VIVIANS JANUARY NEWS..

(Chris & I performing at the 2012 Teaneck International Film Festival)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

I weigh about 5 pounds more than I should but I'm happy. I enjoy cooking for the holidays. Being with family and friends has so much more meaning for me now than ever before. We exchanged maybe 3 gifts this year which is completely out of character for us, usually it's a gift giving frenzy, but it seemed like the whole family was feeling more like just being together than run around or spend hours on the internet shopping. So be it, less stress.

We are off to the races this year, starting with Chris and I taking our brand new band to the APAP Conference at the Hilton Hotel. If you haven't heard of the APAP Conference, it's where talent buyers from all over the country converge to view established and up and coming talent to fill their venues concert calenders. We'll be performing over 2 days and we've added strings and horns to the band, they sound incredible!
Our performance schedule is below (scroll down):


Saturday, January 12th - 9:45 pm
Sunday, January 13th - 4:45 pm

If you're free stop on by, but beware, these are very short performances ;-)

APAP CONFERENCE at the Hilton Hotel - Sutton Center, 2nd fl.
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019 USA
212.586.7000
Price: Free

By the way, if you're in the area I will also be at Macanudos Cigar Bar every Monday this month EXCEPT January 14th, and it's FREE :-)

MACANUDOS
26 East 63rd Street
NEW York, NY USA
212.752.8200
Price: Free
Steve Weiles Band featuring Vivian Sessoms - 8pm

Steve Weiles - Drums
Mark Eckroth - Keys
Ron Afiff - Bass
Vivian Sessoms - Vocals

Last month, for my birthday, we aired our first ever live broadcast The Family Room Presents via Stageit.com and it was awesome! Really awesome! We had the fabulous Kelli Sae on vocals, the super talented Julian Velard on piano and vocals, and the stellar Stephen Bard on guitar and vocals along with Chris on bass and my favorite Eric Brown on drums and percussion. It was a blowout! Behind the scenes, we had my fabulous assistant Shirlise Castille fielding comments and questions from viewers, my cousin and assistant director Maurice Sessoms filming & directing, and my son and editor Will Saunders, assistant directing and teching. What an amazing crew..

The next live broadcast is scheduled Saturday, February 2nd, with a surprise special guest. ;-)
This time we'll do 2 broadcasts the same day, with an early show starting at 4pm (for our overseas people), which is Eastern Standard time (9pm London time, 10pm German time, 12pm Australia) and a late show at 7pm.

4PM SHOW:
Vivians 4PM Stageit Show

7PM SHOW:
Vivians 7PM Stageit Show

So many big things planned for this year with a new record release and so much more. Stay tuned lovelies, and check in often 'cause you don't wanna' miss any of it!

May all your dreams come true this year! <3 br="br">
and remember..
music can change the world

Vivian

VIVIAN SESSOMS HAS A SHOW ON STAGEIT!

Hang with Chris & Viv as they host the first show in a new monthly series called The Family Room. The series will feature musician friends of the two, interesting artists, music, poetry, and everything in between.

Joining Chris & Vivian this week are 3 brilliant recording artists, each with their own very unique styles, Julian Velard (www.julianvelard.com), Kelli Sae (www.kellisae.com), and Stephen Bard (www.stephenbard.com) with Eric Brown on drums and percussion.. We wanted to shake it up a bit with distinctly different talents for this first show!

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 - Pay what you can
First Set - 8pm to 8:30pm, Second Set - 8:30pm to 9pm

What is Stageit?
Stageit is an online venue that allows musicians to stream exclusive LIVE concerts to fans over the internet. The vibe is incredibly intimate often featuring performers playing from their homes, directly from their laptop.

Here's how it works!
Go to http://www.stageit.com/julian_velard_kelli_sae_stephen_bard_vivian_sessoms/the_christmas_show/17353, click signup to set up an account and then click the BUY button.

You will then have an opportunity to purchase credits (which Stageit calls "Notes" ; 10 Notes = $1.00). Notes allow you to pay for tickets to see shows and to tip performers during the show. This show is "Pay What You Can," which means you can pay whatever you can afford (minimum 1 Note). Once you have Notes, they can be used for any show!

THERE WILL BE GIVEAWAYS!
The top 5 tippers will get a signed CD from me, and the highest tipper will get a signed CD from Julian, Kelli & me along with a Sunny One Day tee shirt!

This is the very first show in the series and there aren't many tickets available so if you want to tune in and you don't already have a ticket, you can grab one here: http://www.stageit.com/julian_velard_kelli_sae_stephen_bard_vivian_sessoms/the_christmas_show/17353

See you this Tuesday on the internet!


Then on December 28th Jenny and Vivian will be appearing with the fabulous Dana Fuchs (Across The Universe) at the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W. 17 St., NYC 10011. Tickets are $25. 212.620.5000

And last, but by no means least, Vivian will be debuting at Smoke Jazz Nightclub this NEW YEARS EVE as a special guest of jazz legend Harold Mabern (pianist) and renowned saxophonist Erik Alexander, with John Webber on upright and Joe Farnsworth on drums. This will be Just One Of Those Nights you won't want to miss!

Get tickets here http://smokejazz.com/

On a more serious note, let's remember to spread as much joy, love and warmth as we can this holiday season, and to lend our support whenever and where ever we can. We really never know what anyone is going through at any given moment, or what pain they might be living with. There has been such a tremendous amount of tragedy in these last months. We must remind ourselves to be grateful for every single blessing and for all the good things in our lives.

And remember, music can change the world..
Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Love,
Vivian

OH, YOU FANCY HUH?

OH, YOU FANCY HUH?
Trying new things is a good thing..
I've been seeing some really great looking e-mails and e-flyers lately and I've wondered how people were making their emails look so fly.. Now I know ;-) I should have tried this a long time ago, but kept putting it off because I thought it would be difficult and I didn't have time for difficult. Well, it was easy, in fact so easy, I thought I'd send you guys an update to let you know what's going on over here in Viv-land.


BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
First off, got a show coming up, in fact a few shows coming up this year. The next one will be at Feinsteins. I did a show here last year, and it was amazing, so I'm going back for round two!



FEINSTEINS at LOEWS REGENCY
Sunday, April 22nd - 8:30pm
Park Avenue and 61st Street, NY. NY

Premium Seating - $35. *(with additional $25. minimum)
Regular Seating - $25. *(with additional $25. minimum)

THE INCREDIBLE BAND:
Chris Parks - upright, electric bass, acoustic guitar
Mike Mancini - piano, keys
Noam Dworman - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, vocals
Eric Brown - drums, percussion, vocals
Jeff Pierce - trumpet

with very special guest, Kevin Anthony!

Click Here To Buy Tickets!


Click Here For The Feinsteins Website..


NEW MUSIC!
Looking at summer release for the new record and man, I am SO excited!! It really has been a long time coming, much too long, so stay tuned.


NEW VIDEOS!
Just put a bunch of new videos on Youtbe. You can check them out here!

Vivians Youtube page



INDIE ARTISTS!
Check out my new Indie Artists page, where I feature the works of artists I love, from musicians to painters to designers & authors, etc.
New features for this month are Kelli Sae with her new album PURE, Martha Redbone with her new album GARDEN OF LOVE - Featuring the Songs of William Blake, Sy Smith with her new album FAST & FURIOUS and last, but most definitely not least Gary Foote with his new album HARLEM WORKS

STAY TUNED!
That's all for now, but there's lots of exciting news coming soon, so tune in and we hope to see you at Feinsteins!
Thank you for supporting independent music, and remember, music can change the world.

Enjoy the sunshine!


Vivian

Little pink houses for you and me.

(all the house look just like this in Nantucket.. lovely..)

Hey there good people!

So there I was yesterday in another airport ;-)
On my way to a gig in Nantucket, if you're overseas and unfamiliar, it's a
little island in Massachusetts. This state is known for it's quant little islands,
all very rustic and romantic. I'm doing a wedding for the family of Susan Tedeschi,
an amazing blues singer, if you don't know her, look for her music on iTunes. Maybe
she'll sit in on a tune, that would be awesome.. And it'll be nice to see the
scenery for a day.

A sweetheart of a girlfriend of mine (Hey Jill), who works at Jet Blue hooked me up with a free ticket, so I'm all set. Just found out my flight is delayed, so I've got time to roam the new and improved JFK Airport, it's quite impressive. The design is very streamlined so you don't have to wait in lots of long lines and, some of it is set
up so you go straight thru security directly to your gate, lots of cute shops and
restaurants, etc. And of course Jet Blue has become so large that they have their
own terminal.

I had a room at a bed and breakfast which I LOVED. Hubby and I have been talking
about a vacay in the fall, now I'm thinking it would be quite lovely to do a bed and
breakfast tour up the east coast for a week or two. Lots of them have fabulous
restaurants, and if you go in the fall, the discounts would be great, but knowing my
boy, he will want to go to the sunshine. He is a true boy of summer, you know, the
ones who start wearing shorts in May? He would try for flip-flops if I didn't catch
him at the door.

Although fall is my favorite season, and I really do love the fall with all of it's
colours and smells and textures, the sweaters and tweed blazers coming out, it's so
special.. but this year, I'm really sad to see summer go.. It's taken many years but
in the last few years or so, I've really come to love the summer too, and have
become more in tune with the whole timing and pacing of life and it's seasons..
Planting and growing and blooming and dying and rebirth. Maybe it's because last
winter jut seemed to go on and on forever. It's just feels like life shouldn't be
that hard, shoveling feet and feet of snow in the freezing cold. Maybe it's because
this summer seemed really short with all the rain, I dont know. I just know I crave
more sunshine... So maybe Chris has the right idea..

Anyways, lots of you have been asking about the live show today, and of course I
should have written before now, BUT here's an update. The show is postponed until
the first week of October, so sorry to disappoint you guys, I really am but it was
just impossible to get all the people I wanted to be involved with everyone's
schedule being so hectic, so I though moving the date back a few weeks might be a
good idea, but don't fret, it is STILL going to happen the first week of October and
of course I'll post it everywhere and keep you all in the loop. I just want it to be
special, so hang tight.

I will however, be doing a live radio interview today and I'd love if you guys
all tuned in and even called in with questions. The name of the show is "The
Conversation"!!! LIVE!!!! Hosted by Klarque Garrison. It airs this Sunday at 4pm
EST, and the call in number is (917) 932-1078 or listen online at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/survive365.

Listen to internet radio with Survive 365 on Blog Talk Radio

If you're waiting for part 3 of my last blog, I will post that next week, in the
meantime enjoy the sunshine, enjoy your loved ones, ENJOY LIFE!

Love to the families of the victims of 9/11 <3

PS here's a little something from the show, enjoy!




Love,
Vivian

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Hey guys,

Just a little note to thank all of you who came out to the show last Sunday.
It was a fabulous, fabulous show. In fact, it may have been my best show ever! The band was fantastic and the turnout was awesome! People were dancing, singing and having a good old time! So thank you everyone, for supporting us and making this our best show ever.

If you missed the show, you’re in luck! We’re doing another show next month. It will be a Live Broadcast via the internet, and we’re holding a contest so the viewers can pick the time, date and price of the show.
Stay tuned for the details, or look to the left to vote on the particulars:

Part 2 of my latest blog is below..

Thank you again, and remember.. music can change the world..
Enjoy the summer..


WHERE I'M FROM..

"Now… Back to the story!

We needed singers, so we put out the word in our ‘Hood’ that a spot was open. I can’t remember who, but someone suggested “‘Lil’ Vivian from 200” (200 was the building Vivian grew up in). She had sung in our class production of “The Wiz” and she was GREAT!!!
At first her mother objected (I’d later find out that her mother sung professionally also), but I guess with a little nudging from Mrs. Evans, she landed the role of Dorothy. When we held auditions for the singing spots Vivian blew the other girls out of the water!!!! We had our Star!!

One problem though, just as when she starred in our school play, Vivian was still afraid of singing in front of people. Well, unbeknown to a few of the guys and me, Vivian would quickly lose that fear.
At the beginning of her first practice with us, Vivian walked in the band room guided by on of the biggest, smoothest dudes I had ever seen around our side of town. It was her Uncle Lincoln. We started out pretty slow, but needless to say, by the end of that practice we’d all done pretty well.

Within two weeks we had about 5 songs down pat. The tightest of them all was Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover”. Vivian sang the “----“ out of that song. And, of course, I held the bass line right in the pocket, LOL.

During those days, trips from NYC to Atlantic City were well awaited when summer hit. Mr. Byrd gave an annual bus ride to AC every year. Since he’d given us access to a room for rehearsal, he considered us to be “His Band”, so he often checked in on us. Well, it was during one of Mr. Byrd’s unannounced visits, that he brought us some of the best news a bunch of kids from the projects could ever expect to hear: we would be the opening act for Marvin Gaye (at the old Coliseum) in Atlantic City.

I will never be able to explain the excitement we all felt; I’ll say this though, it was over the top. We practiced hard, and though I honestly don’t remember the set we’d put together, I remember it being tight! We reached out to some of the guys in the projects who were already playing professionally by that time and they made sure that we had it right.

Julian had his brother Tim (who was already a guitar virtuoso, touring Europe with a Funk band), Everett had his oldest brother Freddy (who had started out playing in the same band as Tim, but was doing a lot of keyboard work in the studios at that time) and I had the help of two bass players (John – who had begun his bass career playing funk with Tim and Freddy, but had crossed-over to Gospel when he got Saved, and Jerome, who was touring Europe with Tim).

Kenny was a natural and his ear was amazing! Though he couldn’t read a lick of drum music, Kenny could pick up the drum line – stroke for stroke- by listening to the LP’s. Yeah, we got it right! We got it tight!! Besides Vivian, we had two other girl singers. If I’m correct, one’s name was Valerie and the other was Caroline. To be honest, they were only there to fill in space because Vivian had the vocals locked!! LOL!!!"

Stay tuned for part 3

FEINSTEINS AT LOEWS REGENCY PRESENTS VIVIAN SESSOMS IN CONCERT

Hello, Hello, HELLO!!

It’s been such a long time I know! All I can say is, I miss you guys so much!

I’ve run into so many of you around NYC, I’ve gotten emails, etc, asking, “Why haven’t I been getting emails from you? When are you performing? Where have you been?”

Well, here I am ;-) Actually, to be more accurate, I’ve been keeping my head down making headway with this new record, which I’m not even going to talk about since I don’t have the new record in my hands ready for you to hear (guilty).

I have been busy though. I toured with Joe Cocker last summer in support of his new record, “Hard Knocks”, which I also submitted songs for (none of my songs made it, next time though..).

After that I worked with Cher at Caesars Palace in Vegas in the fall. Then I did the Capitol Jazz Cruise.
In the spring of this year I did a workshop for a new play directed by THE Bill T. Jones (Fela). So I have definitely been busy.

In fact, I have a show coming up this very weekend at the lovely Feinsteins Nighclub. This will be my first show in two and a half years and I’m hoping to see all of you there..

The information is below.

FEINSTEINS AT LOEWS REGENCY PRESENTS VIVIAN SESSOMS IN CONCERT

This Sunday, August 7th, 2011 – 8pm
540 Park Avenue (corner of 61st Street)
212.339.4095
$20. Advance/ $25. Door (Dinner required)

Featuring:
Chris Parks - bass
Sherrod Barnes - guitar
Ron Thompson - piano
Eric Brown - drums
Tim Ries - saxophone
Mark McGowan - trumpet
Clark Gayton - trombone

The show is called I Am Music. I called it that because I still love music as much today, as when I was a kid sitting in front of the record player.
I’ll be featuring new music from 2 different records, songs from the last CD, Sunny One Day, and music I’ve written for other artists.

I have a KILLER band and you guys know I don’t do things halfway, so you know we will be JAMMING up in Feinsteins. Make your reservations quick because tickets are going fast.

‘Til Sunday, here’s a little something (further below) for you to read, my latest blog post, written by a childhood friend of mine, Gerald McDonald, about our first band together.
See you Sunday, and remember, music can change the world..

Vivian

"Where I’m From (Pt 1)..

Without mentioning the year, Id like say that the culmination of this event took place during the summer of my last year in elementary school.

I’d always loved music and wanted to play and instrument badly. So, in the beginning of that school year I joined the P.S. 92, Mary McCloud Bethune School’s Orchestra. I had no idea what instrument to choose.
The music instructor, Mrs. Stratfield, suggested the cello, and I agreed.
From cello I went on to play bass guitar.

A great friend of mine, Julian Green, who lived in the St. Nicholas Projects (I lived in Lionel Hampton Houses), and his brother, Tim Green, had already been playing guitar professionally in Funk bands and performing all over Europe. Well Tim began to teach Julian guitar and me Bass.

We learned pretty quickly too. By the end of the spring we’d formed a band with two brothers, also from the St. Nicholas Projects: Kenny and Everett Veasley. Their older brother Freddy played Funk keyboards professionally. He taught Everett keys, and Kenny taught himself to play drums – by ear - and he was funky. After joining forces we still needed a place to practice and someway or another, we got Mr. Byrd to give us open access to a room in the St. Nicholas Projects Community Center, of which he was in charge.

By mid summer we’d already had a few songs “down pat” and were pretty tight! We added a percussionist, “Big Larry” to the band and were well on our way to stardom, LOL!!! The only thing that we needed was singers.

Before I go any further, I must take you back to the beginning of the school year. Our teacher that year, Mrs. Judy Evans, was amazingly educated and Afro-centric. She taught us as if she were teaching adults, giving us the gumption to reach for whatever we wanted in life. We were the “TOP” class for that year.

Well, a couple days after the school year had begun, Mrs. Evans made an announcement to the class that we’d be having a new student, that had been skipped a couple of grades, joining our class. You can imagine the chatter in the room. Seemed as if no one wanted a “Nerd” joining our class and we were about to give this new kid hell! But, on that day, in walked the cutest, prettiest little girl I’d ever seen. She was scared and timid to the point of being terrified. But,… She was beautiful. That was the first time I had ever set eye on “Vivian Sessoms”.

Now,… Back to the story!"


Check back next week for Part 2.. ;-)

Showtime.