Lori Mechem: News

Open Your Heart was a tune that i wrote over 15 years ago with a couple of friends Tabitha Fair and Jet Penix. I happened to be listened to the old demo while i was laying on the table at the accupuncturist. The timing was right because of the recent Haiti earthquake. I took this as a sign to get moving on re-demoing it and getting it out asap.

So we started with the rhythm section (Roger Spencer, Marcus Finnie and me) and lead vocal, which was my friend J'nae Fincannon. We went to Alliant Studios and got a very good starting point. Jet was producing the whole way. J'nae totally killed it!! Than on February 13th, we got together again and put the 10 piece choir on. We had some wonderful people volunteer to come sing, Crystal Miller, J'nae Fincannon, Teree McCormick, Christina Watson, Maureen Murphy, Wayne Dowell, Sean Horenstein, Roger Taylor, Lindet Peoples and William Kenan II. We stacked the vocals 4 times so it sounded like a 40 voice choir. Everyone was so incredible. THAN.... came another fun part...gospel organist Ralph Loften came in and totally kicked butt! He was so great and added exactly what the song needed. After that... i went back and re-recorded the piano with the Steinway. It sounded so much better.

Jet and I mixed and finished the tune on February 26.

The great news is that my friend Monica Ramey will be using "Open Your Heart"as the theme song for Man and Woman of the Year campaign for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. This is a great honor and we donate 50% of sales from itunes, amazon.com and cdbaby to this organization. Thank you Monica for making a dream come true.

Also... i would like to think Jeff Hall for the amazing vocal arrangement and Heather Brand for the beautiful photography.

2009 has really been a very busy year so far. I started in January with a CD release of my 2nd Count Basie tribute "April in Paris" and now we are getting ready for another release of yet another great Ritmos Picantes CD!!
This was recorded for Green Hills Records and is a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim. Beautiful tunes and incredible arrangements by Jeff Steinberg. How can you go wrong!! Very proud of this one and can't wait to share it on August 23rd at our CD release party. I just couldn't of done without the incredible talent of my friends Denis Solee, Roger Spencer, Pete Hutlinger, Dann Sherrill and Chris Brown. No matter how much time has passed, we always gel and make great music together. Thanks Guys!!

After 5 1/2 weeks.... we have rose to 19 on the Jazz Charts. We are also in the top 40 of Bob Parlocha's list. This is very good. Have a few more weeks left so i feel good that it will rise a little more. Stay tuned

Friends,

Please read and lend your support in any way that you can. We truly need your help!

LOCAL JAZZ GROUPS RALLY TO SUPPORT JAZZ RADIO STATION


A coalition of nonprofit jazz organizations in Middle Tennessee is mounting a campaign to save public radio station WMOT, 89.5 FM. The station is on the list of programs that may be eliminated by Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) as part of state budget cuts.

In April, 2009 WMOT Jazz89 will celebrate its 40th year in operation. It is the only station in Middle Tennessee with a 24/7 mainstream jazz format, and one of the few left in the USA. It offers jazz related programming that includes shows hosted by professional staff and student DJs, top syndicated shows from NPR and other sources, and many CDs by Nashville jazz artists. As a major outlet in this area for what has long been called “America’s only original art form,” the disappearance of WMOT would be a terrible loss to the cultural life of Middle Tennessee.


In addition to the benefits WMOT provides to the community, the station is a major source of education and broadcast training of MTSU students. Attached is a partial listing of some of WMOT's "alumni" who have gone on to play important broadcast and media roles at the local, state, and national levels.

Participating in the effort to save WMOT are the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, Nashville Jazz Workshop , and Tennessee Jazz & Blues Society. The group is sponsoring an All-Star Jazz Rally for WMOT. The event will take place Sunday, February 15, 3:00 pm at Limelight, 201 Woodland Street, Nashville, TN 37213.

The event will feature music by many of Nashville’s top jazz artists, who are donating their time and talent to this event. The lineup so far includes:
* The Nashville Jazz Orchestra, with Connye Florance, Annie Sellick, Matt Belsante, and special guests Felix Cavaliere (of Rascals fame) and Diane Marino
* Victor Wooten
* Rod McGaha
* The Pat Coil Sextet
* Christina Watson
* El Movimiento, with Rahsaan Barber, Edwin Santiago, & Giovanni Rodriguez

Admission for the event is $15, with all proceeds going to support WMOT. The event organizers note that the low admission charge is intended to encourage as many people as possible to come, including fans of all types of music and the arts. At the event there will be information about additional ways that supporters can help the radio station.

For further information, contact:
Jim Williamson, 889-6335
jwilliamson6335@comcast.net

Additional information is also available at:
www.nashvillejazz.org (Nashville Jazz Workshop)
www.jazzblues.org (Tennessee Jazz & Blues Society)

We have in our hands our new "April In Paris" CD!!! This is another tribute to the music of Count Basie. There are so many great tunes that the Basie band recorded that i felt like we just weren't done!! Lots of Quincy Jones on this one!!! Our featured guest was saxophonist great, Pete Christlieb. WOW......I love him!!! He gave a wonderful new energy to this CD. Thanks PETE!!!
The CD release will be January 7th at 7pm at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. (www.nashvillejazz.org)
We will play a set and celebrate, so please come and hang with us!!
None of this would of happened without my favorite boys!!! Chris Brown, Roger Spencer and Andy Reiss... they are my rocks!!! Love them so much!! Thanks guys!

Just a brief note to let everyone know that our next Basie tribute, April in Paris is finished!!! Very excited about this one. Chris, Roger and Andy were absolutely brilliant on the cd with our special guest and friend Pete Christlieb. My favorite song we did with Pete was "From Russia with Love". Too cool of a tune.
His solo just knocked us all out! He also played on "Blue and Sentimental", "Vine Street Rumble" and "Jumpin' at the Woodside". Cd release party will be Wednesday, January 7th at 7pm at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Basie 2 cd is underway. We have 9 tunes already recorded and looking to finish rhythm tracks at the end of July. Than, in September Pete Christlieb will be visiting and guest on 5 of the tunes. Very excited about this!!! The title of the cd will be "April in Paril". Brian Parker will be doing the artwork again which will be fabulous. Once we get Pete on, we will mix and i will have this cd for a December/January release. Stay tuned.

So many of you have asked for me to do a 2nd Basie cd. The project is planned for April 14 and 15th 08. We will record probably half of the cd, mostly because it is physically so hard that I can't finish it in a few days.
I am really excited to play some of Basie's greatest hits and a few chestnuts too. This is the 2nd tribute cd i have done of Basie tunes.
Of course this will be with my quartet featuring Chris Brown, Andy Reiss, Roger Spencer and special guest Pete Christlieb. Looking forward to this project.
Hope you will too!!

Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that i am getting ready for another cd release of my solo piano meditation cd. This is something that has been in the works for a long time. The cd release is Sunday, January 6th at 4pm at the Nashville Jazz Workshop.
The cd is all originals, alot that i wrote many years ago and a few that is brand new.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Pete Christlieb and Lori Mechem Quartet cd is now 23 on the charts! This is only just a week of airplay. So we will probably continue to climb each day. YEA!!!
Very excited about this. Looks like I have to re-order the Shiny Stockings cd...i only have 50 left. We the Pete cd selling, we will surely get other sales from this

I am releasing my 4th cd on October 15th. It is my quartet, Andy Reiss, Roger Spencer and Chris Brown, featuring the great saxophonist, Pete Christlieb. It was recorded live at the Nashville Jazz Workshop in the Cave. Tom Knox did such a great mix on the cd, it just sounds great!
It's such a hard thing to get a good mix in a live setting, but between him and Jeff Hall helping, it really turned out great. We will have a little celebration Oct. 15th and Pete will be coming in from L.A. to hang and play a set with us. We will start radio promo in January because it is the right timing to do that. So, we hope to see you at the release party, it will be a swinging night!!!

OK... so another busy month. Our Fall Fundraiser was a big success and was very fun. All in the same week, I moved my parents in their new place 2 blocks away from the Workshop and had student performances that whole week. Our family also came in for the event, so we were really slammed. By the time we got done with everything, we both got colds. That totally sucked!!!
Now we are getting ready for our cd release party on October 15th. We are really looking forward to this.

The Jazz Workshop just had a break for 2 weeks and it was really good for us. It is good for us to just rest our minds for a while. I have to do that so that I am charged up to be able to finish out the year. We are now mixing our Pete Christleib cd that we recorded in April. Everyone has been so busy that we haven't go tten a chance to really work on it. Tom Knox is mixing for us and Brian Parker is doing the artwork. Can't wait to get it out, hopefully in September.

These months are going by so fast, I can't believe it. May has tamed down a little for the Jazz Workshop but not really for me. We have been planning for our build-out of the new space we are about to take at the Jazz Workshop. That takes a lot of patience and time, thanks to our board member Skip Lawrence, who will be doing the build-out. On May 19th, I will be auditioning for the Tennessee Arts Commission for a $5,000 grant. May 26th and 27th, Kevin Mahogany will be coming to the Workshop and I will be playing with him. Looking forward to that.

I have been really busy this month and very excited about the people that I have gotten to play with. On April 8th, we had our annual Jazz at the Workshop and performed with jazz legends Ed Thigpen and Houston Person. What an honor it was to play with these guys! It felt so cool sitting across from Ed Thigpen. It was also very cool to play with Houston. He plays ballads so well, makes the girls scream!

On April 18th and 19th, I did a "live" recording in the Cave with Pete Christleib and my quartet. This was really alot of fun and I think we will have a very nice cd hopefully ready by summer.
That weekend, I performed with Kirk Whalum at NJW. He is so wonderful and everyone loved it.
The week of April 24th, we started new classes at the Workshop. So it has been a busy April.