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Four Winds News: 5 November1999
If you haven't heard, we have Officially released We Each Send A Voice; 5 Years of Celebration in Song, Chant & Rhythm • 1994-1999. We are so psyched! In other words, this is pretty freeeeaaking cool!!! But read on for the official Story. Official release date was Samhain/Halloween, to give it the proper launch, and we also performed a rockin' righteous night at the 17th Annual NYC Witches Masquerade Ball.
The discs came out unbeliveably spiffy and we got the shipents of tapes this week. We'll be working on gettng out all the preorders as quickly as possible. Thank you so much for your support, it really went a long way to making this project possible. Espically those of you who have been waiting since the Spring!
WE EACH SEND A VOICE:
5 Years of Celebration in Song, Chant & Rhythm • 1994-1999(from Press Release)
31 October 1999 CE
Greetings,
Four Winds Earth Chorus is pleased to announce the release of our first Recording, We Each Send A Voice: 5 Years of Celebration in Song, Chant & Rhythm 1994-1999 available imm ediately direct from Four Winds and from local Craft and New Age shops and from selected music stores shortly thereafter.
This recording Celebrates our Survival and Success as a Volunteer Choral Cooperative. It is a compilation of our sound from 5 years of Choral Support of Ceremony and Ritual, Performance and Teaching and Bardic Circles. The CD and Tape features songs and chants from the Pagan, Native, African, World and Folk Traditions, spoken world pieces, and Hot Drumming! We have included many of our original works and some pagan ÒclassicsÓ.
This project has been a labor of love, sweat, joy and spiritual commitment literally 5 years in the making. We have done this as much for our fans, supporters and all Earth-honoring people as for ourselves. We hope that people enjoy this recording, and if the spirit moves them, sing these songs, which is what we really want We had a great deal of fun putting this together and we hope it helps in some small way to awaken your minds, open your hearts and lift your spirits. We are a total Not-For-Profit organization, so this project is not intended to raise a profit nor is the recording intended for commercial use. All proceeds from sales are earmarked to be reinvested in the work of the Chorus and our operating expenses.
Kurt Talking Stone, Choral Director
and the Members of Four Winds Earth ChorusView actual Press Release 72dpi (GIF- 42k)
To Download 150 dpi version (GIF- 118k) click and hold on link,
then select Save this link... from pop-up menu in most browsers.
WE EACH SEND A VOICE:
Five Years of Celebration in Song, Chant and Rhythm
CDs and TAPES NOW AVAILABLEPrices: CDs: $15.00, Tapes: $10.00
Anybody who is interested in distributing this recording, please contact us at:
718 373-8987, khgriffith@worldnet.att.net or by mail to
Four Winds Eart Chorus, 4114 Seagate Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11224-12339.
Note: Some of the remarks here are improper and out-of-context. We apologize for any disrespect contained herein, no matter how unintentional. -Director
Four Winds Rocks the Witches Ball!
Heya Folks! We're back from rockin' it at the 17th Annual NYC Witches Masquerade Ball! The event went off well enough, despite massive format changes. Club OHM was the typical NY club, large, very loud, overpriced. Nice enough place, with pleasant staff and spiffy decor, but in my opinion, the sponsors may have made too many compromises with the mundane world anf the NY club scene. Like all experiments, this one had its up and down sides. But most folk seemed to enjoy themselfs, and there was as usual fabulous costumes. The house was full but not packed. So I think the event ended up in the black... We hope!
That said, the Chorus was very ON and we had a blast. With the crew totally psyched from the album release, we drummed and sang our asses off. The space was kind of double ended with a front room and a big dance space connected by a narrower semi-coridor/room. The DJs were going pretty much full blast the whole time in the back room, with HUMONGOUS speakers so we had a few... distractions. Thankfully, Mynce Pye turned up with a PA they let us use as well. So we didn't have to shirek to be heard. People in the front were totally grovin' on our stuff, singin' and dancing. We were so tight, we finished our first set in 2/3 of the rehearsed time and we pulled a handful of items out of our hat to fill the slot. Big Fun.
We also managed to include an honoring of the ancestors and the departed in the set, with This Witch Is Not for Burning, Turn The World Around, Count The Time and Angel of Bells. Glad we did since the "midnight" ritual seemed more than a tad off the mark. Our second set got pushed back to about 1:00am since the "ritual" was delayed. (Sponsors not ready on time!) It wasn't all that anyway, since it was more like a music video of a ritual... done on the rear stage withthe DJ blaring... colorful, but odd stuff. The crowd shook out to about a third each, NY Pagan community, NY Club crowd and Halloween revelers. So reactions were decidely mixed, with the old-time (what a concept) Pagans the least pleased it seemed to me. Our second, Sacred Drum Jam set was broken at the halfway mark by the costume judging, so we didn't get back on to finish up till after 2:00! LOOONG night for the winds. What made that more interesting was that Joe Mattize with the PA had to leave (Mynce Pye was done at 10:30!) Thanks for hanging around so long! So I had to fall back to our backup PA of two Sony boom boxes and our two semi-pro mikes. About half the watts and 1/4 the speaker size!!! So we had to push a bit to be heard. Of course the microphones picked up the ambient din of the house mix pouring out of the back and apmed that too... Can you say feedback!?
But, still with all that, the whole team went at it with enthusiasm, energy and confidence, sang well and put on a good show! I am SO proud of everyone! By the time we were done we were pretty empty! Went in with the tail end of a cold and ended up with my vocal cords pretty frazzed. After tear-down, most of us hit a 24-hour place called... are ya ready.. LYRIC Diner for supper/breakfast. Got home 'round sunrise.
Your truly took Monday off, heard myself croaking and called in sick and slept till the kids came home from school. went in Tuesday, still a little fried, but functional. The chorus is taking this week off, no rehearsals till next Tuesday, but we're doing the Pagan Spirituality Expo on Sunday. But that's a pretty informal networking day, not a performance event.
Sold very few discs at the ball. The event was WAY too expensive. Most folk had paid $20 at the door to get in and drinks ran $5 to $12!!! Heck, a 7-up was $3! So most revelers ended up dropping darn near $50 bucks just to get into the spirit of things. Left a lot of disposable income for buying CDs.. mutter grumble, even though lots of our homies congragulated us on the release!
My feeling about the Ball is that Mynce Pye and Us carried the event and supplied just about all of the Pagan Flavor, the rest felt like just another halloween Party. A lot of us felt that the sponsors went too far to accomodate the mainstream folk. But I think New Yorkers have wider heads than that and the Witches Ball should be... well, "witchy". If regular folk want to come visit, great, they're our honored guests. But they can be prepared to meet the Pagan world on more of it's home turf and own termsm. Sundays' event made the pagans feel kind of like outsiders at our own Ball. More of the "Witchyness" was tossed off to make a more "standard" club scene for the mundanes than I entirely approve of. Well, this year's event WAS an experiment, and hopefully the sponsors will learn a thing or tow for next year. Or pass the torch... Or accept some consulting... Or don't alienate their potential allies.... Sigh.
I don't know how much "pull" I have with the organizers. But I'm going to try to encourage splitting the difference for next year. But if the format is the same again, we may choose skip it. So overall, didn't SUK, but wasn;t great either. But we did our part and did it well!
The joys of Samhain be with you.
-Kurt Talking Stone
(Oh yeah.. my brain was screwed on straight when I wrote this.... didn't have all the relevant info at the time. Stupid.
Should have know better, take the heat like a grown-up, Shaman-boy -KTS 11/10/99)
WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION
We noticed that our rehearsal schedule in December has one of our dates a day away from The Winter Solstice. We decided to celebrate the day on Tuesday, December, 21, with an untypical weekday ritual celebration of the event. So to serve our community and the Bardic Arts we love so well, we will bring out once again The Songs of Solstice, a sing-it-yourself Choral Celebration of the Return of the Light.
We have reserved a large strudio space at CAP 21 so we can accomodate a fair crowd of our friends and guests. This will be open to the public, and all are welcome. Just show up be prepared to sing. This may also challange our creativity and put even more emphasis on the music, since the studio has some strict limitations on such things like open flames! Remains to be seen!The unsual weekeday evening event actually makes sense. Aside from proximity to the celstial date, it's also has the advantage of being a couple of days removed from the harried Holiday season weekends, already full of shopping, church, ritual, and family commitments. So we hope many of you out there will be free to attend. This particular ritual is fun, festive, suitable for the whole family and has been a real crowd pleaser!
OPEN CHORAL YULE CELEBRATION
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 7:00-9:30pm
CAP 21 Studios, Studio #3, 212 807-0202
Collaborative Arts Project, 18 West 18th Street, 6th Floor, NYCWe are planning an open, public Sing-It-Yourself Celebration of the Winter Solstice for ourselves and all our friends, fans and supporters. All are welcome as we greet the return of the light with joyous noise! Complete lyrics will be provided for all guests! This is a rented space, please arrive on time!
We'll be spending the next month or so working on distribting We Each Send A Voice and getting ready for the All Singing, Chanting and Dancing, Sing-it-Yourself Winter Solstice Celebration. See you there!Kurt Griffith/Talking Stone,
Choral DirectorMitaquye Oyasin * Blessed Be * Ashe * Shalom * A Salaam * Amen
