This  site has been transferred so all the news and info you wanna know is here:

www.fayvictor.com

“A jazz singer who makes her notes slow, wide and meaningful — she often sounds like an evening-out of Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln — Fay Victor uses a great and simple concept on “The FreeSong Suite” (Greene Avenue Music).”
Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/arts/music/11play.html?_r=1

I’m writing from somewhat sunny Puerto Rico…here for a week to chill-ax and regroup after a hearty small run for the release of The FreeSong Suite in New York and Philly! We had great listening audiences and there has been so much love shown for the project along the way.  I want to send a big THANK YOU to all that came out, checked out the music and gave invaluable feedback which I LOVE.  Seems that I may be on to something here! Speaking of The FreeSong Suite, the reviews are starting to come in and on Monday, October 12th (Columbus Day) I am honored to be part of an esteemed list of guests on Jason Crane’s The Jazz Session. Jason has been an incredibly vocal advocate of the The FreeSong Suite and has already decided that its “easily on his top-10 list for 2009.”  Please checkout his site, if you don’t know it already, at www.thejazzsession.com. He’s also included The FreeSong Suite as one of five albums he’d give to a new listener of jazz…http://popdose.com/jazz-dont-hurt-five-recent-cds-for-new-listeners.  Also check out the entire conversation online at NPRJazz

The reviews are starting to roll in for The FreeSong Suite! Please check out the DISCOGRAPHY page to read more…

Finally the second half of October finds me leaving The FreeSong Suite repertoire for a couple stabs at the blues and an appearance with the poems of Golda Solomon on the Evolving Voice Vocal Series at the Local 269 (more on that soon…looking forward to sharing an update of the series in September).  Come out for the fun…

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2009

The Evolving Voice Vocal Series at the Local 269

Golda Solomon’s JazzHag Tour 2009/2010
Golda Solomon-words
Christopher Dean Sullivan – Bass
Michael TA Thompson – Drums
Joe Giardullo- Reeds
Fay Victor-vocals

@The Local 269

269 E. Houston Street @ Suffolk Street
F/V Train to 2^nd Avenue

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009
Anders Nilsson and I join forces to chant and channel the blues with free improvisation. What will happen? Who can tell?  Come be a witness.

The ExPosed Blues Duo
FV-voice
Anders Nilsson-guitar
Barbes
8:00pm – One Set Only
$8 Cover 376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.)
Brooklyn, NY 11217 F Train to 7th Avenue
Barbes

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009

Cellist Tomas Ulrich joined Anders and I at the Stone in August and it was a wailing, fiery night…we’ll add some fright for the Halloween festivities. You won’t wanna miss this…

The ExPosed Blues Duo meets Tomas Ulrich
for Halloween Scary Tales
FV -voice
Anders Nilsson-guitar
with Tomas Ulrich-cello
55Bar
55 Christopher Street
NY, NY
www.55bar.com
7:00-9:00PM/Early Set
No Cover, 1 drink minimum

I hope to see to see you out and I hope all is well with you in your world.  Let’s meet sometime soon on the musical tip…

This has been a hectic week!  This past Tuesday, The FreeSong Suite,  my latest release as a leader and the second for the Fay Victor Ensemble was let out in the world and Thursday I performed a through-composed piece, “Stuyvesant Reluctant” (Music: jochem van Dijk/libretto: Gerhardus van Wilgen) with three of my favorite musicians: Kyoko Kitamura,  Yoon Sun Choi (voices) and Tomas Ulrich (cello).  The piece paints snippets of  the Dutch heritage of Stuyvesant  and how that informed his life on American soil by three decidedly non-dutch immigrant vocalists.  This “pocket oratorio” was beautiful work for three voices plus we had the space of one of the most magnificent in the Dia:Beacon use as our backdrop: the Chamberlain Room. The experience was tougher than we thought as we sung acoustically but still glorious after all.

and on Friday I’ll be interviewed by Jason Crane of AllAboutJazz.com The Jazz Sessions, a popular podcast on the web! Learn more here and stay tuned to when it will air.  I’ll keep you posted.

And on Monday, my good friend and the wonderful tenor player Oleg Kireyev will be in New York and performing with me at the 55 Bar! This will be a fun gig performing standards and some free fare with Dom Minasi on guitar and Hill Greene on bass.  We’re on the Early Set.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

55 Bar
www.55bar.org
7:00-9:00PM/Early Set
No cover, 1 drink minimum
Twisted Standards and Free Explorations
FV-voice
Hilliard Greene – double bass
Dom Minasi – guitar
with special guest Oleg Kireyev – tenor & soprano sax

and on Thursday, October 1st please join the Fay Victor Ensemble at Roulette for the CD Presentation of the FreeSong Suite…more on that in a minute!

More info on the gentlemen:
kireyv.ru
domminasi.net
home.earthlink.net/~hilliardg

So excited about the release of the FreeSong Suite and to presenting to the world the evolution of the Fay Victor Ensemble and our approach to creative vocal music that we think is as accessible as it is challenging.  Legendary and eminent guitarist Gary Lucas wrote the liner notes and mentions that the record is “…hypnotic in its flow, every song in the three sections of the suite a masterpiece of compressed story-telling…”

We will celebrate the release on the first day of October at Roulette in New York and on Sunday, October 4^th at the Rotunda in Philadelphia.

The Fay Victor Ensemble is:
FV-voice, compositions
Anders Nilsson-guitar, effects
Ken Filiano-bass, effects
Michael ‘TA’ Thompson-drums

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009
Fay Victor Ensemble CD Release “The FreeSong Suite”

8:30PM
Roulette 20 Greene Street
(between Canal and Grand Streets)
NY, NY
Reservations/Tickets: 212.219.8242
Admission: $15 Harvestworks & DTW members, Students, Under 30 & Seniors: $10
Roulette members / Location One members: FREE.
www.roulette.org

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2009
Fay Victor Ensemble CD Release “The FreeSong Suite”

5:00PM – One Set Only
The Rotunda 4012 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Telephone: (215) 573-3234
www.therotunda.org

The FreeSong Suite is a recommended New Release in AAJ-NY
-Laurence Donahue-Greene, Managing Editor
September 2009 AAJ-NY

Purchase a copy or download a tune at
Amazon.com
CDbaby.com
Downtown Music Gallery

In April 2008, the Fay Victor Ensemble went on tour for the first time, performing a couple gigs Upstate New York.  One of the venues,  The Sanctuary for Independent Media,  in Troy, NY, offered the opportunity to record a DVD of the performance alongside the gig.  This was great news! The venue ended up received a grant for a 13-part series of jazz performance entitled Free Jazz from the Sanctuary videos featuring some of the world’s most talented improvisers such as Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum, Amiri Baraka, William Hooker,  Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and the Fay Victor Ensemble.  Those DVD’s are available for sale at the Downtown Music Gallery and Bruce Gallanter wrote a review of the DVD in the store’s latest newsletter:

FAY VICTOR ENSEMBLE With ANDERS NILSSON/KEN FILIANO/MICHAEL THOMPSON -
Live At The Sanctuary [DVD] (MediaSanctuary; USA) Featuring Fay Victor/vocals, Anders Nilsson/guitar, Ken Filiano/double bass and Michael TA Thompson/drums.

When experimental jazz vocalist Fay Victor moved to NY a few years ago, little did I know that she would become a fave of those in the know from the downtown scene. I dig the way Fay starts off the first piece with a calm, enchanting solo vocal  intro. It does come from the long jazz vocal tradition of using your voice like an instrument before any recognizable words come it. Ms.Victor has chosen an excellent group of collaborators to work with. You can’t do too much better than Anders Nilsson, Ken Filiano & Michael Thompson. Fay occasionally reminds me of Betty Carter but perhaps goes a bit further out. Anders takes the first of a number of great guitar solos, fusion fans take note: he is the real thing with that swell sustained tone yet never overshadows Fay’s steamy voice. The guitar/bass/drums trio do a splendid job of surrounding and supporting Fay’s voice perfectly throughout this entire set.

Ander’s opening unaccompanied guitar solo on “Joe’s Car” is breathtaking and a  great way to begin this fine piece. Fay’s songs always tell little stories that are interesting to consider. The ever-amazing bassist Ken Filiano sounds wonderful and of course takes a couple of extraordinary solos as well. I dig the way Fay captures the old sound/style of jazz singers of yesteryear but still brings this sound to the present and future with advanced music and lyrics. I like the way the drums and bass kick off “Along the Winding Way” with a spacious freer intro before the voice and guitar come back in. In a few ways this is a perfect set that presents Fay Victor and her band in the best light.
-Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

DVD  $15

**For ordering and more, click here.
**More info on the Sanctuary for Independent Media and Free Jazz from the Sanctuary series including the other artists involved, click here

Happy September to you.  This time of year tends to be filled with summer  shutting down and life revving up for the cold and all the activities swirling around it.  Kids go back to school, life resumes a  cold-world order and I do hope a relaxing summer sets a precedent for you to ride out the rest of the year.  Have I had a relaxing summer?  Absolutely not! Yet I feel so invigorated and grateful for the enriching summer that I had.   I’m using the remaining days to take in a dose to get me through this next period which  is chock full of  activities and its inherent stresses.  But more on that later in this note!  First I’d like to share just a bit about my summer and the riches procured because.

Back

I had the honor  to perform at The Stone in NYC three times this summer as a bandleader.  First in July, Brandon Ross curated and asked the Fay Victor Ensemble to take part.  It wasn’t our best gig but the thrill of playing in here and directing the sound in my own way for the first time was exhilarating and the set the course for the two concerts to follow in August under Tyshawn Sorey’s curator-ship of the space.  First in August, the ExPosed Blues Duo (with guitarist Anders Nilsson) with Tomas Ulrich on cello. We did about 5 tunes in the space of an hour, stretching, chanting, wailing, screeching, straight-beseeching the blues and her cousins in this space…where you could hear a pin drop throughout.  So intense was this thing.  I’d been thinking about cello and the blues for a while and this union was a match made in purgatory, alongside Anders’ dirty guitar. We’ll work it again in October, close to Halloween when these sounds will resonate even more with the times. Perhaps you can join us and I’ll post something on the myspace page from the Stone gig at www.myspace.com/exposedbluesproject very, very soon.

The last concert at the Stone was with trombonist Roswell Rudd and Tyshawn Sorey, performing pieces of mine, Herbie Nichols and a snippet of a bigger project around haikus. Mind altering, life changing and challenging as hell, this was a meeting of the minds and a collaboration with space shifters and openers. I could breathe tons of air with the molecules left bare.  Space is the place.  Sun Ra said it and now I get it and I want more of THAT.

Moreover, I began curating a left-of-center vocal series at the Local 269 with Arts for Art, inc./RUCMA in August as well, that has already had some memorable performances.  This is a dream of mine to present vocalists doing original, experimental and distinct work in a venue that is open to this presentation.  The Evolving Voice Vocal Series is all about casting a spotlight on vocalists with idiosyncratic styles and on the more experimental side of the music.  Patricia Nicholson Parker and I are curating the series and we’re delighted to be involved in highlighting what we consider to be an under-served side of the scene. Keep up with the schedule at www.myspace.com/rucmanyc and rucma.org.  Questions, suggestions, booking for the series? Please get in touch at evolvingvoice@gmail.com. Coming this month on the Series:  Lisa Sokolov, Leena Conquest, Gina Leishman, Ellen Christi, Yoon Sun Choi and Dean Bowman!!

The FreeSong Suite

As I have been sneezing, and hinting at for the past couple months  – The  Fay Victor Ensemble is about to release our new record, The FreeSong Suite on September 22, 2009.  So excited about this record and presenting to the world the evolution of the FVE and our approach to creative vocal music that we think is as accessible as it is challenging. So interested in how folks will take the music and looking forward to lots of feedback and discussion about it too. Legendary and eminent guitarist Gary Lucas wrote the liner notes and mentions that the record is “…hypnotic in its flow, every song in the three sections of the suite a masterpiece of compressed story-telling…”. We’re celebrating on the first day of October at Roulette.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009
Fay Victor Ensemble CD Release “The FreeSong Suite”

FV-voice, compositions
Anders Nilsson-guitar, effects
Ken Filiano-bass, effects
Michael ‘TA’ Thompson-drums

8:30PM
Roulette 20 Greene Street
(between Canal and Grand Streets)
NY, NY
Reservations/Tickets: 212.219.8242
Admission: $15 Harvestworks & DTW members, Students, Under 30 & Seniors: $10
Roulette members / Location One members: FREE.
www.roulette.org

The FreeSong Suite is a recommended New Release in AAJ-NY
-Laurence Donahue-Greene, Managing Editor
September 2009 AAJ-NY

The FreeSong Suite Contest!

Now for some fun.  I’m giving away 3 copies of the FreeSong Suite!  How cool is that?
Here’s the deal:

The FreeSong Suite is divided into three parts or ‘rooms’.
Each room has a number; which are related to real things.
Take a stab at what they mean and if you come close, you’ll win a free copy of the FreeSong Suite!

Here are the room numbers:

1407

1093

1310

All entries for consideration should send their guesses to ecru_sitges@yahoo.com By September 21st, 2009.

Moving Forward

I am happy to announce that my husband Jochem van Dijk has composed  a site specific piece in commemoration of Henry Hudson’s ride up the Hudson River. His pocket oratorio (with libretto by Gerhardus van Wilgen) will be performed by three decidedly non-Dutch but definitely immigrant vocalists: Kyoko Kitamura, Yoon Sun Choi and myself alongside Tomas Ulrich on cello.  This is an exciting development for the a cappela vocal quartet  (sans Jen Shyu, on tour in the Far East) to perform  in one of the most glorious spaces in the DIA Museum in Beacon, NY – the Chamberlain room of sculptures made of salvaged automobiles.

And on September 28th,  my great friend and saxophonist Oleg Kireyev is visiting New York City and he’ll join me at the 55Bar for the Early Set alongside Hill Greene and Dom Minasi.  I’m pulling out my standards for this one but we’ll veer off into strange places as well.

Lots more coming in October with the FreeSong Suite CD Release here in NYC and on October 4th in Philadelphia, PA  at the Rotunda. Tell your Philly friends to come down and say hello.
Stay tuned for news on that + upcoming tour news for 2010 to boot.

Happy September indeed!
Fay

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25 2009

Roswell Rudd/Tyshawn Sorey/Fay Victor

Crash, Braaaww, Thud, Aaaaah

FV-voice
Roswell Rudd-trombone
Tyshawn Sorey-drums, piano

The Stone

8PM Set
One Set Only

$20

Corner of Second Street and Avenue C
F, V Train to 2^nd Avenue
www.thestonenyc.com

This is a once-in-a-lifetime trio with trombonist extraordinaire Roswell Rudd and the astonishing Tyshawn Sorey.  We’ll go  places keeping jazz as the starting point for many explorations. You can’t miss this.

When I started out I was part of a weekly vocal workshop at the Williamsburg Music Center  (Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NY) run by bassist/guitarist Gerry Eastman.  After hanging out there for a couple of years religiously I managed to get a bit better so Gerry would have me sing a few tunes on some of his gigs.  He always complained about us vocalists and these ballads we loved to sing.  Some days the vocal workshop would sound like a long sad tale of unrequited love, repeated over and over again.

One night on one of these gigs, I decided I knew best and went and opened the set with a ballad. The audience was so kind and responded warmly.  They listened and when I was done, they applauded enthusiastically.  Gerry smiled the smile of a happy teacher and said “what’s the next tune you’d like to do?”

I said “My One and Only Love.”

He gave me a stern look “But you just did a ballad…didn’t you”

“yeah…but people dug it.  I think it it will work” I said

Chuckling, he said “Alright…My One and Only Love it is.”

I had the audience and the moment the intro was played, I saw their eyes glaze over  but I was adamant and sang  my little heart out. After the set ended  Gerry asked me if I noticed how everyone was eating, chewing and talking all over my shit and how the moment I did something more uptempo, the audience came back.  I noticed how they turned away.  I heard the clamor of silverware and loud conversation all over my shit as he said.  He went on to say that if you’re going to sing anything  slow tune…it has to say something. It can’t just be pretty or about just hitting the notes.  What are you saying…

That day and that discussion had me busy for quite a while. I also had trouble  singing uptempo tunes like “Cherokee” because I never could phrase things without sounding rushed.  It was an issue I battled with for a long time.  How to phrase lyrics so that they’re clearly understood while swinging at a uber-fast tempo.

My solution…pick the right tempo for what I want to say with the song. How to do that?  How do you know what is right.  How can you sing slow and hold an audiences attention.  What is so wonderful about singing slowere tempos in the first place.  What are some cool ways to figure out the tempo

We’ll perform music from our upcoming  release,  The FreeSong Suite and unleash our wacky, witty strange show with lots for you to enjoy.  The details are below.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15 2009

The Fay Victor Ensemble

FV-voice
Anders Nilsson-guitar
Ken Filiano-bass
Michael TA Thompson-drums

The Stone
10PM Set
One Set Only

$10 Cover

Corner of Second Street and Avenue C
F,V Train to 2^nd Avenue
www.thestonenyc.com

This is an amazing month of music too!  Check out the calendar to see when folks like Meshell Ndegocello, Lizz Wright, Vijay Iyer, Myra Melford, Mark Taylor and Duck Baker just for starters…