Thomasina Winslow

Infobox Musical artist

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Name = Thomasina Winslow
Landscape =
Background =
Birth_name =
Alias = Sina Winslow, Thomasina, Tunes
Born =
Died =
Origin =
Instrument = singer, guitar, electric bass
Voice_type =
Genre = Blues, Soul, R & B, Gospel, Funk, Folk, African American music
Occupation =
Years_active = 1969 to present
Label = Biograph
Associated_acts = Tom Winslow, The Winslows, Two Story Tuesday, Bojembe, Nick Katzman
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments = "Piece of Ash" electric guitar

Thomasina Winslow is an American blues musician from the Albany, New York area, and the daughter of folk musician Tom Winslow. As a toddler, she sang back-up on her father's folk music classic "Hey Looka Yonder (It's The Clearwater"); also singing a solo version of "One-Two-Three", another version of which she produced on her own 30 years later. In addition to her solo career, Winslow has been a member of four bands, including a duo with Nick Katzman. Furthermore, she has been a teacher in that genre of music, and has significantly influenced other aspiring musicians. Winslow primarily performs covers of Blues standards, but has also written a number of blues and gospel tunes in her own right. She is also one of a handful of African-American women producers in the "indy" music industry today.

While she has been teaching a full load of school and private students for over a decade, her primary notability has been from touring with Nick Katzman, starting in 2006.

Biography

Early life

Thomasina Winslow grew up in New Baltimore, New York, south of Albany. Something of a child prodigy, she was nicknamed "Tunes" by her brother. [ [http://melo.pl/licencjainfo/aid/34984 Melo.pl Polish musical Web site] ] She first performed on her father's album "Tom Winslow" [{Biograph Records, catalog no. u/k (1969)] , singing "1-2-3" ("One-Two-Three") as a toddler. [ [http://www.groupietunes.com/artists/thomasinawinslow Groupie Tunes web site] ] [ [http://www.thomasinawinslow.com/ Official web site] ] She also sang back-up that year on the folk music classic "Hey Looka Yonder (It's the Clear Water) (It's the Clearwater)", about the "Sloop Clearwater". [ [http://www.ibiblio.org/keefer/wp11.htm Folk Music Performer Index web page for Wilm to Wir] ] [Winslow, Tom / "It's the Clear Water", Biograph Records, BLP 12018 (1969).] As part of her family's group, The Winslows, she toured throughout the folk music festival circuit, including The Great Hudson River Revival. [http://winslow-productions.com/meetthomasina.htm Autobiography at Productions Page] . Accessed April 28, 2008.] [http://www.thomasinawinslow.com/ Official web site] . Accessed April 28, 2008]

Education

Winslow attended Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central Schools.citation needed|date=July 2008 She received her A.A. in Performing Arts from Schenectady County Community College and her B.A. in Music Performance from the University at Albany, where she majored in Classical Guitar. olo music and band work

She has been playing covers of Blues and gospel music at solo gigs, which have included the Cambridge Inn in Cambridge, New York, and the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She also played in the 1990's in concerts with Two Story Tuesday and Bojembe around upstate New York, including Glens Falls, Albany, and Colonie. Fact|date=August 2007

Winslow's "day job" is that of a music and performing arts teacher at Saint Anne Institute, a reform school for girls, [http://www.stanneinstitute.org/index.cfm Saint Anne Institute web site] . Accessed April 28, 2008.] where she administers the "Expressive Arts" program. [http://www.stanneinstitute.org/News/details.cfm?newsID=10 St. Anne's Institute web site] . Accessed April 28, 2008.] She was quoted as saying"Teenagers have a lot to express, especially children-at-risk. But they haven't always been directed as to how to do that. We try to help them." Kathy Ricetts, "Youth Advancement Through Music and Art Program Offers Students at St. Anne Institute Renewed Confidence", "Daily Gazette", December 6, 2005, online at [http://www.emtah.org/story.php?RECORD_KEY(News)=ID&ID(News)=8 Daily Gazette article] ] Funding for this program was a Youth Advancement Through Music and Art (YATMA) grant. [ [http://www.zoominfo.com/people/level2page43475.aspx YATMA at Zoom Info] ] [ [http://www.linkedin.com/find/w/w76/w76_48.html YATMA at LinkedIn] ] YATMA, since 2006 called Educational Mentoring Through the Arts & Humanities (EMTAH), [ [http://www.emtah.org/history.html History of EMTAH web page] ] "incorporates strength-based mentoring with progressive fine arts instruction, taps into and develops student potential by promoting creativity and providing early success. Stimulated by their progress, students learn to apply their new skills to other areas of their lives." [ [http://www.idealist.org/en/org/87637-54 Idealist.org listing] ] EMTAH was reviewed in December 2006 at WGBH's "Open Source" with Christopher Lydon, before the show's cancellation in July 2007. [ [http://www.radioopensource.org/music-on-the-brain/ Radio Open Source show "Music on the Brain] ]

This program has won kudos in the community:

In addition to the Expressive Arts award, she has won numerous other grants, including a New York State Education Department grant.

Winter 2007 to Spring 2008 tour

Winslow is making a short Upstate New York solo tour during December 2007 and early 2008. She had her first headlining show at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, [ [http://www.caffelena.org/cal-2007-12.htm Caffe Lena official web site Calendar page for December 2007] . Accessed December 10, 2007.] in addition to featured guest spots on WRPI in Troy, New York and WAMC in Albany, New York, as well as a gigs at the Java Jazz Cafe on January 3, 2008, [ [http://javajazzcafe.net/javajazzcafe/ Java Jazz Cafe web site] . Accessed January 6, 2008.] in Delmar, New York.

In March 2007, she was featured in Caffe Lena's "3rd Annual Blues Fest" alongside Mark Tolstrup and Beaucoup Blue. [ [http://www.caffelena.org/cal-2008-03.htm Caffe Lena official web site Calendar page for March 2008] . [http://www.caffelena.org/cal-2008-03.htm#22 Caffe Lena official web site Blues Festival page] . Both accessed March 31, 2008.] In May 2008, Winslow returned to Java Jazz for a second show. [http://www.albanyalive.com/gallery/events/?album=1&gallery=137 AlbanyAlive.com Events web site gallery page 137] . Accessed May 13, 2008.]

ummer 2008

Winslow will be starting to play gigs further out in Upstate NY in July 2008. [ [http://www.thomasinawinslow.com/calendar.html Calendar on Official web site] . Accessed July 1, 2008.]

Bojembe

Winslow was a guitarist, co-lead singer, and musician in the R & B band Bojembe. The other members were John Zumbo, Sean Mack, and Terry Plunkett. They produced one album in 2005-2006 before the band became inactive, but is still sold online. [ [https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bojembe CD Baby] ] Most of the songs from the CD can be purchased in MP3 format. [ [http://www.tradebit.com/searchfiles.php/search/0/Bojembe/AND/3 TradeBit web site] ] Bojembe's most recent public gig was at the River Street Beat Shop in Troy, New York, for which a blogger wrote that "Winslow's roots are in the deep folk-blues tradition, (while) her work with Bojembe leans toward a decidedly funky groove with a world music spin." [ [http://users.boardnation.com/~pitchcontrolmusic/Printpage.php?board=1;threadid=2981 Board Nation web site] ]

Management and production

As a business woman, Winslow manages and produces music for herself and other artists in a variety of music. She is one of the few African-American woman today producing records for indie artists, including herself.

She is the owner of a production company, Winslow Productions. [ [http://winslow-productions.com/ Winslow Productions web page] ] As part of her production work, Winslow also mentors up-and-coming performing artists. [ [http://winslow-productions.com/channelconnections.htm Channel Connections web page] ]

Winslow was, for a while, an artistic agent. [ [http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/s/stephenmead/artist_exhibitions.html Stephen Mead artistic web page] ] She has also collaborated with a local visual artist, Kim Morris, for a concert and art show.

Winslow's music is sold on Amazon.com [ [http://www.amazon.de/s?search-type=ss&index=music-de&field-artist=Thomasina&page=1 Amazon.com web site] ] and other online sales web sites, such as CDBaby. Due to the nature of the Blues market today, as a musical tradition outside the mass market, Winslow's albums have not "charted". In fact, sales of music she has performed or produced has sold more "outside" the United States. This has been especially in England and Germany [ [http://www.turbo-music.de/shop/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/32596 German music web site] ] , where she has performed with Nick Katzman, as well as in Poland [ [http://melo.pl/artysta/aid/121043 Polish music web site] ] , Denmark [ [http://www.imusic.dk/page/tracksearch?caption=Send+Your+Word+Lord Danish web site] ] , and Latin America. [ [http://mx.preciomania.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=567139001// Preciomania.com a Spanish-language web site for selling CDs] ]

Interestingly, Winslow figured out that music downloads, such as MP3, could actually "increase" her sales, especially overseas; such a file sharing business model has been documented by Harvard University researchers, [ [http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4206.html Harvard Business School web site] ] as well as in "Wikinomics", whose authors call "MP3 b-web." [Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics, pp. 57-58 (Portfolio/Penguin Books 2006) (ISBN978-1-59184-138-8.]

Collaboration with Nick Katzman

One of Winslow's most fruitful and notable collaborations has been with Bluesman Nick Katzman. As related in that article, Katzman has mentored a number of younger Blues artists, including Winslow, taking her "under his wing." The duo has performed recently from Brooklyn, New York to Stamford, England and Berlin, Germany.

2006-2007 Brooklyn gigs

In April 2006, Katzman was slated to perform at the Good Coffeehouse Music Parlor in Brooklyn, his favored venue in "the States". [ [http://bsec.org/events/coffeehouse/index.php Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture official web site] ] He had previously performed with Ruby Green (Terry Garthwaite), [ [http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002480.html IGS Guitar Forum blog of April 2003] ] and had recorded "Sparking Ragtime & Hardbitten Blues", a now-classic LP, with Green, since released as a CD, [ [http://home.att.net/~sparklex/srp.html Sparking Ragtime & Hardbitten Blues CD web page] ] so their fans expected they would perform again together. [ [http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/013527.html IGS Guitar Forum blog of April 2006] ] Instead, Winslow substituted for Green; in Katzman's own words:quotation|I was getting my e-mail and was about to zap what I thought was ... spam.... I decided to open it anyway and it turned out to be a letter from a singer/guitarist named Thomasina Winslow who said she was covering tunes from my Kicking Mule LPs on her new CD. Now, mind you, this is NOT an everyday occurrence for me, so I went immediately to CDbaby and listened to her recording. She had a version of "I'm Goin' Away" where she played guitar at least as well as I did and sang wonderfully. I was of course flattered that someone was so involved with my music and very impressed with how well she handled the material. It turns out that she is the daughter of a Gary Davis disciple named Tom Winslow and apparently she grew up around the Davis' scene and was pretty much brought up in a folk-blues household.
She said that I was a primary musical influencefor her, so I've asked her to come and do a guest apprearance at the gig,and she said she'd come all the way down from Albany to do it, so it lookslike we'll be hosting Thomasina Winslow on that night, too. I'm not sure how muchexposure she's had or even how much she's done professionally. Theidea of my music somehow finding it's way back to young black musicians isvery exciting for me.
I'll be meeting her for the first time at the gig, so it should be aninteresting night.|email from Nick Katzman, quoted at [http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/013527.html IGS Guitar Forum blog of April 2006]

Fans of Katzman were once again on notice about a second show in April 2007. [ [http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/017206.html IGS Guitar Forum blog of April 2007] ] [ [http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=13&id=12541 The "Brooklyn Eagle" web site listings] ] A fan posted a review on his blog that it was a "Great show! Nick and his cohorts were wonderful!"

2007 tour with Katzman

Winslow flew out to Germany to tour with Katzman in the summer of 2007, when they performed a few gigs in Berlin, Germany and recorded music videos. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WHU4jHJrVY Music Video on YouTube with Nick Katzman] ]

The duo played at the Stamford Arts Centre Stamford Blues Festival
Blues and Folk Festival, and were the second-billed act for "Guitar Day" ("8.30pm Nick Katzman & Thomasina Winslow 10.00pm Jeff Lang"). [ [http://www.stamfordartscentre.com Stamford Arts Centre official web site] ] [ [http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=3495.msg26581 Weenie Campbell's reviews] ] It was favorably reviewed in "Monty's Music News", an on-line Music newsletter, as a "great evening Concert in The Ballroom." [ [http://www.montysmusic.com/news.php Monty's Music web page] ]

2008 work with Katzman

In April 2008, Winslow and Katzman recorded a song for a future CD.fact|date=April 2008 They also performed together again at the Good Coffeehouse in Brooklyn on April 25, 2008. [http://www.thomasinawinslow.com/calendar.html?showcal=past Official web site Past Calendar page] . Accessed April 28, 2008.] [ [http://www.bsec.org/6706/8722.html Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture offciial web site The Good Coffeehouse Music Parlor page] . Accessed April 28, 2008.]

They received the "Artist of the Day" from the oneartistaday.com website, which celebrates "Independent artists", on October 1, 2008. [ [http://oneartistaday.com/documents/archives.html Thomasina Winslow (Featuring Nick Katzman) on One Artist a Day website] . Retrieved October 2, 2008.]

Collaboration with Marco Haber

Winslow recorded a music video with Marco Haber of Mudfunk in December 2007, covering "Fly Like An Eagle". [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWBVKePmh7I You Tube music video] . Accessed January 6, 2008.]

References

External links

* [http://www.thomasinawinslow.com Official web site]
* [http://winslow-productions.com/ Winslow Productions web site]

ee also

* Biograph Records
* Nick Katzman
* Tom Winslow
* Reverend Gary Davis