Friends! I hope this message meets you well!! So the world sometimes seems to be off its nut a bit more than usual lately.... and so to not get too crazy myself I'm just staying super busy. I'm a voice teacher now, I teach youth voice lessons at Afro American Music Institute and We Rock Workshop. I'm performing with my jazz band The Cultural District and also with The Lemington Gospel Chorale. I have been spending a bulk of my time working super hard on this project I've been building with Liz Berlin. She's been my friend for over 2 decades and our project "Social Justice Disco: Songs to Fight Fascists By" is really one of the few things keeping me sane right now.
As a musician, an artist, it's my sacred duty to respond to reality through song. I am called to tell the stories as I see them through melody, harmony and rhythm. I have since my youth been passionate about peace and justice. This is an album I have been preparing to create for decades. I'm blessed beyond reason that my friendship with Liz Berlin has brought me to a place where it's becoming reality. I could not build this music without her and we can't truly build it without you. We're not making this music by or for ourselves. We're able to make it because so many have been generous with their resources, both creative and financial.
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| https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/socialjusticedisco |
This is my last personal ask to you to support this album. I have less than a week on our Pledge Music campaign and I'm sure all my friends and fans are like "why is she still asking for help with this album and why isn't it out yet?!?" And I want to explain to you.... I'm a working artist. I don't make a lot of money in this world. I did the math... in my 22 years of performing as Phat Man Dee I have spent $50000 recording music. I have paid musicians, hired local studios, paid local artists and I am proud of our collective work. I am proud of the recordings and I feel like I have presented the incredible musicians with whom I've been fortunate to work in the best light I could. Sometimes I get a little twinge in my soul that calls me crazy and my inner voice is like "fool you coulda done paid off your house by now" but I quiet it with chord progressions and deeper rhythms.
I'm not supposed to use language like "fundraiser....help...support" but l can't think of what else I can say except this album I've been birthing with Liz Berlin is the best and hardest thing I've ever done in my life and we need some help. It takes about $15000 to really independently record a record correctly with just a normal sized band, and we have over 50 people on ours. We raised about $3000 last fall and we have about $1100 on our Pledge Music site now, and because Liz owns the studio where we recorded we were spared the biggest of the bills, but we have stretched every dollar til it screams and we can at this moment put the record out but we'll have no money at all for marketing and promotions. And if I learned one thing at the CD Baby conference I went to in Nashville....I learned that the reason people spend so much money on promoting music is because they HAVE to. Great music doesn't just rise to the top. It's not magic, it does have to be good but that's not enough.
Please, I don't want to put this record out and not get it heard by all those who need to hear it. 50 people poured themselves creatively into it and they sound amazing. Don't let it go unheard.
If you're following me on here then it's because you like what I do. Please support it and help make sure this record gets heard all over the world. Please, I'm working so hard, I have gigs, I teach, I pay bills, I pay local people, I sing at benefits all the time for worthy causes and I just need a little help. I have less than a week on this.
Upcoming gigs!
Friday October 13, 2017
I'll be singing at Center of Asylum with Howard Alexander on piano and Miguel Sague III on conga! 8 pm, all ages!
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Tickets are free but must be reserved:
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October 17, 2017
Tune It! Tuesdays - a community oriented jam session at Black Forge Coffeehouse at 1206 Arlington Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15210
All ages, $3 unless you're coming to sit in, 6-9 p.m.
Evening sponsored by Neighborhood Allies Love My Neighbor grant and Drusky Entertainment and Copies at Carson Inc!
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https://www.facebook.com/events/1951229255133134/this event happens every 3rd Tuesday through August 2018 |
One last thing, many people are doing what we can to support Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the other islands in the Caribbean. In Pittsburgh my friend Gloria is putting together a drive to collect items and here is the info on her Pittsburgh Stands With Puerto Rico drive: https://www.facebook.com/events/119902155317866/
May the Universe and the Great Creator bless and keep you in this time of uncertainty and may truth and justice prevail.
XOXO
XOXO
Phat Man Dee
