Why this tune? This week’s tune is another one I wrote during this year’s FAWM 50/90, kicked off by aprompt: “haunted.” I want to dive into some of the process I followed to turn that prompt into this song. I started as I usually do by just writing, anything, in a stream of consciousness toContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Haunted (not Haunted)”
Category Archives: Original music
Tunes on Tuesday: Big Knife Creek
Why this tune? As I’ve mentioned before, I’m participating in the “50/90” songwriting community atfawm.org. It’s a global forum for songwriters that opens twice a year to a global community of writers who share songs and discussion. The site hosts regular “skirmishes,” where ahost picks a theme and participants try to write a song basedContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Big Knife Creek”
Tunes on Tuesday: Waiting For My Beach
Why this tune? This week’s tune is the third single from my Groove Park project that drops on Friday July 28. “Waiting For My Beach” is a country beach song with an ironic twist about the very real threats of climate change. The narrator is an eternal optimist who just wants to make sure thatContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Waiting For My Beach”
Tunes on Tuesday: My Own Worst Enemy
Why this tune? This week’s tune is a tribute to musical communities, specifically two online musical gathering places that have made me a better musician and songwriter and introduced me to artists from around the world. This is my second year participating in February Album Writing Month (FAWM), an online community of songwriters that hasContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: My Own Worst Enemy”
Tunes on Tuesday: What About Us
Why this tune? This week’s tune is the second song I completed based on the weekly Torah portions (parashot) that are part of the Jewish tradition. The song tells the story from Numbers 27(Parashat Pinchas) about the five daughers of Zelophehad … who successfully argued for the right of women to inherit property if thereContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: What About Us”
Tunes on Tuesday: Be Free (Emancipation Day)
Why this tune? Tunes On Tuesday comes out on Monday this week in honor of the 175th Emancipation Day (July 3), celebrating the revolt that forced the end of slavery in the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands). This week’s tune is the new single from The Lucky So & Sos, a DC-based bandContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Be Free (Emancipation Day)”
Tunes on Tuesday: A Pleasing Odor
Why this tune? This week’s tune is a preview of a new songwriting project I’m testing out, writing songs based on prompts drawn from the weekly Torah portion in the Jewish tradition. The idea of using prompts is a popular way to generate ideas for new songs, but I’m not sure if anyone has applied thatContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: A Pleasing Odor”
Tunes on Tuesday: DC Days, Bangkok Nights
Why this tune? I wrote this tune in 2019 before a trip to Thailand with the DC Jazz Collective, a grouporganized by drummer Will Stephens. We played several gigs in the Bangkok area including a performance at an international jazz festival at Mahidol University. Will organized a second tour in 2020, just before the pandemicContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: DC Days, Bangkok Nights”
Tunes on Tuesday: Twenty Years in Freedom City
Why this tune? I wrote this song for a performance at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts(CMCArts) on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. They asked me to perform in April 2023 at a fundraising festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of the museum’s home in Frederiksted (also known as Freedom City). I playedContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Twenty Years in Freedom City”
Tunes on Tuesday: On All Other Nights (Passover 2023)
Why this tune? Passover starts this week on Wednesday night (April 5, 2023), this year mostly free from the shadow of the pandemic. I wrote “On All Other Nights” before the holiday in 2020, when those of us celebrating had to change our in-person plans. I was delighted that Julie Mack agreed to record theContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: On All Other Nights (Passover 2023)”
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 