My eldest niece (my sister Leslie’s daughter) Rebecca Jade has been quite successful in the San Diego area the past few years with various duos, trios and groups, so many I can’t keep track. I know she has an album with Peter Sprague, doing Cole Porter songs.
She was on a pair of seven-day cruises with Dave Koz and his musicians, going from Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm, Sweden; then to Tallin, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; and finally to Helsinki, Finland before heading back to Copenhagen. And on the second leg of the trip, her mom joined her. At one point, mother and daughter jammed while Larry Graham thumped his bass!
In the past several months, she’s been singing backup with Sheila E. at various gigs all over the country including in August 2017, when my family saw her in NYC. Sheila E. and Morris Day & the Time performed in 7 degree F weather in Minnesota as a tribute to Minnesota native, and their mentor, Prince as part of Super Bowl Opening Night.
When she’s in town, she participates at Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas. Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact will be having a CD Release this fall; I saw them in July in San Diego. She’ll be involved in a two-day New Year’s Eve event through the SD Smooth Jazz Festival.
She and husband moved this spring after living in their place for over four years, and about 12 years in the same city. But perhaps her greatest challenge was coordinating the helpers after Leslie’s June 4 bicycle accident. She missed one or two gigs, but much of that early period she ended up sleeping in the hospital after a performance. She’s a great daughter and a fine niece.
Rebecca will be celebrating a birthday that’s divisible by five tomorrow. Visit her Facebook page or her website.
Love you, niece!
When I was staying with my sister Leslie in San Diego in early July, I may have started going a little stir crazy, I think. Keeping track of doctors’ appointments, nurses’ visits, specialists’ phone calls, paperwork for her employer was a tad overwhelming at times.
