What's happening...

May 1st, 2018

Four years in, and Avenue B is heading to the next level! With our album finished, we are back to performing concerts, and are loving every minute of being back in front of audiences where we love to feel the collaboration of the 2 way street that only live performance can give. We will be expanding our reach to Europe, and Leslie will be heading back across the “pond”  to meet with prospective venues and booking agents who have expressed interest in presenting our show. We are so excited to think that our music can cross borders in both style and geography! Speaking of which, we have been so inspired by the current resurgence of international sensation ABBA - a favorite of our childhoods- that we are adding more of their most beloved songs to our show! We continue to be inspired to recreate and put the Avenue B sound on the music of greats such as these, as well as creating more original music of our own. It’s been an amazing journey so far - and our record is intact - every audience we have played for has been on their feet at the end of the show! We love you, and can’t wait to sing for you again - or for the first time. #PeaceLove&Music #AvenueB


Leslie performs some of her favorite Spanish Art Songs in Recital after visiting Spain!  
During a recent trip to Europe, Leslie had a wonderful time being back in Spain, where she refreshed her spoken Spanish in the country where she learned it, and coached the art songs in the country where she originally studied them at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Murcia. As part of her recital program, she sang some of the Tonadillos by Spanish composer Enrique Granados; songs that were inspired by the beautiful and mysterious Goya paintings of the Maja. So, while in Spain Leslie took time to visit some of the Goya paintings housed in Madrid’s El Prado, and of course she couldn’t miss the Goya Museum in beautiful Zaragoza!  What a perfect way to prepare for performance, and reconnect with these well loved art songs! She couldn’t sing a Spanish program without including one of her favorites to end the program - Jurame, by Mexican composer Maria Grever. although widely known and beloved by Spain as well. Leslie has a special connection and love for this song, since she originally learned it from her dear friend Maria, who is trained in Flamenco dance, and Maria’s father Manolo. Viva España! 
While in Barcelona, Leslie visited a little music shop and purchased a Bandurria, sometimes called a Spanish mandolin, which will be added to the Avenue B shows - well, as soon as Leslie remembers how to play it! (Check out the fb post the store posted on our Avenue B fb page!) She learned the Bandurria basics from Las Tunas de Murcia while living in Spain. Las Tunas are groups of men sponsored by their university departments that perform traditional Spanish folk songs using original instruments, some of which are ancient. The Bandurria was first seen in the Medieval period, but not to worry - Leslie plays the more modern version! She was actually made an honorary member of Las Tunas, although as a woman she could never truly be a full member….or most likely as an American citizen, lol. But she sang and played with them occasionally while living there, and looks forward to add this interesting sound occasionally to the music of Avenue B! Till next time, Spain….

October 25th, 2015

Just attended and performed a featured showcase at the annual Northwest Booking Conference! Already have some bookings in the works from that, and we’re excited to get back onstage after being in the studio, where we just finished laying down tracks for our debut album, recorded at the Tonic Room with the wonderful engineering expertise of Jason Ringelstetter. We are so excited to share our music with you, and so very grateful to all of those who gave so generously to our Indiegogo campaign, which finished strong by reaching its $10,000 goal and more! The site is still live, so if you missed seeing the entertainingly informative - and sometimes just ridiculous - launch and update videos, jump on that site at http://www.igg.me/at/AvenueB to join in the fun, see more photos, and read more about the group. And don’t worry - if you’d still like to snag one of the perks offered for donations, the site is still accepting, and we have plenty of material to get started on the next release:’) We will be updating both this site as well as Indiegogo with the album release date, and locations for release parties, where we will be performing our new stuff and more live onstage. Hope to see you there!


"the WHY" ~ February 21st, 2015

Everyone knows what we do.  We are musicians.  We perform, play, sing, and record music - but more importantly, WHY?  Why do we do this?  And, in case you're thinking for $$,-which, of course, we appreciate:’) -  we think of that as an outcome.  It is a WHAT.  

So, back to the question -  Why?

 

Avenue B plays and sings music because we believe that music is about relationships, and community.  We have a personal relationship with each other, and we nurture that relationship in how we communicate onstage and off.  When we play music for you, we believe that we are experiencing something in common with everyone that has come to hear the show - we are strengthening our onstage relationship while we play, and as you are listening to and -we hope:)- enjoying the music, you are strengthening and re-establishing connections with the people you brought with you, and who are sitting around you.  We’ll supply the words, you don’t even need to talk!  Our experiences combine, and we believe it is more than the simple sum of 2 parts - performers and audience; we believe that by coming together in real time, with real people, face to face, in a communal place, that something magic happens that is more than the sum of its parts.  Something unique and inspiring that can’t happen on YouTube, or streaming, or in the digital world.  They have their place, of course!  They can remind us of the magic that happened when we all came together as you play the music later in your car, or watch a section from the show here on our website.  

 

So, whether you purchase a CD first, or stream us on our website or YouTube, we ask you to help us to keep the realtime communication happening.  Grab your loved ones and friends, and come see a show when we’re in your area!  Experience what we believe to be true - that real face time with real people having real fun and finding real inspiration in each other is a basic human need.

 

Power to the music and the people!

Warmest regards,

Avenue B

 

"A Journey" ~ December 10th, 2014

It’s been a quite a journey so far! From writing and arranging music to rehearsing into the very wee hours of the morning to improvising an in-house studio for recording demo tracks, Avenue B has been hard at work. We have performed in Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City, and have several exciting upcoming shows listed here on our site!  Plus, (drumroll please) we will be launching an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in early 2015. This campaign will pay for a real recording studio, not that our improvised one in Jed’s living room isn’t just fantastic… the occasional random road noise did give our demo that unique extra little  "something." Though we will all deeply miss  the redundancy of all those retakes due to sound "extras,"  graduating to the real thing will allow Avenue B to share their music with more lucky - and sometimes unsuspecting, lol - people when they release their debut album in late 2015.

 

In the meantime, John has honed his bass guitar skills and kept that silvery tenor voice in great shape while adding awesome vocal harmonies to the original music, Jed has honed his pop baritone chops and arranged endless music at the piano like the genius he is now and always has been and Leslie has - well, what exactly has she been doing? Honing her patience skills?  Crying herself to sleep? It’s been awhile since she’s written lyrics that would actually be heard in public, and after having spent the last several years singing the brilliant music of Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini, et al, coming up with melodies that don’t sound more than a bit ridiculous in comparison is a somewhat of a challenge… Well, impossible really, but who’s comparing? We promise, you can sing along to our stuff:’)  

 

A special shout out to our rockstar families for putting up with all the late hours, the out-of-town-for-weeks thing, the late night music making that kept some of you awake, the bad hair no shower days (at least we usually brushed our teeth:’) the “what the (expletive of choice) am I doing” moments, and all the rest. We love you. Really. All of us love all of you!

Last but not least, a big thank you to all of you (or should we say the one of you) who read this ramble clear down to the bottom! You know who you are:’)  Because you are reading this.  Right now.