RightOutTV announced their first winners in the inaugural awards to celebrate the depth and diversity of the music in the LGBT community. The results reflect an impressive array of talent in 13 different categories. Winning artists represent the United States, Israel, Australia, England and Austria, making this a truly global contest. Finally, I will feature the winner of the Best Video (DIY) category, the last entry.
The award was given to Avi Wisnia for the video, Rabbit Hole. The video was directed by Seth Kroll & Alan Cohen, and first featured on this blog a year ago. I was also lucky enough to see Avi performing live in October, and hear him perform this live.
You can read about my fun night with Avi here. You can find out more about the Avi Wisnia on the official website here. You can find his album Something New on iTunes here and on Amazon here. You will find Rabbit Hole on that album, and be glad to have it in your collection. You can watch the music of RightOut TV online here.
Photos of Avi Wisnia at The World Cafe at the Queen by me
After months of trying to figure out the who and where I would have the opportunity, I finally had to chance to see Avi Wisnia at the World Cafe Live at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware! It was my first trip to the establishment, recently opened in conjuncture with the World Cafe in Philadelphia. The space is quite nice, with a roomy feel and nice lighting to make the experience quite nice. Avi was invited by the host of the evening, Rod Kim. The theme of the night was the inspiration of Stevie Wonder, whose jazz-flavored Pop and Soul clearly made an impact on Wisnia. You can definitely hear it in his cover of the great Stevie Wonder song, Lately.
You will also be able to hear it in a song written by Avi for his first album, Something New. It is the title cut from the debut, and is a delicious blend of Pop and a pinch of Jazz rhythms to keep it lively and sounding fresh.
The next song is both a great cover, and was featured on the debut album. Wisnia revisited the music of TLC, and can also list one of Bravo's Real Housewives among the list of writers. Yes, Kandi Burruss is one of the writers of No Scrubs, which went to the top of the charts in 1999. Avi puts his own very special spin on the cool song.
Finally, there is the song that lead me to Avi Wisnia in the beginning. I was cruising around the 'net, listening to music when I came across the video for a song that had one foot in the past, and the other firmly planted in today. I didn't think it was possible, but the live version has even more charm, and I just loved Avi singing his own composition, Rabbit Hole.
To learn more about Avi Wisnia, check out his official website here. While there, you can listen to his music for free, and figure out you need to own your own copy. And you can find Something New on iTunes here, on Amazon here, and an earlier EP on CD Baby here.
I am so excited to be going to see Avi Wisnia at the World Cafe Live at the Queen, in Wilmington, Delaware, tonight! I am really looking forward to it, for this will be the first time I will be catching Avi live. It's also the first time I will be going the World Cafe Live at the Queen Theater in Wilmington. Both seem like wonderful things to me right now. I am a big fan of Avi's music, and love his first album, Something New. One of the fantastic cuts off the CD is More Than Me, which you can listen to.
He also does an amazing cover of TLC's No Scrubs, and you have to give it a listen. It is just so smooth and glorious.
Of course, I will always have warm spot in my heart for Rabbit Hole, the first Avi song I heard. It is just so full of quirk, charm and humor, it had me searching for more.
For more about Avi Wisnia, check out his officiate site here. You can also find Avi on iTunes here, on CD Baby here, and on Amazon here.
I have to admit my discovery of Avi Wisnia is an odd path, especially since it turns out the man is not all that far from me, being based in both New York and Philadelphia. As an avid fan of Nhojj, I follow him on Twitter, and he had given a link to RightOutTV, which can be found here. Nhojj had videos playing there, as did several other artists. One of those videos was Rabbit Hole by Avi Wisnia, and I have to admit I was crazy about it. So I took to the 'net, and did a bit of research. He was from the Philadelphia area, and just released an album this past June. He has played some of the clubs in Philadelphia I have been gone to see others performers. I also quickly noted he is an out and proud performer, something that piqued my interest more.
So I went off to iTunes to check out Something New, his June 2010 release. I had already seen the video for Rabbit Hole, and was charmed by the combination of throwback nostalgia with the current I found in the video. To think of it as quirky would diminish the talent of a young man combining jazz stylings with piano pop with a South American Bossa Nova beat. Check out the video for Rabbit Hole.
Something New is a 12-song effort that includes a variety of material, from a few cover songs to original material written by Wisnia. The covers include a jazzy telling of Love Song by one of my favorite bands, The Cure, and a catchy and smooth jazz-inspired version of TLC's No Scrubs. You can catch a short clip of the TLC song here from a recent performance.
The self-penned opening song, New Year, is much more of a classic pop ballad, more along the lines of Ben Folds, a piano-driven song that cups his lovely vocals quite nicely. More Than Me hints more to classic pop, while maintaining a strong feel of the singer/songwriter vibe I love. There is a personal, almost confessional quality to the song I Wish I Could Stop Writing Songs About You. It has a fresh, contemporary feel. Sink has a bossa nova rhythm, while never sounding gimmicky or false. I just love the song. In fact, as I listen while writing this, I am doing a bit of chair dancing, a true testament to joy. And the songs go on. I am just really happy with them all, and happy to have made the purchase. The following clip is a fan-captured video of Avi singing Sink.
From what I can tell, Avi performs in both English and Portuguese, the latter which can be seen in the clip featuring the song Só Danço Samba, which is, not surprisingly, a sexy, playful samba.
For more about Avi Wisnia, you can check out his official website here. If you are interested in hearing more, you can check out his ReverbNation page here. Sign up to his mailing list, and you can get a few free downloads. If you'd like to check out the previews on iTunes, click here. Just a warning: you just might end up loving it, and buying it for your own collection. I speak from experience.
