Thomasina Winslow
historyThomasina 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 and has 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 in the eastern United States and Europe 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.»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.»Groupie Tunes web site»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.»Folk Music Performer Index web page for Wilm to WirWinslow, 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.»Autobiography at Productions Page. Accessed April 28, 2008.»Official web site. Accessed April 28, 2008
Winslow's day job is that of a music and performing arts teacher at Saint Anne Institute, a reform school for girls,»Saint Anne Institute web site. Accessed April 28, 2008. where she administers the "Expressive Arts" program.»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.»YATMA at Zoom Info»YATMA at LinkedIn YATMA, since 2006 called Educational Mentoring Through the Arts & Humanities (EMTAH),»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." »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.
In March 2007, she was featured in Caffe Lena's "3rd Annual Blues Fest" alongside '''Mark Tolstrup and Beaucoup Blue.»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.»AlbanyAlive.com Events web site gallery page 137. Accessed May 13, 2008.
She is the owner of a production company, Winslow Productions.»Winslow Productions web page As part of her production work, Winslow also mentors up-and-coming performing artists.»Channel Connections web page
Winslow was, for a while, an artistic agent.»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 »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
»German music web site, where she has performed with Nick Katzman, as well as in Poland »Polish music web site, Denmark »Danish web site, and Latin America.»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,»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.
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.
Fans of Katzman were once again on notice about a second show in April 2007.»IGS Guitar Forum blog of April 2007»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!"
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.»Music Video on YouTube with Nick Katzman
The duo played at the Stamford Arts Centre
Blues and Folk Festival, and were the second-billed act for "Guitar Day" ("8.30pm Nick Katzman & Thomasina Winslow 10.00pm Jeff Lang").»Stamford Arts Centre official web site»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." »Monty's Music web page Blogger Ginger Mayerson called their performances "cute" and "Oh, I just love these trips down memory lane, don’t you?", adding "I like the way this singer, Thomasina Winslow, sings."Ginger Mayerson, "Nick Katzman: Filed under: amused", found at »The Hackenblog. Retrieved November 2, 2008.
In April 2008, Winslow and Katzman recorded a song for a future CD. They also performed together again at the Good Coffeehouse in Brooklyn on April 25, 2008.»Official web site Past Calendar page. Accessed April 28, 2008.»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.»Thomasina Winslow (Featuring Nick Katzman) on One Artist a Day website. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
Winslow and Katzman are touring America and Europe in mid-2009. They had a gigs in Brooklyn, Saratoga Springs, and Easton, New York from April to May 2009. They performed at the Mississippi Blues Nacht Festival in Köpenick, Germany on July 18 and 19, 2009.
Education
Winslow attended Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central Schools. 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. .
Solo 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 1990s in concerts with Two Story Tuesday and Bojembe around upstate New York, including Glens Falls, Albany, and Colonie.
Solo tours
Winter 2007 to Spring 2008 tour
Winslow made 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,»Caffe Lena official web site Calendar page for December 2007. Accessed December 10, 2007.»Past Calendar from official website. Retrieved December 9, 2008. 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,»Java Jazz Cafe web site. Accessed January 6, 2008. in Delmar, New York.
Summer 2008
In the Summer of 2008, Winslow played gigs further out in Upstate New York, including three gigs each at Colonie Center and the Barnsider BBQ Restaurant in Lake George.
WRPI live show
On December 8, 2008, Winslow performed a one-hour live show on WRPI, the college radio station of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for its "Stormy Monday Blues" show.»WRPI schedule. Accessed December 13, 2008.
2009 Tour
Winslow had a significant tour in Spring 2009.»official website calendar page. Accessed December 9, 2008. This included a performance at Marietta, Ohio's River City Blues Festival in March 2009,»River City Blues Festival official website. Accessed December 9, 2008., a show in Easton, New York, blues festivals in Denmark and Germany, and return shows at Caffe Lena and the Good Coffeehouse with Nick Katzman. She also performed in Easton, New York.
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.»CD Baby Most of the songs from the CD can be purchased in MP3 format.»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." »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.
Collaboration with Nick Katzman
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".»Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture official web site He had previously performed with Ruby Green (Terry Garthwaite),»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,»Sparking Ragtime & Hardbitten Blues CD web page so their fans expected they would perform again together.»IGS Guitar Forum blog of April 2006 Instead, Winslow substituted for Green; in Katzman's own words:
Collaboration with Marco Haber
Winslow recorded a music video with Marco Haber of Mudfunk in December 2007, covering Fly Like An Eagle.»You Tube music video. Accessed January 6, 2008.