more on that in another post), Lalah Hathaway, Musique Soulchild, Meshelle Ndegeochello (love her) the list goes on.  BUY IT!

Black Radio

Listen to sample tracks from Black Radio here:  http://www.amazon.com/Black-Radio/dp/B0075PYG1M/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332519434&sr=3011

Robert Glasper’s website: http://robertglasper.com/

I love this photo of Beyoncé’s, prettier and more talented sister (in my opinion),  which was on the cover of the March 16 issue of ES magazine (a British publication).  I love that she always changes up her style and never looks the same on any given day.  Do you remember the uproar when she took out her weave and cut her hair? Good for her I say!! I cut my locs 2 years ago and have not looked back since.

Love this Afro shot, which I found on Pinterest (my other favourite social site, along with Instagram), makes me want to go out and buy a big old afro wig, I’m pretty sure I could rock this look, with a bold print maxi dress, big funky jewelry and some high-heeled sandals. 🙂

Well these were a few of the things which caught my eye this week,  I couldn’t post them all as you’d be reading for days, so stay tuned.

And remember ladies….

Yes We Can!!

Have a fabulously, blessed and glorious weekend!

See you later Dahhlings!!

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