The NEW instrumental album is now available for download! It’s my instrumental adaptation of the Japanese children’s story Momotaro, about a boy born from a peach who grows up to save his village. I’m very excited and proud of this project, as it’s the first comprehensive narrative I’ve done and I’m very pleased with the way it came out.

the Show at the Earl last month was a big success. Here’s video of us debuting our newest song “Fight to Make it Up” (the link to listen to the studio version is after the jump.

http://soundcloud.com/takenobu/fight-to-make-it-up

We’ll be playing at the Earl on July 17th. Doors are at 8pm – come out if you’re in ATL, we’ll be debuting some new songs, and playing some old ones too!

The folks at the madison square art conservancy are promoting the new Jaumé Plensa installation with the help of my song Fishin’

The video will run in new york city taxi cabs this summer to promote the installation in Madison Square Park. Here’s the video:

So, if you’re riding around in taxis in NYC this summer you may happen to hear my song. I’m curious how much exposure this will get, since in my experience with riding in taxis, my first reaction is almost always to turn the sound down. Hopefully if people get in at the right moment though and hear some cello instead of some loud blaring entertainment news they’ll take a listen. I’m also a little sad I don’t get to see the exhibition in madison square park. From my understanding the centerpiece is a gigantic 44 foot high sculpture of a woman’s head:

I actually used to work in Chelsea not far from Madison Square Park. Just a little walk past the flat iron building and I’d be waiting in line at the shake shack for a shroom burger for lunch. It’d be pretty cool to be able to look over and see this giant sculpture. So anyway, if you live in NYC or know someone who does, let them know to keep an ear out if they’re traveling by taxi.

New Shows coming up!

(update 5.12.2011) – July 17 the Earl, 8:00 pm Atlanta

(update 5.12.2011) – June 3 Smith’s Olde Bar 9pm, Atlanta

April 28th, Bar Matchless in Brooklyn NY at 8pm (557 Manhattan ave)

April 30th, House Concert at Murray Pond CT at 7:30pm (59 Route 148, Killingworth Connecticut)  www.joanlevyartist.com for tickets call 860-663-1169

May 1st, The Living Room NYC, at 7pm (154 Ludlow St)

I had a lot of fun playing on Friday with Brian Harper on Violin and Doug Rolph on bass. Check out the videos from the show:

The New Album is now out on my site! Click the picture below to stream the whole thing and download.  It is also now on itunes and Amazon now.  Please listen, and thanks for your support!!

So lots to talk about.

I quit my Job.

I’ve got a new album coming out.

I think I’ve got an idea of what I’ll do next. (involves doing covers. 66% of pop songs. Or maybe 100%, but 66% to start with. Here’s a sample of the first one:

But hang on, let’s back up and start with first things first. Let’s start with the job? Nah, that’s boring. The Album is almost DONE!!! I’m very excited. It’s pretty good, by my own standards, which are pretty high. Obviously you can’t make anything 100% perfect, but don’t try to tell a perfectionist that.

I’m mastering the last 5 tracks on Friday at 10am. If I could put the whole album up immediately online I would. I still need to get a UPC barcode though, because I have to be able to track sales and everything (i.e. report sales to soundscan etc.). Yea that’s right, it’s not all fun and games. I’m not just sitting here goofing off and lollygagging on the cello all day. I wish. That’s when I was 20 and living in Japan and enjoying life without a care in the world.  Nevertheless the goodfolks at cdbaby have made that pretty easy so I should be able to have things ready for download pretty soon, as in NEXT WEEK. IF not I’ll eat my hat, or just enable download anyway and say f you to soundscand.

I played an impromptu set at Top Flr here in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been meaning to get this video up here for a while

It’s not the best sound but it’s decent for a live iphone video. Thanks to my man Jonathan for recording it.

I play the song by looping the cello with pizzicato and then soloing over top. There’s a written cello part, but I like to noodle with it and improvise. I actually haven’t really started playing Fishin’ live until recently, even though I wrote it a few years ago. It’s a fun piece to play, and goes over surprisingly well at the bar, even though it’s kind of a somber song. My friend Pat literally called me at midnight and somehow convinced me to come out and play impromptu. I was skeptical that the crowd would be into it, but they were really attentive and nice and it was a fun night. I guess people aren’t really used to seeing non-classical music on the cello. Anyway, hope you like the video!

Also here’s the song from the album, which you can also download, if you are so inclined

Here’s another new recording. Again a song I’ve done before, but more solidly in the style of the coming album. Check it out!

The story behind this song is kind of funny. My day job, when I’m not playing the cello at 3 am and recording songs and ruining my refrigerator, is in online marketing. Hopefully that doesn’t shatter anyone’s illusions about me, but hey, we all gotta eat. I’d love to my living as a full time cellist, but at the moment that isn’t in the cards. But I digress.

About a year and a half ago, our company got robbed and the burglars stole all the laptops in the building. The company was about 50 employees at that point, and they nabbed about 20 laptops. I came into work in the morning only to find my desk covered with the fingerprint pencil lead crap that they spread everywhere to look for finger prints.

My computer was nowhere to be found, and thus I was sent home to ‘work’ from home. Unfortunately my computer also had a lot of important files and programs on it. I wasn’t too worried about that though, because it was a Wednesday and new computers wouldn’t be in until Monday. Thus begin a recording binge that let me write and record this entire song in about 24 hours. Of course, back then I was obsessed with the idea of branching into some sort of electronic pop music, and the version I did at the time is much more heavily produced with electronic instruments and electric cellos, and doesn’t sound like this very much, except for the lyrics and chord progression.

Now I’ve kind of come to see that that wasn’t really the right format to try to pursue and have come to return to my roots so to speak. This version just has a lot of layers of acoustic cellos, plucked and bowed. There’s only one simple drum beat, instead of the massively tweaked and sampled earlier version of the song. I’m not saying I don’t like the earlier version, but I definitely like this one better.

3/14/2011 Update: Here’s the Mastered Version: