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Deanna Bogart: locally and
internationally famous musician helps me celebrate the release of HEREAFTER, my
latest novel.
Welcome my good friend Deanna Bogart to the blog today.
Deanna is a locally and internationally famous musician who plays boogie-woogie,
contemporary blues, country and jazz (which she calls “blusion”). She also
makes a guest appearance in my newest release, Hereafter. Rob, the hero of the story, is listening to a Deanna
Bogart song as he unpacks.
Without further delay, let me proudly introduce Deanna so
you can find out more about her and her music…
Welcome! Thanks for taking time to stop by the blog
today. Your music inspires many, many people. What would be the “perfect”
writing conditions for you to create a new song?
hmm... I like to think it would be somewhere alone in the
middle of the desert with my piano, my horn and lots of manuscript paper. That
said, the perfect writing moments tend
to show up at some of the most imperfect times...it comes when it comes. Once
I’ve committed to a tune, however, I covet absolute alone time with my
dictionary/thesaurus/reference books/metronome until I’m content that there's
no wasted note/word or space.
Haha! I can just picture you in the middle of the desert. Sounds like you're very good at listening to your Muse as you create. Do your songs “come” to you over time, or do they usually
hit you all at once? How long does it typically take you to write a song?
Yes,
and every other way. I’ve dreamed snippets of tunes, I’ve had a melody or
lyric line literally haunt me until i surrendered to it...
Some
songs seem to be born written, and others incubate somewhere inside for
days/months/years 'til their time. Then it takes what it takes. I seem to work
very well with an unrealistic, slightly psychotic deadline. I don’t know what
this says about me...i time traveled for “said it wouldn’t
rain."
Well, I know ALL about deadlines being an incentive to get "creative," I think that means the idea was there, it just needed a little persuasion to come out. haha! You work hard at your craft. What do you do to relax and
unwind?
I don’t really think about it - I like to work. I write, practice and/or meditate
while I run which is both relaxing and productive with the potential added
bonus of better fitting jeans. I love games and traveling and reading, being
with family, hanging with my daughter.....I’m a friendly hermit.
Oh yeah. I am very jealous of the way you look in your jeans and I agree that you're friendly! You’ve been performing for many years. Do you ever get
nervous when you take the stage? If so, what do you do about those nervous
feelings?
I always have stage fright and it’s uncomfortable - but I’m guessing that it’s my
way of trying to keep the live musical experience scary and exciting like it
was in the beginning. I just don’t ever want to lose those threads of
uncertainty and fearless innocence if I can help it...that’s where the magic
lives...
Wow. You look so confident on stage, I would never guess you were nervous. But I think that's awesome that uncertainty is where the magic lives. I never thought of it that way before. Well said!
How many instruments do you play and how did you learn to
play them?
Music always sort of made sense to me
intuitively and I played by ear. Traditional lessons didn’t quite work for me
and it’s only in the last decades that I’ve embraced the theory, mechanics and
technique involved so I could be a better composer and bandleader. At 2, I was
drawn to the family piano, then at about 12, I took over my mom’s acoustic
guitar. When I was 26, I bought my first horn - 15 years after the 5th grade
band teacher told me “girls don’t play the saxophone”...showed him....haha
That is amazing! Girls don't play the saxophone? Yeah...you showed him all right!! What’s the best part about being a performer?
Music
has always been my therapy - where I emotionally balance myself. It’s my safe
zone...and then there’s the incredible moments I get to have and share
musically and personally with people all over the world. I’ve played a gig in
every state and I’ve been able to travel abroad to places I never thought I’d
touch...what a gift.
You have such an appreciative, postive attitude about your life and your gift. No wonder people all over the world respond to you and your music. What’s your latest release and where can we get it?
Thanks so much for stopping by today, Deanna! And thanks for inspiring the music behind Hereafter, my latest novel.
About Deanna:
When it comes to Deanna Bogart, everyone wants to claim her
as their own -- her hometown, her fans, her fellow musicians and even her
instruments. She's that good–and that good-natured.
Born in Detroit, Deanna spent
her early years in Phoenix and New York City, climbing on any available
piano bench to plunk and play with preternatural panache. Around the age of
six, she was "gently removed" from the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
for playing piano by ear instead of learning to read music. While in middle
school, Deanna yearned to play the saxophone. Typical of those times though,
she was told, "Girls play the clarinet, not the sax." Thankfully for
us all, that tide has changed.
Today, Deanna Bogart is an award-winning
multi-instrumentalist and multifaceted musician whose fans value the diversity
of her genre-free zone. As a bandleader/singer/songwriter/producer/pianist/sax
player, Deanna combines the best of boogie-woogie, contemporary blues, country
and jazz into a splendid blend she calls “blusion.”
Deanna's fusion of blusion -- spontaneous, sophisticated,
fearless and fun -- has garnered her three consecutive Blues Music Awards' Horn
Instrumentalist of the Year for 2008, 2009 and 2010 and an endorsement contract
with Rico Reeds. She has won, at last count, more than 20 Wammies, the music
awards for the hotly contested Washington,
D.C. region.
Recognized for her dazzling keyboards, soulful saxophone,
smoky vocals and cut-above songwriting, Deanna easily wins the hearts of fans
on land and at sea on chartered cruises. She is a featured player in the
Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue, jamming with Tommy Castro, Magic Dick
(founding member of the J. Geils Band), as well as prominent guitar slingers.
Deanna remembers well her early years as a budding musician and is an avid
educator and mentor, sharing her insight and wisdom with students of all ages.
Perennially popular with a knack for engaging her audience,
Deanna has played for U.S.
troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Egypt
as part of the “Blues on the Nile” tour, including performances at Cairo University,
the Cairo Opera House and even a historic concert at the Great Pyramids.
Deanna Bogart's latest ventures include Blind Pig Record's
"Pianoland," a newly minted DVD called "Everybody Has A
Story," and “11th
Hour,” a CD released on Vista Records, a company she co-founded.
I’m sharing one of my all-time favorite recipes from one of
my favorite ladies who also gets teased about her last name when it comes to
baking. Mrs. Crocker…thanks for bringing this recipe and your batch of cookies
to that fun cookie exchange at Becky's house years ago (but she is not THAT Mrs. Crocker).
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