Jami Jackson, R&B Singer/Songwriter

There is a Balm in Gilead

2011-04-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, April 10th, I lead two songs for church service, "There is a Balm in Gilead" and "I Don't Feel No Ways Tired". I sang these songs without practicing beforehand, but what I like about singing at my church is that most of my performances are on the spot. The choir director asks me to sing and so I sing. It really helps me to learn to sing on the spot and to deliver a message right then and there. I have been working on how I sing the songs, so I try to experiment with my voice while I sing to sing songs differently each time. It's a lot of fun, so I'm glad I have a chance to express myself vocally in church.

"You Alone are God"

2011-03-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

During church service on March 27th, I sang a gospel song called, "You Alone are God". This song was written by Ron Hubbard and has been sung by Marvin Sapp. It was the first time that I sang this song live, so it was a really moving. I love the words to this song because it is so true; there is only one God and he deserves the praise. The music is also so pretty, and the choir really helped me to sing it. I have also included another video of me singing "Guide My Feet" at the end of church service.

Divas Underground Concert Marathon on St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

On March 17th, I performed for the Divas Underground Concert Marathon, sponsored by the MTA. The MTA started a program called the Music Under New York program to help underground musicians be a part of an official music program. In New York City, it is common to find musicians performing underground at different subway stations, but this program allows musicians to perform with amplified sound. It is illegal, otherwise, to perform underground with amplified sound.

I have been a part of this program for two years now, and it has been a wonderful experience! I love singing underground in front of unsuspecting travelers. Setting up for the show is always a little hectic, because I'm trying to test the sound while the travelers look at me curiously, but can't stay to listen. But once I start singing, it's nice to see the crowds start to develop. They just don't suspect the my strong voice in the noise of the subway station! Because it's underground, the crowds get larger and smaller, depending on the song and where I am in the song, but I always get people who ask for a flyer, who tell me that I should be on American Idol and the X-factor, you know, the usual!

This event was particularly fun because it was an all day event. There were female performers at Union Square from 12pm to 8pm, so it was day of diverse kinds of music. It was also St. Patrick's Day, so there were many people celebrating that holiday that night. I always enjoy the opportunity to perform in front of new people. Here are a couple of short videos and a picture from that night. Enjoy and share with your friends!

FLEX Cuban Choir gets Gold Award for singing "Keep Walkin' On"

2011-01-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

On November 21st, 2010, 2 translators from Cuba came to present to me a recording from the FLEX Cuban choir and a note of thanks. The translators gave the presentation in front of my church during service. The story about the translators is actually really funny - they never met the choir before they go the recording. It just so happened that they were in Cuba, and their tour guide was the father of the choir leader for Flex Choir. The tour guide found out that the translators were from Brooklyn and said, "Oh, so you must know Jami!". It just so happens that my church is in Brooklyn, so it worked out that they were able to get in touch with me and present to me the gift. The FLEX Choir really wanted to show their appreciation for the use of my song, "Keep Walkin' On". They participated in contests in Cuba by singing the song and won a number of awards. They won a Gold Award in the competition with all the different schools of Havana University. They also won a Gold Award at the university level. Lastly, they won a Bronze Award at the provincial level competition with the other universities. I was so excited to listen to the recording and to read the words that they had to say. In the letter, the choir talked about how they sang the song with love. It was truly a touching moment. The video above is a recording of the choir performing the song live.

Mentoring in Medicine Walking Program

2011-01-11T18:06:00.001-08:00

On December 4th, 2010, I performed for the Mentoring in Medicine Walking Program and Closing Ceremony. There were over 500 people in attendance for this event. The walking program's theme was, "Celebrating our Steps", so my song, "Keep Walkin' On" fit perfectly with the event. Everyone really enjoyed the song. A few people after the event inquired about the music and wanted to hear more. I also met Dave Nash, a former NBA player. It was so awkward to be standing next to him, because he is 7 feet and I am 2 feet shorter! But he was really nice and seemed to be used to the response to his height. I felt really good to sing an inspirational song for the purposes of healthy living.

FLEX Choir Performs on April 7

2010-04-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the FLEX Cuban Choir while they were having their performance at the Festival in Havana. They performed "Keep Walkin' On" and they have advanced to the next level of the competition with my song. There were 44 youths in the choir, though 10 boys were missing in the picture. Their next performance will be on April 28th. I'll let you know how it goes!! They are having a blast with their shows!

Rehearsal of FLEX Choir Singing, "Keep Walkin' On"

2010-04-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the FLEX Choir practicing "Keep Walkin' On". You can tell they were having a lot of fun with this song!

Flex Choir, a Cuban Choir, Will Sing "Keep Walkin' On" During the Annual Festival "Flex Cultural Festiva" in April 2010

2010-03-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Flex Choir, a choir of University students between the ages of 18 and 23, will be singing "Keep Walkin' On" as one of their featured songs for FLEX Cultural Festival! The festival is held every year in a large theater in Havana, Cuba. Last year, there were just over 1000 people in the theater and they had a great response from the crowd during their performance. The choir has about 40 voices and the students sing in English. The festival is organized by the Federation of University students and it comprises many artistic expressions such dancing, singing, choirs, story telling, jokes, pantomimes, fashion shows, etc. The word FLEX is the acronym in Spanish for School of Foreign Languages. During the festival, the choirs compete among different schools of Havana University to become the best choir. If they win the competition, they will compete among different universities all over the country of Cuba to be the best choir. Last year, they won the competition at the festival as the best choir! Let's hope theyw in again!

I will post 2 more pictures of the Flex choir in my photos section. I will also post a video or audio recording of their performance on my website. "Keep Walkin' On" is making an international impact!

Jami Jackson's Rendition of the classic hit "Greatest Love of All"

2009-12-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

At my performance at the Broadway Baby Bistro, I performed "Greatest Love of All", made famous by Whitney Houston. David Berry played the song on the piano and it was a perfect song to perform live because I did not need background vocals or more instruments that a piano. It was a real hit! I first performed the song in high school with my school choir. I remember when the choir director played the song on the piano and I was singing in the big stage of a theater all by myself in front of a huge audience of the parents and teachers. I was betwee 15 and 16 years old. I was so nervous, but the song turned out great! It was nice performing this song again at my own show.

Jami Jackson's New Version of "Sista Girl"

2009-12-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

For my performance at the Broadway Baby Bistro, I performed a new rendition of "Sista Girl". "Sista Girl" is an original song off of my "Call My Name" album. It was co-written by my mother, Sandra Carr Jackson. My mother was inspired by my sister to write the song and wanted to write something uplifting for all women out there, in addition to the men that support them. I really like the version that is on my album, but it was difficult to recreate that song for a live show with no background vocals. So, we changed the music entirely to fit the show. I really like how it turned out, but it's a work in progress. If you like it, let me know!

The Audition for Dreamgirls on Broadway

2009-11-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

So on Saturday, November 22nd, I auditiioned for the Dreamgirls Broadway Show. I was soo excited to audition because I thought it would be a great opportunity for me. They were looking for African American females in their twenties for the parts of Effie, Deena, Lorrell, and Michelle. It's an equity broadway show, but they had open auditions for people who were not equity. I'm not an equity actress, so it worked out for me. Equity is a union for actors and actresses, but one hasto do an equity show before they can join. There were a couple auditions for the broadway show, so it worked out with my schedule.
However, I did not know what I was getting myself into! The audition was at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, which I originally thought was cool, until I had to wait outside in the cold for 3 hours! It never got above 30 degrees outside! And the wind was vicious. Of course, silly me, I was trying to be cute for the audition, so I decided that I didn't need gloves or a hat. I did have enough wherewithal to wear a wool coat, but still! What was really funny about the audition was that a girl that I knew from college, who graduated before me, came right in the line after me! It was very unexpected because I hadn't talked to her for about two years, but I was so glad to see her there, and she was glad to see me. Had she not been there, I might have thought really hard about turning around and going home. But I didn't!
Not only was it freezing outside, the line was extremely long! It wrapped around the corner of the building. I was number 376 and I think there were more than 450 people there total! I had no idea that many people were going to show up. I had previously auditioned for the broadway show Rent and I literally walked in and walked out of the audition. As soon as I got there, I was able to audition because there was hardly any line. Apparently, though, the producers of Dreamgirls on Broadway advertised the auditions everywhere!
Now let me tell you about the demographics of the line. The auditions were supposed to be of women in their 20s, but seriously, there were women who were in their 40s and 50s auditioning too. I'm like, really? It was clearly written what ages the producers were looking for, but these women were in denial. It goes to show you that dreams never die! Not only were women way over their 20s, there were a good portion of women singing songs from the Dreamgirls soundtrack. Not that there's anything wrong with singing those songs, but it is too predictable. And the chances of someone else singing the same song is high. There were more "And I am telling you" renditions than I could count!
I ultimately auditioned with the song, "Never loved a man (the way that I love you)" sung by Aretha Franklin. Thankfully, they let us sing 16 bars, so that ended up being the first verse of the song, which was exactly what I wanted to sing. I love that song because it's got a lot of attitude, dynamics, and hits it hard at the end, in a short amount of time. We also had an accompanist which was nice because I didn't have to sing acapella. It was like deja vu because I had auditioned with the same song for the Amateur night and Showtime at the Apollo auditions. It was very cold when I auditioned for that as well and the line was extremely long. But this time felt different from then. The casting directors that I auditioned for seemed to really like me. They said I should definitely hear back from them is a week. Of course, I am to putting that much stock into those words. I definitely felt like I did great in the audition, but you never know about what these people really want. My look or voice may just not be what they are looking for, or it may be exactly what they are looking for. But it's got nothing to do with talent. So we'll see...maybe I'll hear something soon!

Jami Jackson is Presented the Rock Star Artist Award by LIFEbeat

2009-11-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

For Halloween this year, I tried to dress up as a Dreamgirl. However, everyone swore I looked like Diana Ross, so I decided to tell everyone I dressed up as Diana Ross. A choir member from my church gave me a gold dress that she used to wear back in the day with gold shoes to match, so I thought it would be great to dress it up for Halloween. I had actually auditioned for the Dreamgirls Broadway show in this same outfit, with the wig and everything. It was a lot of fun wearing this outfit, because I would never have another opportunity to wear an outfit like it and not look wacky!

LIFEbeat had their annual Volunteer Appreciation Party on October 27th. I had a great time there! I went to it last year, but I didn't dress up then. When I went last year, a lot of other people were dressed up in really cool outfits. One couple was dressed up as Huggies Kisses, with full aluminum foil outfits. I felt really out of place, so I wanted to make sure that I dressed up this year. There was a really good turnout of people at this event. There must have been a least a hundred people. There were a lot less people who dressed up, but there were a couple of really good outfits. One couple dressed up as Marilyn Monroe and JFK. There was also really great free food served. There were hor d'oeuvres throughout the event: coconut shrimp, pigs in a blanket, and chicken sticks. I made sure to be first in line each time the waiters came out! There was also an open bar of champagne provided by Barefoot Bubbly and dance music provided by DJ Boo. We were all jammin' to Michael Jackson and some people were even breaking out the Thriller dance!

LIFEbeat also presented the Hearts and Voices Rock Star Artist award to me for this year. I was really happy to receive the award. They cited the work that I did with the NY AIDS Walk 2009 and with "Keep Walkin' On" as the reason why I won the award this year. It was nice getting recognized for doing something positive. I hope to continue to help others and make an impact in this way in the future.

Jami Jackson's First Solo Performance at the Broadway Baby Bistro

2009-11-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

On November 10th, I had a great performance at the Broadway Baby Bistro!!! It was my first solo live performance at a night club. I have performed in shows all of my life, but this was the first of its kind for me. It was a wonderful experience preparing for the show and coming up with the music. I worked with a talented pianist named David Berry on the set. I originally wanted to do a show that would feature a full band, but I decided to make it simple this first time. David Berry is getting his Ph.D. degree in Classical Piano from Julliard. He is an excellent player. Even though the show only featured my voice with the piano and no background vocals, he was able to full up the songs with his playing. He would play solos for some of the songs and he would pick out some really cool licks to play in the songs. We worked really well together to prepare for the show. I also had to adjust how I sang the songs. Because I had no background vocalists, I had to sing the verses and hooks and ad lib, while still maintaining the chorus. It is definitely a lot harder doing these kinds of shows instead of singing to karaoke tracks! But I LOVED it!!!! I did not even spend a lot of time promoting the show, but I had a great turn-out of people. My friends, coworkers, piano teacher, members from my church, and even people that I never met, came to my show. My parents came up all the way from DC in a bus to see me perform. It is a great thing to be a part of such a great group of people. I realized that I had a real family in NYC. And that evening was beautiful outside. It was a mild night, not too cold, and thankfully, it wasn't raining. The music just filled up the room and my voice was strong all the way to the end. Everything went exactly as planned. I am still putting up the videos, but this video that I have is the opener selection of my show, "Keep Walkin' On". It was nice to sing it stripped down like this. Everyone had great things to say about the show. Some said it was inspirational, moving, some were brought to tears. I am so happy to give a gift that not only touched other people, but touched me as well. I have wanted to do a show like this for a long time; so I was able to release a part of myself to my audience. It was a liberating experience! I plan to do another show around the end of January or beginning of February. These shows are just the beginning!!!

Jami Jackson Performs at the ING NYC Marathon

2009-11-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Performing at the NYC Marathon on November 1st was a lot of fun!! The night before, I went to a Halloween party in Harlem, not too far from where I lived. Although I knew that I had to sing in the morning, I still wanted to take advantage of Halloween being on a Saturday. The Saturday night parties were bountiful! And it was even better to have an extra hour to party, since it was Daylight's Savings Time at 2pm on November 1st. So I had to take advantage. For Halloween this year, I was dressed up as Diana Ross. I had a gold dress and gold shoes and a cute wig. I'll post a picture of me in the next blog.

That Sunday morning, I had to wake up semi-early to get ready. I needed to be at the location at 125th and 1st avenue at 9:30am, but it wasn't far from where I lived. There was a forecast of rain in the morning, so the coodinators of the marathon said that we could come out after the rain ended to avoid destroying our equipment. I arrived at the location around 10am. However, it was so hard to get there! A lot of the streets were blocked off and as a result, there was a lot of traffic. We finally got on the FDR to the location. Once we got there, it was relatively easy to find parking and access the location. I had my volunteer badge and permit ready in case there was any trouble!

The location was basically the street where the runners were going to pass me. It wasn't a sectioned off area or nook. I set my equipment, an amplifier, microphone, and ipod, up behind where the onlookers were going to be. When I started performing, the people waiting for the runners started to get interested in me. One man who was part of the FDNY asked if I had auditioned for American Idol. I can't count the number of times people have asked me that!! It's a compliment though because they believe in my talent enough to make it on that show. A couple other people were interested in who I was as an artist, and some people were dancing to my music. I kept the show short, to about 30 minutes at a time. I would sing a couple of songs, and then pause, then a couple more. In the beginning of the marathon, a few people would run by at a time, so I sang when they were close to us. I decided not to sing for an extended period of time in the beginning. I was able to see the professional women and men athletes run in the morning. They were surrounded by cops and media. It was interesting seeing them and then seeing who actually won. There were so many runners who came after them! It seemed like a neverending number of runners. It was amazing seeing so many people run the 26.2 miles! I could never run that many miles at one time!

It was a great experience being at the marathon and being able to say that I performed for so many hardworking people. Running the marathon is a real feat, but performing there was even better for me!

Rehearsal for My First Show on November 10

2009-11-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

David Berry and I have been working really hard to prepare for my show on November 10th! We've been rehearsing since October and have met for hours at a time preparing. David Berry is a talented pianist who will be accompanying me during the show. He is actually getting his Ph.D. in Classical Piano at Julliard. He has a great musical ear and he is very patient. He is also the musical director at All Angels Church in Manhattan. He has been a real blessing for me in this whole process. I actually found him through Craigslist (big-up to Craigslist! :) Although there are a lot of spam and crazies on Craigslists, sometimes you will find a real gem. David is exactly that.

I decided to do a show because I really wanted to have a chance to perform solo at a club. I have been performing all of my life and throughout NYC, but I have never performed my own set at a night club. I have mostly performed for other venues who were putting on their own productions and shows. I originally wanted to pull a whole band together to perform shows in the city, but it was too cumbersome to have a full band. Summer of 2007, I had tried to pull together a small band with a guitar player, bass player, and drummer, but even that fell through eventually. The bass player moved back to Israel and it was hard to replace him. I was trying to find band members who would play for me for free and split show money. However, when musicians are not getting paid, they are not as dedicated to the group and they have their own agenda and ideas for the group. It just got really messy and eventually I scrapped the idea.

The coordinator of LIFEbeat, Erika Banks, told me that she did a solo show with a pianist over the Summer. I wasn't even aware that there were many shows in NYC with solely piano and voice....I had just assumed that most shows consisted of a full band. Once I heard how successful her show was with just her singing and a pianist playing, I was convinced that I could do the same. So far, it has been a wonderful process. David is such a great player and in the spots where I am not singing, he makes up for it with the music. I picked songs that I could sing well without background vocals. I must say, that is the most difficult part of the process, singing songs with no background support. It really helps to take some of the work off the lead singer and have the background vocals pick up some of the slack. However, it is great practice to entertain a crowd with just my voice.

The picture above is the chord chart of my song, "I'll let you go" that we are going to perform on Tuesday. So that you can get a taste of what my show is going to sound like, I have uploaded the song "Greatest Love of All" from our rehearsal last week. I recorded the song on my mini recorder, so the quality is not the best, but you should be able to get a good idea of the song. I'm also going to post pictures and videos of the show after the show next week. If you're in NYC, I hope you can make it. If not, definitely look for pictures and videos next week!

The Battle is the Lords Solo

2009-11-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, October 25, I sang "The Battle is the Lords", made famous by Yolanda Adams. I was actually singing the song in the place of another lead singer of our church. The other lead singer called out sick that morning with vocal issues and no one else in the choir knew how to sing the song. The speaker of the service had their whole sermon based on "The Battle is the Lords". So, I volunteered to sing the song and cover for the other singer. It turned out to be a really great selection! I didn't have a chance to practice the song, so I was hoping that I would be able to successfully deliver it. A lot of the church members came up to me after and said they enjoyed the song. I am glad that I was able to make a difference after such a short notice. My church makes CDs of the service, so I have an mp3 of the song.

Balloon Boy Story of the Day and Choir Rehearsal

2009-10-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

The story of the day today was the 6 year old boy who was thought to be caught in a homemade balloon flying craft earlier this afternoon. It was such a bizarre story to hear about! I was very surprised to hear that a family had built this large aircraft from scratch - it was a 5 foot high and 20 foot long object. There was footage online of the balloon flying 50 miles in the air because everyone thought the boy was still in it. The sibling of the boy said that the boy took off inside the balloon in their house. Longmont, Colorado had to shut down one of their busiest airports to help save the boy and even the military got involved. The Colorado Army National Guard sent a UH-58 Kiowa helicopter and was going to send a Black Hawk UH-60 to try to rescue the boy. They also were working with pilots of ultralight aircraft on the possibility of putting weights on the homemade craft to weigh it down. An operation of this sort is not free; apparently the the Black Hawk helicopter was in the air for nearly three hours and the Kiowa helicopter was airborne for about one hour. The Black Hawk costs about $4,600 an hour to fly, and the Kiowa is $700 an hour. All of this media attention and cost came down to the boy being home the whole time. I was very relieved to find out that he was alive and safe. He ended up hiding in a cardboard box in the garage because his father had yelled at him earlier and for getting in the compartment earlier. It was such a wacky story, but I'm glad it ended well.

I also had choir rehearsal today at First Presbyterian Church. We sang "Jordan's Angels", "The Clouds' Mist", and "Halleluyah". We also sang Kirk Franklin's "My Life, My Love, My All". "My Life, My Love, My All" is one of my favorite songs of Kirk Franklin's. I especially love singing the alto part. I am a soprano, but the alto part of this song is particularly beautiful. It adds such nice harmony to the song. The words are also very simple, but easy to relate to. I love a lot of Kirk Franklin's music because of his choir and the words of his songs. My favorite song of his song, "Now Behold The Lamb". It's a Christmas song, but I can hear it any time of the year. I love the piano in the beginning of the song and the lead singer who begins sings with so much feeling. It quickly gets me into the Christmas spirit!

Overall, choir rehearsal was good tonight. We got through a lot of the music that we wanted to do. We are planning to go out for karaoke tomorrow at Duets. I'm going to take pictures because it's going to be a lot of fun! I'll post pictures in the next blog post.

FPC Choir and the Pastoral Installation Service in Connecticut

2009-09-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, September 20, I performed with the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn Choir at First Congregation Church in Stamford, Connecticut. Reverend Dr. Cari Jackson, a previous interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church, was being installed as the Senior Pastor at First Congregation Church. It meant a lot for our choir to sing at her installation in Connecticut because she had been at our church for over 2 years and we all had a special bond with her. Pastor Cari has a way with words. Her sermons are so easy to relate to, you would think she was speaking to you personally. All kinds of people, young and old, all from diverse backgrounds, could relate to her words. It's amazing, actually, how well she could speak about God and his existence in our life. One phrase that she always closed with us was, "God is as close as your very breath. Breathe deeply and know that God's presence is with you".

Pastor Cari is not your typical pastor. She is a black, female, lesbian reverend who holds not only a Ph.D., but also a law degree. She is a lover of words and she writes poems when she is not preaching. The choir rode in a bus to the church in Connecticut and it took a little over an hour to get there. It was fun riding together in anticipation of the service. We really didn't know what we were getting into; we didn't know how the other church would be or how they would react to us. The First Congregation Church was established 365 years ago, in 1635. They had years and years of white pastors at the church. This service would be the first time that they had a Black, female, and gay pastor installed as Senior Pastor. It was truly a historic service. Read the press release.

During the service, we sang "Come, Let Us Worship the Lord", "No Ways Tired", "Order My Steps", and a few other hymns. I co-lead "Order My Steps" with Bertilla Baker, a great singer and actress. Bertilla has been a lead singer for the choir for many years and is a beloved member of the church. LaChanze FordJour was at the service and performed a song. She was the winner of the 2006 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a musical for her role of Celie in the Broadway Musical, The Color Purple. She performed, "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me" and it was excellent! Her voice was so full and dynamic and she really connected to the song. Also, after the service, LaChanze and her husband, Derek Fordjour, both complimented me on my performance of "Order My Steps". They were both really impressed at my delivery of the song. It was nice to get such a compliment from LaChanze.

Overall, the service was a real success. Pastor Cari got the recognition and celebration that she deserved. First Congregation Church is entering a new chaptor by installing Pastor Cari and are headed towards real change. In the history books of First Congregation Church, installing Pastor Cari was like the inauguration for President Obama. I am glad that I was able to witness such a great historic event.

Final Summer Concert Series Show at First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn

2009-09-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

On August 20, I performed a mini concert at FPC to conclude their summer concert series for the year. The concert series included hymn sings, where the choir would sing songs from the hymn, an art show, guitar band, brass band, and a mini orchestra. All of these concerts took place outside on the steps of the church in Brooklyn Heights. Brooklyn Heights is a quiet and quaint area of Brooklyn, so our music series was very conspicuous. They were a lot of fun, however! The weather was really nice for most of the series. We also had wine served and sweets like brownies and ice cream. It was a nice way to fellowship outside and enjoy the summer nights.

My concert was particularly interesting. We had started about half an hour late because of technical difficulties. When I arrived to perform, I was surprised to see already a full house! All of the rest of the summer series started 10-15 minutes late because we were waiting for a crowd, but at my concert everyone was ready to see me! I was really excited to see all of the support. After we had the music ready for the show, I started rockin' and rollin'. I sang original songs, cover songs, and some gospel songs. I opened with "Keep Walkin' On" and everyone loved it. I also sang "You Gotta be" by Des' Re and "Shackles" by Mary Mary. I also sang "Sista Girl", a song that I wrote. People in the neighborhood who walked by the church stopped and listened to me. There was one group that stopped and listened to my entire concert! I was very happy to draw such an audience. A blogger for Brooklyn took a picture of me and mentioned me in their blog. You can check out the blog here: http://mcbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2009/08/final-music-concert-at-first...
Overall, it was a wonderful experience. People were still talking about the concert weeks later.

National Anthem at the USTA Eastern Family Day Grassroot's Challenge

2009-08-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

I had such a great time singing for the USTA Eastern's Father's Day Family Grassroots Challenge!! I had to get up really early in the morning to prepare. I got up at 5:30am in order to get ready to sing later. I was planning to sing around 8am, but it ended up being around 9am. Everything was so hectic; the tech crew was still looking for the mic around 8:30am, the players were still gathering together to meet for the opening ceremony, and everything had to be in place to start the opening ceremony.

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis center, where tennis greats such as Venus and Serena have played, is such a huge place that the coordinators had to have walkie-talkies just to get around. Even with these devices, it was still hard to communicate. I had been practicing the National Anthem for the past few weeks before the event. I practiced for so long because I forgot about how difficult the song is!! I had sang the National Anthem at other sporting events in the past felt very comfortable with the song, however, I needed to brush up on a few parts of the song. I decided to sing the song in the Key of G, which gets up to a high D. I'm a belter, so I had to belt out that high D multiple times and that takes practice!! However, on Saturday, it went well and there were no issues. Everyone loved my rendition of the song. I don't think people were expecting such a strong voice from someone like me that early in the morning - I blew them away!! The event coordinators recorded the whole ceremony! See the video here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1BYdxcXPY&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3]

I was a little nervous that the whole event was going to be cancelled because on Thursday night, the weather had forecast rain all weekend long and the event coordinators were starting to think about cancelling. However, on Friday they decided to go forward with the event and see what happens. It was clear that morning when I sang the National Anthem, but later that afternoon, it did start to rain. It's too bad it rained because it was an outdoor event where parents and children played against each other in tennis. I hope that they had enough time to enjoy the tournament before the rain started.

It was also really nice to see Michelle Paterson, the Governor David Paterson's wife, speak during the opening ceremony. She spoke about her platform on the importance of leading healthy lives through physical activity. She had her bodyguards there of course, but her demeaner was very approachable and sincere. It was nice being able to share the stage with someone like her!

Jami Jackson Supports the AIDS Walk NY 2009 Campaign

2009-06-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

The AIDS Walk NY event in May turned out great!! There were so many people there! The AIDS Walk said that there were 45,000 people walking and it definitely looked like that many. The people came in heaps and walked along Central Park. It was amazing seeing so many people in 1 location walking. And everyone was so happy to be there! The people were very diverse, all colors, ages, sexual orientation, etc. Most importantly, everyone seemed happy to be there. I also saw a lot of old friends there, some of whom I haven't spoken to in years. There was rain at first that started in the early morning, but it cleared up by the time the walk started at 10am, thankfully! I didn't have to worry about the rain cutting my performance short. It was also really cold outside. It was only in the 60s, but the wind was whipping and the sun peeked beyond the clouds. Even still, I had a wonderful time performing. Everyone really enjoyed the music and some were even dancing in the street. "Keep Walkin' On" was especially fun to perform. Although most of the walkers had never heard of the song, almost everyone immediately started to dance and sing to it. It was really a perfect song for the event. I ended up raising $535 for the campaign and my team, LIFEbeat, raised $16,795.79! The total 2009 funds raised to date for the AIDS Walk NY were $5,603,409!! It was such a positive experience raising money for the AIDS Walk. I'm so glad that we were able to raise this much money, especially in these economic times. With these funds, we will be able to help someone living with HIV/AIDS in the city and hopefully, be one step closer to a cure.

The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" show

2009-05-13T20:52:00.001-07:00

I had a really great radio interview for the BlogTalk Internet Radio Show (the fastest growing internet audience) called, "Caviar and Chitterling" tonight at 8pm (EST). Caviar & Chitterling, a spin-off from TaylorMade Media's critically acclaimed "As Powerful As You Want To Be" PR Boot Camp, hosted by PR Expert, Karen Taylor Bass. Caviar & Chitterling empowers African-American entrepreneurs, small biz owners and individuals to implement real PR strategies to grow their biz, revenue and contact base and at the same time get involved with the issues that impact their communities.

Last night's show was entitled, "The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" and we talked about my professional singing career, the motivation for "Keep Walkin' On", and my message to others to stay motivated in life. It was a great show! I had so many things to say about working in the business of music and social media tips. I also had great questions from the audience. I really hope that my interview helped someone else become more motivated to work toward their goals. Here is the podcast of the show to listen:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Caviar--Chitterling/2009/05/13/Are-You-Living-Your-Purpose-Learn-How-Volunteerism-Is-The-New-Green-

Enjoy!

The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" show

2009-05-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Caviar--Chitterling/2009/05/13/Are-You-Living-Your-Purpose-Learn-How-Volunteerism-Is-The-New-Green-

Enjoy!

Greenevers Annual Fireman's Parade

2009-05-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Greenevers Parade in April was a blast!! I was really happy to see my family and friends and the actual parade was a lot of fun. I grew up watching the parade as a child and always wished that I could be in one of the cars along the route. I finally got that chance! I was posted up in a really nice and brand new car with a driver and I waved all the way from the beginning to the end. It was interesting looking at all of the faces and expressions. Some people were curious, some were just really excited. There were many other cool participants in the parade. There were the winners of the Miss Greenevers pageant, the Mayor, the actual firemen, men on horses, and other groups of people. They really publicized the event and featured me in their newspaper as the main entertainment. There must have been hundreds of people there. There was a lot of candy being thrown out as well. The day started out a little cool, but then it heated up really fast. Once we got near my performance, it was already really hot and muggy. I also debuted "Keep Walkin' On" for the first time live. It was really a hit! Everybody enjoyed it and started to sing a long! I definitely want to be involved with the community again. They showed me so much love and support!

Show at the Rivington House Facility

2009-05-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

The show at the Rivington went really well today! I did a gospel set and sang, "Shackles" by Mary Mary, "The Battle is the Lord's" by Yolanda Adams, "Where I am" by LaChun Pace, "Open Heart" by Yolanda Adams, "God's Fingerprints" by myself and my mother, "Redeemer" by Nicole Mullen, and lastly, "Keep Walkin' On"! There weren't as many people in the audience tonight as there were at my March 31st show, but the audience members were just as into the show. One guy, whom I never saw before, even stood up and danced next to me while I was singing "Shackles". I had such a good time! I was so happy to the audience get into the music and enjoy themselves. I also raffled off a few of my CDs. The lucky winners were so happy to have my CD! Even though I had a full day at work, performing in the show afterwards gave me such a boost of energy!