"I Wanna Work For You" ~ Alexa Weber Morales' 3rd album!
April 3, 2011 at 2:30 AM 
The newest Kickstarter project that I want to share with you is from my Twitter friend, vocalist and songwriter, Alexa Weber Morales!
"Her large-scale skill and talent encourages her all-inclusive dreams... Gorgeous articulation, flowing time sense and warm tone." — Ken Micallef, Downbeat, June 2008
"With a voice sweet, pure and strong, Alexa Weber Morales is poised to ride the Bay Area Latin jazz scene to national recognition." — San Francisco Chronicle, June 2007
Alexa shares with us why she's undertaking this project at this time:
Why Do I Wanna Work For You?
Because I know what it's like to be passionate, to spearhead a team making something each person on it is proud of, to feel like your contribution is crucial, to laugh and complain and argue and know that the end result will be better because you questioned convention.
That's what songwriting and record production and gigging mean to me. I'm working for you, and we're all getting in a groove together. In an increasingly virtualized, mechanized, recessionized world, we desperately want to be useful, irreplaceable, and paid a living wage. This is a feeling I think everyone shares in 2011.
Why now?
I wrote the title track in a moment of desperation, but the truth is I'm always writing songs and then wondering when if ever I'll produce them. So now we're almost done arranging tunes for a third solo album (4th if you count the EP I made last year), titled I Wanna Work For You.
My two previous albums, Jazzmérica (2004) and Vagabundeo (2007) did well (the latter was praised in DownBeat and made top 20 jazz radio nationwide!). This time I'm working with someone new, the talented bass player Sam Bevan, to make my tunes "me, only better."
Listen to Alexa's original songs from previous albums:
Play That Song of Love and Rage
What Will It Cost?
Unlike my previous albums, produced by 5-time Grammy nominee Wayne Wallace (thanks to Wayne I too am now Grammy-nominated), this time I'm out gigging the songs before getting into the studio. Another difference is I'm self-employed and support my family of four 100% via music and writing.
That means I can't spend what I did with my other albums. It's hard to budget a full-length album for under $10,000, however. So the closer we can get to $10,000 or more, the better. I know money is tight! What I fervently hope is that you can help us cast a wide net for this project. I've seen some amazing victories on Kickstarter. I've kicked in dough for a fellow musician who nearly lost his house and another whose axe was stolen. I also have raised over $6000 in 2008 and 2009 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. So I know crowd-sourcing works.
Yes, it does work! Look at the successful projects in the past that you have supported: The Queen's Suite, Jason Parker Quartet "Five Leaves Left" and Reginald Cyntje "Freedom's Children"!
Gone are the days of over-inflated pricing set by the major record labels to support senior management salaries and lifestyles. You know where your money is going with the creation of this album.
If you are able, I would like to encourage you to fund this project by clicking here.
Thank you
Reader Comments (2)
trying again, I think I said something about loving kickstarter and how Margaret and I had just chatted about wanting to support a woman since for some reason that had not happened yet. We both love Latin jazz too!
Hi Wayne
I'm happy to know that you and Lady M are really into this. It's very satisfying. YAY! :)