Soulfully Sizzling

Sometimes I struggle with writing a blog post. Today is one of those days. This morning I’m distracted by politics, my dogs, unseasonal cold weather, and impending gigs that are nagging at me to go sit at the piano and practice for hours. Instead, I’m massively tempted to veg out with a meaningless video game or read another chapter of War and Peace on the Serial Reader App. Are any of you familiar with it? It’s incredible! I highly recommend it. But all of these wandering, scattered thoughts aren’t getting the task done, and I have a deadline. I need to write about Kira.

I sat down with her a couple weeks ago after meeting her online through a Facebook group for professional women in the music business. I enjoyed our conversation and wasn’t prepared when I almost burst into tears hearing her play piano and sing at the end of our conversation. She’s a great musician and swings very, very hard. Why would that make me emotional? I’ve asked myself many times since why I felt so overwhelmed.

Was it because she’s a kindred spirit and so funny? There was certainly much to admire in her story. She’s very self-deprecating and quite open about her nerdy-ness. (If I’m admitting to you that I’m reading War and Peace, you know I’m also honest about my nerdy-ness!) She’s been a teacher, having worked at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music. When she first started playing gigs, she was willing to go to many lengths to learn the music she needed to know, buying sheet music in books and then lugging them to clubs.

I identified strongly with the way she described that moment of realizing that she could play by ear. It is pure magic when that happens. The fact that she knew solfege so young and that she tested into an advanced ear training class at Berklee, is a testament to music education. Her recommendation that I try reverse ear training for my students who despise note-reading was golden!

It was also nice and appropriate that she mentioned so many mentors and helpers. She even talked about hiring piano players to play on her albums, of which there are five. She prefers to focus on her vocals when recording her own material and then learns the recorded keyboard parts for live performances. Her latest record is “3AM” from 2016 and currently I’m really digging these tunes: “Gift That Keeps on Giving,” “Attention,” and the title track, “3 Am.” It’s available on Apple Music.

While we were chatting, all of these elements gave me the impression that piano was secondary to her. She even said as much but when she played, there was nothing secondary about her performance. Holy cow, she’s great! My emotions were there because I knew I was sitting with someone who’s paid many dues, loves her craft and gives her all to it. Bam!

Kira has a mailing list and I’ve signed up to be informed about her local, live gigs. Starting November 29, she’s touring with Martina McBride singing backups on a three-week Christmas tour. You can check her out at the links listed on the podcast page, and be sure to check out her youtube videos. Predictably, they run the gamut from humorous to caring (She has a series entitled “Getting Over A Break Up-A Step By Song Guide”) to soulfully sizzling.