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As 19: The Musical, my musical-in-progress about the 19th (women’s suffrage) Amendment, takes shape, the collaborative part of the process becomes more and more important. Choreographers Danielle Marquis and Angela Norris, along with dance captain Kristen Briscoe, have been adding movement to each song. With the show still under development and the cast still “on book,” the dancing has been a key part of our workshop performances. It gives the audience something visual to follow. Their choreography is a combination of impressionistic emotive statements and precise representations of the story’s action. As the dancers set the dances, the music I have written has necessarily become more codified. I can no longer take the liberties I once took in accompanying the songs on piano. And conversely, the more the music finds its true shape, the more precise the dancers’ movement becomes. It has been a lesson for me in the shape of collaboration. We have a few semi-staged readings coming up, as we prepare this show for completion by next year—the centennial of the Amendment. If you’re in the Washington, DC, area, I hope you can make one of the shows, which are listed below. I’m on piano at every performance, so if you do make it, please come say hello.

I am a list-maker by nature, so the idea of making a list of New Year’s resolutions is eminently appealing to me. I make one every year, and it is the mother of all my other lists. Of course it includes some of the standard items like “lose weight” and “learn French” (that one has been appearing on my list since 1988). But it also includes some very actionable goals. #6 is “Study modern choral music from England.” I may not put a check mark next to that and call it “done,” but I am looking forward to the pursuit. And I see that #22 this year is “make better lists.” So meta. I hope your list this year includes many achievable goals, and a few that really stretch you artistically.

My jazz band, Chaise Lounge, played an amazing gig recently. The word “gig” does not quite describe the experience of playing a concert at Washington DC’s National Cathedral. The enormous, reverberant space itself is noteworthy. But add to that: playing a concert with the The President’s Own Marine Chamber Orchestra and the National Cathedral choir accompanying us! We performed a medley of wartime favorites: “Over There” for World War I; “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” for World War II, etc. The event was sold out and an utterly fantastic experience, especially since I was given the opportunity to arrange our medley for these crackerjack ensembles. PBS filmed the whole concert for a special that you can watch here. I’d like to give a shout-out to the filmmaker, Joel Westbrook, as well as Col. Jason Fettig, the Marine orchestra’s conductor, and Mike McCarthy, the director of music at the National Cathedral. All of them are fabulous to work with.

Scoring director Gregory Cooke’s new documentary about the role American black women played during World War II, Invisible Warriors, has been an interesting challenge. Plenty of women of color worked on the war effort, but as important as their work was, it wasn’t valued highly enough for many filmmakers to take motion pictures. Luckily, Gregory has found a few vibrant women in their 90s who have great stories about their experiences—and tell them with flair. My job on the film is to find sounds that evoke the determined spirit of the period, and also the extreme racism these patriotic women faced. Stay tuned for this documentary. Gregory has found an unexplored subject that is rich with relevance today.

Weddings seem to clump together, don’t they? You can go for years without being invited to one, and then, all of a sudden, you have four or five to attend. It’s been a year like that for me—thank goodness. These are some dark times that we are in, and to see new couples striking boldly out into the unknown together does my heart good. I’m always interested in the music they choose. In France this spring, the wedding party was serenaded by two button accordionists outside city hall. In Malibu in July, the beautiful bride was my middle daughter, who had a looping violinist perform pop tunes. My niece’s wedding in Maine in August featured an amazingly adroit female folk singer. And next month is my nephew’s wedding in Long Beach, where the featured musician will be yours truly. This will be my second wedding playing traditional Appalachian melodies on solo frailing banjo. A trend? Only if we make it one, my friend. I hope all your upcoming events are hopeful ones.

When my band Chaise Lounge played a concert with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra this spring, I knew it was being recorded, but didn’t think much about it. Then the recording engineer, Jeff Gruber of Blue House Productions, invited me over to have a listen.  I was amazed at the clarity and sonic presence of the recording. But what most impressed me was simply the energy Jeff captured. It has been quite a while since the band has released a live album, so I picked 12 songs from the concert to release on CD. Some are old Chaise Lounge favorites, with a lush orchestral backing. Others are songs chosen just for this occasion, like Astor Piazzolla’s “Oblivion.” This has become the Chaise Lounge CD that I am most likely to put in my car’s CD player. Yes…I do that.