Girl walks into a recording studio to audition as the singer for a Big Band (little Orchestra). Ok, it’s not really a recording studio; it’s a former church building, steeple and all. And she’s not really a girl, she’s a grown lady with a family and a job and everything. And it’s not really an audition, because if she sang like a strangling frog we’d still let her sing. I mean why not? And it’s not really a Big Band or little orchestra either, because nobody really keeps track who is there and who is not. It varies. Most of us wouldn’t miss it for the world, or at least only in the worst circumstances, and some folks show up like ninjas in the night, usually when they have a new arrangement they want to try out, and usually when that arrangement showcases their particular talent or instrument. It’s awesome.
If you don’t have something like this in your town, start one.
Ok, let me try again: grown lady with a family and a job and everything walks into a former church building, steeple and all, so she can audition (which really isn’t auditioning because she’s already “in” just by showing up) with a band that isn’t a band, a big band, an orchestra, or anything else organized, just a bunch of people of all ages, races, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, creeds, religions, and shoe sizes, who get together to speak the Universal language: music.
OK, so math is also a Universal language, and there are those who can prove music to you mathematically, which I don’t understand, but whatever.
Let me start over. Girl walks into a recording studio to audition as the singer for a Big Band. Turns out she’s good. I mean REALLY good. We’ve had good singers and we’ve had bad singers, and we’ve had everything in between. Most times we don’t have anyone singing because most of us just write music, not lyrics, most of the time. Again, whatever.
What we have never had, is someone who can just put words to music like they’re freestyle rapping. This grown lady with a family and a job and everything says “I wanna sing” and then just sticks the lyrics to “Amazing Grace” onto the next three songs we did. I don’t know what that talent’s called, but it’s neat.
She has decided she wishes to be called Illia, which is not her real name any more than mine is Halfbreed. Click one of the picture links below, listen to these songs, and wonder.
