Partly because of my long friendship with Tao Porchon-Lynch (www.taoporchonlynch.com), much of my ambient music has been inspired by Yoga. Whether to underscore her yoga films, accentuate her meditations, create a groovy backdrop for a workshop, or just make music for yoga class, we have enjoyed a wide range of collaborations together.
Coming from a background of rock, funk, blues and jazz, the New Age and Ambient music I’ve been composing over the past few years came as a surprise; even to me. In the creative process, however, I have joyfully learned to embrace whatever wants to come through, and I’ve made a career of delving into many styles of music.
Partly because of my life-long love affair with Sedona, Arizona, and a desire to play music that uplifts the spirit, I was thrilled and delighted to join the team and create music for this year’s Sedona Yoga Festival http://sedonayogafestival.com/.
The first exciting thing about SYF. is that people gather from all over the world to experience transformative practices in the powerful red rocks of Sedona. The vortex energy that defines Sedona is a magnet to those seeking personal growth. What an honor to be part of that unfolding, of creating the ambiance and foundation for people to deeply dive into their unique spiritual practices.
Also exciting was organizing groups of musicians and performing for the many different events. Kicking off the Yoga Festival was a private lunch at Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill , where I performed 3 original songs written for Tao including “The Tao Tao Tango,” soon to be released for Tao to use in her competition ballroom dancing routines. Next I had the honor of creating a concert of contemplative, East-West chill music to begin an evening of dialogue called “Grand Dames of Yoga,” featuring Tao and Rema Jyoti Vernon, moderated by Teresa Abay Kennedy. It was such fun rehearsing for those two events, and bringing in wonderful musicians like native bamboo flutist Jesse Kalu, reknowned harpist Peter Sterling, world percussion player Prem Vidu, improvisional bassist Lynzi Kat and bassist Ivan Wade. For me, the festival’s =highlight was collaborating with my dear Sherab.Shey.Khandro on a workshop entitled “Empowering Our Now; an Experience of Music, Inspiration and activation,” Shey and I co-created a mini-event that combined a talk, a guided meditation, some chanting and inspiring stories, all underscored and enlivened with original music. Our deejay, Mixtress Hava was able to spin tracks from my new album as I played electric guitar along with live percussion and bass, creating new improvisational jamz to fit the moment. Most of the music I performed at the yoga festival is from this new album “Healing Music Volume 2” which is currently gaining traction on the New Age and Ambient Music charts At the time of this writing, the album is #4 out of the top 100 radio air play on the Zone Music Reporter chart.
I am thrilled to report that cuts from Healing Music Volume 2 were used as the score for the recently released documentary about the Sedona Yoga Festival 2018 by Visionary Organics CLICK HERE! Please watch the film and see for yourself the warm and wonderful experience that was SYF 2018.
