BLACKBIRDS
• MuseNote Ring
BLACKBIRDS was born in 2005 when a grizzled veteran of the Chicago music scene, Mike Slajchert, decided to come out of hibernation. In the early days, Mike collaborated with a former student, Claire Hellige, whose angelic voice formed a curious counterpoint to Mike's gravelly vocals. A couple of years later, dancer/model/singer Jasmine Quintana took Claire's place, bringing a strong vocal presence into the mix.
These days, Mike does everything solo, experimenting with new forms and new instruments, but mostly scratching an old itch to make music he loves to play.
Ever since the beginning, Blackbirds music has been a vehicle to make money for children in Africa, particularly in Uganda. Our contributions these days help the Invisible Children organization rebuild the Layibi Secondary School outside of Gulu, Uganda.
One of Mike's favorite things is playing benefit concerts once or twice a year with Matt Scharpf, formerly a member of "Jamestown", and currently an active musician on the Chicago scene. Matt is a pro's pro, and generously lends his talents to our efforts.
BLACKBIRDS is grateful to you for having read this far, for your support, and always for your listening. Life is meant to be lived for others; if we can make you smile a little bit with our music while we try to pick your pockets for the kids of Uganda, we hope you'll turn those pockets inside out.
If you'd like to be part of our mailing list, please drop me a line on the "contacts" page; I've stayed away from a standard "leave a comment"-type page, as I want to make sure that you're not spammed by anyone. At the same time, I'd love to hear from any old friends out there, as well as new listeners who've stumbled upon us.
Some of our music appears on SOUNDAID (see links), a place where musicians from around the world offer their tunes to help Heifer fight world hunger. Please check out the other musicians there, plus others on the Links page.
Our first three CDs, "Blackbirds", "Anatomy of Melancholy", and "Unlicensed" are available on CDBaby, Garageband.com, iTunes, and on this website. Individual tunes from those CDs are available on iTunes and many other sites, including a couple in Japan and Latvia (I think we'll hit it big there, as long as somebody can put together an anime music video with Latvian subtitles). You can also purchase t-shirts, bags, and tiny little shirts which you can send pictures of yourself in on the "Products" page.
Please visit the links section to see what you can do to improve this sad old planet of ours.
Thanks for listening.
Mike
