Vocalist Heidi Krenn is small and thin, and immediately strikes me as a frail waif—I want to protect her. But look a little closer and the depth of experience in her grey eyes emerges. A native of Vienna, Heidi lives in Shanghai, a town with a completely different kind of culture that she says can sometimes be harsh toward the naïve.
However, she works full time as an artist, a rare gift sparing one from a life as a waitress. She returns occasionally to the West to record, visit, and tour. At just 26, Heidi may not yet be a seasoned jazz veteran, but it is also clear that this is not a girl who needs protecting.

Heidi made a deliberate choice to live in Shanghai, a vibrant city whose citizens are abuzz with newfound wealth and developing international identities. Nowhere else has she been able to earn a living wage solely as a singer, despite years of training, a BFA from Austria, and a Fulbright in NYC. And while she enjoys not having to work as a waitress or in retail to make ends meet, she does sometimes tire of the commercialized culture in which she must perform there. To Heidi, folks in Shanghai go out on the town to be seen, not to enjoy music.
The opportunity to record at Westwind provided a welcome artistic interlude for Heidi, and she took full advantage. During a marathon four-day session at the studio in April 2008, she collaborated with producer Alan Jones on percussion and guitar, accompanied by pianists Steve Christofferson and Dan Gaynor to record two full albums. The first is a series of jazz standards and the second features the music of composer Andrea Niemiec. Heidi had planned on staying with Jones, but the 15-hour days left her so exhausted she asked to overnight right here at the studio. She stayed in our little guest apartment that we’ve converted into an office, but where we keep two ottomans that convert into beds just in case.
Heidi slept soundly as soon as she was released from singing around midnight each day, until the very last minute when Jones would return at 10 a.m. to drag her back into the studio. In my opinion, some of Heidi’s best tracks were captured early in the morning when she was still exhausted and fragile with sleep, perhaps before she was able to put her emotional armor on for the day.
She alternated her time between our upstairs piano room where she and the musicians would work on the bulk of the arrangements, and the downstairs recording studio. During much of the recording we isolated Heidi downstairs from the piano, guitar and drums in order to separate the tracks for easier editing. Choosing her microphone was another challenge: Heidi has a huge, clear voice with a rich and emotionally deep lower register and an upper register that is rather bright. After the fourth microphone, we succeeded in capturing her upper register equally well for a fine-tuned and balanced recording with a deep ribbon mic.

Check out the videos on this amazing session at youtube.com/yogacowgirls

When did people stop singing together? America was founded on community song: from the church hymns sung together in early settlements in New England to the songs as stories told around the campfires in the Old West to the folks songs of Woody Guthrie. Now, with our increasingly isolating tv and computing lifestyles, we hardly join together in song. Thank goodness many religions keep community singing alive.

A new movement is percolating into American consciousness and practice—a movement that originated in ancient India. Kirtan singing involves the yoga-centered practice of a call and response song that repeats the names of the Hindu gods. The goal is to take on the archetypical strengths and values of these gods through the tonal vibration and emotional space created by the repetition.

As the story goes, kirtan singing used to be practiced on street corners in every city and throughout the small towns, one person setting up his tabla drum or harmonium and beginning to sing the names of the gods, people drifting in one by one and two by two to join the group, responding vocally to the call of the repetition, striving to bring the values of the gods inside, to bring themselves closer to the inner transformation that would allow them to bring those strengths to bear on their own lives.

At Oregon’s Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat & Conference Center, April 8-11 2008, world-renowned musician and storyteller Jai Uttal conducted a three-day seminar that combined kirtan singing with narrative tales. Joined by his oftimes partner in songmaking, Daniel Paul, participants enjoyed leisurely storytelling gatherings–where Jai related anecdotes of the life of his guru Neem Karoli Baba, as well as legends of Indian gods—interspersed with sessions of joyous, lively, and participatory kirtan singing. Daniel contributed his own stories of travels to India and life in Hawaii. Together, they had a certain energy that relaxed the participants with their openness about their lives. Together, they enlivened us with joy and laughter as well.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of the April kirtan camp had to be the beautiful natural setting offered by the Breitenbush location. Water, rock and earth meld in this amazing geothermal treasure in Oregon. The combination of the spiritual, historical, musical and natural worlds enriched Jai’s already powerful songs and stories to an amazing degree.

The newly built hillside yoga temple at Westwind Farm Studio confers the same sorts of benefits. Situated on a southwest-facing slope overlooking the Tualatin Valley, the temple has glass walls that roll away to allow complete exposure to and communion with the natural world. In the coming months, we hope to take advantage of our beautiful and naturally spiritual setting to produce a series of instructional and enriching yoga and kirtan videos. Check back for updates and check out other videos about Jai Uttal at Yogacowgirls Youtube spot