About Me
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I guess you could say that I come from a musical family. It comes from my paternal grandmother (and whomever came before her) She could pretty much play any intrument plus she had perfect pitch! Everyone in the family could sing at least enough to carry a tune so nobody really made that big of a deal about it. I was at least eleven before I realized that not everone could sing. I thought that it was just something that everybody could do. I never got any singing lessons until I was 19. I did, however, have piano, accordian (yes, accordian) and clarinet lessons.My dad was a musician and both of my parents were music teachers. My one brother is a musician, so is my uncle (he's also a piano tuner, he got the perfect pitch gene!) and there's a few cousins too.I left Detroit right out of high school and decided to be an art student in southern Florida (as you see I'm drawn to the big money making fields) I think of art as my other passion, and I think I was rebelling against the music thing at the time too. I nonetheless decided to take some music electives. So I thought about piano and flute. But then I remembered that I didn't have much money so I could neither purchase or rent an instrument at the time. So I thought what about voice! I already had one of those! And that's how it all started!I had a few different teachers over the years after that, performed in a top 40/disco band, did some choral and ensemble type work a little musical theatre ect. But I think I would have destroyed my voice by now if I hadn't started taking lessons from Eddie Ruhl. I met him when I was a singing bartender in a place called "Cafe del Opera" in Hollywood Florida. It was an Italian restaurant with a piano and almost everyone on the staff was also a singer of some sort. Eddie Ruhl was a retired opera singer who taught me how to use my voice properly. I had a few lessons with him before relocating to The Big Apple, where I continued studying with one of Mr. Ruhl's old students A lady named Marilyn Sophia. I'm eternally grateful to both of them!At the same time I was tackling Mozart, Puccini and Verdi. I was hanging out with all the jazz musicians and secretly listening to Billie Holliday, Ella, Sarah & Duke Ellington. Then I began going to the jazz clubs around Miami and sitting in on some of the sets. I loved the jazz standards more than anything else and still do til this day and believe me I've tried everything including being a karaoke host and being the only white face in an all black gospel choir!I move to NYC in my early twenties and almost immediately started getting a few gigs. New York is also very expensive, in case you haven't heard so I also had quite a few other jobs too. There's not enough room for me to go into them all here, so you'll have to wait for the book.A few years later family and health issues not to mention business opportunities brought me back to the Detroit area where my life took some very different directions. because of some health concerns I was having at the time I developed an interest in alternative medicine and healing arts which also became a lucrative business for me for quite awhile. I then had a child (he's now eleven!) and bought a house that was/is sort of a money pit! As many of you know these are things that can really take over your life. But, here I am back in the thick of the music biz once again just the same! Doing the music that I love the most!I started doing jazz gigs in the Detoit area back in the early part of 2002. soon after that I met bassist Dennis Horvath on a gig, we became friends, began dating and are now married. Dennis has been a very calming, supportive and stablizing influence on my life both personally and musically. Then we met Pianist/composer Scott Gwinnell when he subbed on a gig once and we started using him more often. Things clicked pretty well with us. The music was good and gigs were fun!When it came time to do a recording basically I knew what material I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. But Scott took everything to the next level for me. And that's how DREAM DANCING was born. It was his idea to add strings and he then wrote all the string arrangements. Tragically my father passed away suddenly in the midst of this project. It was Dennis who helped me keep my life going, but it was Scott who kept the project going even though I spent some time in kind of a fog.It was Dennis who was my rock and my anchor during this project (and in general) and metaphorically, Scott Gwinnell, my wings. He took it all through the finish line! He and his beautiful girlfriend Delaine have become good friends as well. I'm extremely grateful to all of them! Not to mention the other very talented musicians who I'm honered to have with me in this cd. Scott Kretzer, definately one of the best drummers I've worked with, Molly Hughes on the violin, Carl Cafagna on sax & flute. Also sound engineer Alex Trajano, And photographer, Sherry Kruzman who patiently waited for just the right shot for the cover.My son, Austin inspires me everyday just by being alive. I also adore my cats Felice and Gizzmo. I love yoga! I also love Oprah, Seinfeld and Jeopardy. I still do artwork, mostly pastels. I hope to someday travel the world. I really like pizza and chocolate. I'm an Aquarius What more can I say.
PEACE
.. CDBABY LINK for MERI SLAVEN: Dream Dancing --
