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7PS: Primary Colors 🎨
Edition #43 – Allison Philips answers 7 questions
1. Why are you a musician?
It is hard for me to remember a time when I didn’t want to be a musician. I often think we don’t really have a choice in what we become.
I hope my music and playing makes people smile, or at least consider smiling. As I get older I also care more and more about inspiring and setting an example for future generations. Seeing is believing.
2. Who are your musical inspirations?
This varies by the year. As a young trumpet player I was super into Booker Little and Lee Morgan. These days I think I am most inspired- trumpet-wise by Ingrid Jensen and Ambrose Akinmusire.
Late Miles is also starting to be an active part of my listening. I also have always loved folk music, and indie rock. Tammy Wynette is fun, I love a good story teller.
3. What is your practice routine?
I practice every day, whether I like it or not. Ideally it is broken into two parts. An hour to hour and a half of technical routines, then whatever musically I am working on at the time.
This year I am also hoping to work more regular compositional practices into my routine.
4. Why did you make this album?
Placement and Longing
By: Allison Philips Trio
I wrote most of these songs at a very transitional moment in my life. I was about to leave Amsterdam, which had been my home for five years and move back to my original home, New York City.
I had missed out on certain important familial moments since I had been so far away, I also felt the need to document this closing moment of this chapter of my life. “Placement and Longing” is about not really knowing where you belong, having one foot on each side of the Atlantic.
5. What were the biggest obstacles in making this album?
Honestly, making the album wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was releasing it as an independent artist during the pandemic. We did quite well in the end with streams, but the hardest thing was the promotion, did we overcome it? Who knows?!
6. Who is featured on this album?
I am playing trumpet, solo electronics and wrote the music. Robin van Rhijn is on Drums and Alessandro Fongaro is on bass.
7. Where may we find you online?
7PS: Veritas 🤥
Edition #42 – Orlando Haddad & Patrica King
1. Why are you musicians?
Music has been our life-long passion and vehicle for creativity.
We enjoy giving inspiration to our audiences, all ages, to uplift and bring people together, to find healing and share joy in a meaningful way.
Music gives us a way to express beauty, life and our human purpose.
2. Who are your musical inspirations?
A. C. Jobim, Bill Evans, Baden Powell, João Gilberto, Chick Corea, Beatles, Stravinsky
3. What is your practice routine?
Mornings – 2-3hours, 5x week
4. Why did you make this album?
Beatles in Bossa
By Minas
We both love and grew up on the music of The Beatles and Bossa Nova.
Orlando was a Beatles fan since a young boy in Brasil. Patricia was a Sergio Mendes fan while growing up in Pennsylvania.
He and Patricia wanted to translate the music of the Beatles into a creative jazz experimental album founded on various rhythms from Brasil, (choro, partido alto, samba, bossa , frevo, axé, baião), shining a little Brazilian sunshine on the Beatles’ songs.
5. What were the biggest obstacles in making this album?
Biggest obstacle: marketing, promoting and getting the recording out world-wide
6. Who is featured on this album?
- Orlando Haddad (guitar, vocals, berimbau), Patricia King (piano, keys, vocal), Andrew Neu (sax, flute), John Swana (trumpet, flugelhorn, EVI), Cyro Baptista (percussion, berimbau), Tom Cohen (drums), Jim Stager (bass)
7. Where may we find you online?
How Kama Ruby Manages 4 Careers (Singer, Producer, Massage Therapist, Esthetician)
Meet Kama Ruby. She’s a multi-careerist based in California. She deftly navigates her many careers.
Her key insights.
Kama’s careers
- Singer/songwriter
- Producer
- Massage Therapist
- Esthetician
On her motivations for having many careers
I’m often asked, “What do you love more? Massage, singing, giving facials, producing, or songwriting?”
The truth is all are creative and feed one another.
Problem solving skin care concerns and giving client a relaxing hour of peace taps into my creative mind as much as creating new music.
Having multiple careers creates income diversity — and I never get bored.
On how long she’s had these careers
I have been involved in theater and dance for 44 years.
In 2011, I released my first album and have been consistently releasing content on a yearly basis since then.
After 26 years working in the fitness industry as a trainer specializing in injury prevention and post rehabilitation, I made the switch to become a massage therapist and was licensed in 2019.
I obtained my esthetician license in 2020, and it’s been a beautiful blend of careers and interests.
Advice to aspiring multi-careerists
Do it because you love it.
Do not buy into short sighted ideals that one must only have one career to be good at anything.
If you like and love it, then do it.
On overcoming obstacles
The covid pandemic really put a damper in my income as I was not legally allowed to work as a massage therapist or esthetician for many months.
With my income strained, I sought ways to create my own album covers and discovered I enjoyed photography and graphic design.
After coming out of the pandemic, I lost both parents in less than one year and though it was devastating. I learned to set better boundaries by learning to say, “No!” to which no longer served me.
On how multiple careers are beneficial
A career in massage and esthetics can be lucrative and help finance recording sessions.
Since I am an independent contractor, booking gigs and studio time is in my control.
My beautiful clients I meet in my treatment room become my biggest fans at live shows. It’s all a perfect circle.
On personal time
Boundaries, Boundaries, Boundaries!
I am strict on my availability and booking. I will be home in time for dinner with my family.
I will block out time as unavailable in order to book my live gigs, take the granddaughter to dance class, or be in the studio.
On what she wishes she had learned earlier
Well, I guess I’ve never really known anything different. I’ve always had two to three careers. In my early twenties for instance, I worked at a theatre, for my dad’s flower shop, and I substitute taught.
On what to read
- Twelve Pillars by Jim Rhon and Chris Weidner
- Awakening Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
On the stigma of having many careers
It was easy to overcome when I was younger because it was necessary for me to have multiple careers in order to pursue not only what I desired creatively, but to have the freedom of being in control of my own schedule.
Basically, I had to make it work financially and that meant having more than one source of income.
On what to share with others
The few corporate jobs I had in the past, I would say I was guilty of oversharing my other endeavors in life.
Instead of appreciating my work ethic and acknowledging my various talents as beneficial to them, they saw it as a threat because my focus was not solely on them.
This is why now being self-employed is a much better choice for me. I have to pressure to build other people’s dreams and can relish in my own creative process and success.
A Day in the Life
- 6:45 – Wake up, drink coffee
- 7 am – Workout
- 8 am – Shower
- 8:30-10 am – Administration work (emails, bills, etc.), writing, audition submission
- 11 am-6pm – Treat clients in treatment room
- 7pm – Dinner with family, help grand-daughter with homework.
- 8:30-10:00 – Watch a movie with husband, or write, read, and practice music.
Where to find Kama
***
Kabir Sehgal is a Multi Grammy & Latin Grammy Award winner, as well as New York Times bestselling author.
Follow Kabir on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube.
7PS: Super Sunday 🏈
Coming Soon! Bhangra Baby
Come dance with Bhangra Baby as he learns to move to the rhythm of a popular Punjabi folk dance in this infectiously exuberant picture book from bestselling mother-son duo Surishtha Sehgal and Kabir Sehgal!
Bhangra Baby wants to dance, but Bhangra Baby needs a chance…
Luckily, his family and friends are ready to show him the moves. He joins the crowd on the dance floor and learns to step, hop, twist, and jump to the rhythm of the drum. Before long Bhangra Baby has the moves down and is ready to bhangra!
“Fandango at the Wall in New York” earns Grammy Award – My personal reflections
🎉 Qué Viva el Fandango!
🏆 “Fandango at the Wall in New York” won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.
Thank you to the Recording Academy for recognizing our work.
⬆️ Thank you for lifting up the son jarocho artists.
They’re incredible musicians who share their traditions with an open heart. ❤️
😊 I have to tell you… This one is most special.
It’s the largest & most meaningful project I’ve ever been a part.
Jorge Francisco Castillo hatched the idea for a cross-border festival in 2007.
Arturo O’Farrill & I launched this project in 2016.
It has taken drive, determination, and persistence. ⚡⚡⚡
🎵 But the cause of bringing people together through music is worthwhile.
Someone said to me, “You had the most number of people on the stage.”
I replied, “That’s the whole spirit of a fandango — everyone is welcome.” 👋🏽👋🏽👋🏽👋🏽
What I will most remember from this past weekend…
🎸 Performing with everyone at the after party.
💃🏽 We brought the fandango to the Grammys. 💃🏽
The mirth. The music! Epa!
🎥 The day after the Grammys, we held a film screening at UCLA.
I watched the film with everyone again, including Varda Bar-Kar, our director who I hadn’t seen in years.
I saw the film in a new light. 💡
After the screening, the jaraneros performed.
✈️ I couldn’t stay. I had to catch my plane.
As I left and the music continued, I thought to myself…
🏁 “We did it.”
Muchas gracias. 🙏🏽
7PS: Meow 🐈