Cathi Walkup: Blog

Occasionally life hands you a wonderful blessing all tied up with a bow and you can only accept and say thank you, thank you, thank you!

How could I know that years ago when I first came across Anita Wardell's music, www.anitawardell.com , on the internet (and immediately bought three of her CDs) and dropped her a note, that we would become friends, that years later I would meet and hear her in person in London and that years after that I would be running a jazz  party series in the SF Bay area to which she would come and sing?  And the bonus of having her stay with us for two weeks - icing on a great big giant cake with a cherry on top! 

From the moment I picked her up from her flight to the moment I dropped her off at SFO to reluctantly send her back to London,  we laughed, talked and shared stories over endless cups of tea, comparing notes on the music business on both sides of the pond - pretty universal as it turns out.

We went out to hear singers we both love (Rebecca Paris and Jennifer Lee), watched the building next door burn to the ground (to the water, actually because we live on an estuary) and the boat that was tied to the building burn through it's mooring ropes and float down the estuary like a Viking funeral pyre (we don't do that for everyone who visits - just so you know).

I drove her up to Sebastopol to sing at Ernie Shelton's House Concert series with Larry Dunlap and sat  and basked in the amount of incredible music that two awesome musicians can create together.  It was also wonderful to get a tour of Ernie's garden, see his and Susan's beautiful house and see how someone else runs their series. 

The next day she taught a class on improvisation at the Jazz School in Berkeley and then did Bird's Nest Jazz (our series).

Somewhere in here we had a singer's dinner with Laurie Antonioli, Jennifer Lee, Shanna Carlson, me, Anita, and Karen Jeffries.  Anita got to catch up on the lives of friends and we all got to catch up on each other and enjoy the fabulous food at Le Cheval.

She took a side trip up to Seattle to do Nich Anderson's house concert up there and another event as well.  I had a gig of my own to distract me while she was gone (Ladies of Jazz, four singer/songwriters at Noe Valley Ministry Music Series). 

Through all this we sang each other songs & lyrics, played music for each other, she showed me a fantastic method of improvising over chord changes and we made plans for getting together on her side of the pond - perhaps with my singing/touring there and doing a workshop with her students (watch this space as details develop).

In any case she'll be back next June - to teach at Jazz Camp West - and I can hardly wait to see her again!

Cathi