Thank you Oak & Vine for a fabulous Two Year Residency!

It's time to move on but we've had a blast and want to Thank you for joining myself and Brandon Mayer every Third Thursday for the last two years at Glendale's up and coming wine bar, 

Oak and Vine (formerly Left Coast Wine Bar.) We've enjoyed serenading you with our heartfelt original acoustic tunes as well jazz and folk-rock classics. Make sure you stop by for their amazing selection of food, music and wine!

http://theoakandvine.com

2015 Summer Newsletter

With Gabriel Freidman at Stories Cafe, Echo Park CA

Check out my 2015 Summer Newsletter

Fall Newsletter 2014

Rehearsing with Brandon Mayer and Marisa Echeverria 

at Lineage Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, CA

Read entire 2014 Fall Newsletter

TOUR News & Updates!

Mataji Booker and Luca Romano on Tour

The Wild Horse Winery, Templeton CA

Aug 2, 2014 Hosted By Steve Key

Watch Checkmate LIVE at Kulaks' Woodshed

  Check out our Tour Updates and News!

Waiting in Humble Anticipation!

    TOUR  SCHEDULE

June 27  Battery Books, South Pasadena CA

July 9  HopVine Pub open mic, Seattle WA

July 10  Black Dog Cafe, Snoqualmie WA

July 27  Backyard Coffee Co., Redwood City CA

July 28 Hotel Utah open mic, San Francisco CA

July 29 Element Skateboards Camp, Montecino CA

July 30 Left Coast Wine Bar, Glendale CA

July 31 The Shell Cafe, Pismo Beach CA

Aug 2 Wild Horse Winery, Templeton CA

Aug 3 Private House Concert, Pasadena CA

Aug 4 Kulaks' Woodshed, Valley Village CA

Aug 6 Firefly Bistro, South Pasadena CA

Aug 7 Braj Gallery, Los Angeles CA

The Official Mataji Booker Music Website is up!

Catch upcoming gigs, view videos, photos and everything Mataji Booker music!

Many thanks to wix.com, an easy to use option that allowed me to easily create a site solely devoted to my music! A definite recommend to anyone needing a website for your business. They've thousands of easy to use, beautiful streamlined templates and I've really enjoyed this process. But you don't have to take my word for it, have a looksie yourself! http://matajibookermusic.com 

Matt Schodorf Photography

Latitudes Release Concert, Lineage Performing Arts Center

Aug 30th, 2013, Old Town Pasadena: Joined by a host of friends from the local community of Pasadena and neighboring South Pas - Ben Kishaba (guitar), Jose Gurria Cardenas (percussion), Shirgeru Logan (viola) and Chris Rolontz (upright bass) helped me bring Latitudes to life in the flesh! "Love Aquarius" is one of six tunes on my newly released EP, available now on Spotify.

Night Shooting w/ Photographer Stefano Gali

Night Shoot. Old School. Film, not digital. Longer than usual held poses. Biting cold. Energized and thrilled to be creating something spontaneous - art for arts sake. Took me back to my old days of modeling before digital was born. Things took time. Light needed to be measured and we had to actually wait (think of that) to see if any thing even came of it. Night shoot. Old School. Holding, waiting. Thrilling, spontaneous. Film...

Where the Sunset and  Hollywood Blvd's intersect...

As you can see, recent LA implant Stefano Gali is a stellar artist. Italian born and bred and with a background in Film, his images remind me of cinematic stills, which naturally, I love. His images are real, sensuous and full of intrigue. We met while both working in South Pas at the edge of Summer.  It was a pleasure to create and collaborate with him around Los Angeles between the hours of 10pm and just passed midnight as we moved from Summer into Fall.

Vista Theater, Los Feliz. 

I've been coming here since I was a kid. I can't tell you how many double features I saw here with my big 6 person family. Well, I usually fell asleep before the second film to be honest. Warm memories. 

Cinematic theater (I do not smoke)

In the photographers vintage Mercedes, Mel's Drive In, Hollywood

At the all night Denny's across the street from Union Station Downtown. 

Some of the most beautiful shots from the movie "Drive" were filmed here.

And that's a wrap...

Check out phenomenal non digitized photography here at:

http://Stefanogali.com

UK Arts & Music Blog "Leicester Bangs" reviews Latitudes

Here's what Phil S. of the UK's Arts and Music blog, "Leicster Bangs" has to say about "Latitudes"!

Mataji Booker – Latitudes (Independent)

A singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and model – there are so many artistic facets to Mataji Booker that the fear must be that she spreads herself too thinly. On “Latitudes” those fears are dispelled in some considerable style. She describes her musical direction as “alt-rock/folk/jazz”, which ignores both the pop element that makes the six tracks on her debut EP so instantly appealing, and her soulful delivery, which refers back to the R&B stars of the ‘70s rather than her contemporaries. It’s a stunning mix of classic styles, with more than enough hooks for radio (and television – where she’s already making inroads).  

A regular attraction at various venues in her native Los Angeles, including The Whisky, The Rainbow Room and The Knitting Factory, she’s also toured Mexico and Japan, and played gigs in Southern Europe. She brings that experience to her recordings, and the often complex songs sound road-tested and fully formed, and as a result, they’re performed with confidence. Opening cut, the title track, finds Booker in a reflective mood, the intricacies of the song and arrangement both taking their time to fully unwind. The jazzy playfulness of “Checkmate” is a musical mating dance, with gypsy violin calling the tune, and “Love Aquarius” and “Molded” are older songs, resurrected for the “Latitudes” project, but they sound very much at home, and their themes fit neatly within the EP’s conceptual premise.

http://leicesterbangs.blogspot.co.uk

Latitudes Release & Listening Party:

Looking forward to performing tunes from my new EP Latitudes 

Fri. Aug. 30 at Lineage Performing Arts Center in Pasadena.

Healing and Inspired living in the city of trees

As the Latitudes EP project nears completion, I contemplate a ride into the future with Love & Music as my guide at home in South Pasadena, CA, where one year ago Latitudes was conceived and came to life! I wrote 'Checkmate' after running into an old flame. The song is a light hearted homage to the mating dance we play when we have our guards up and are afraid to give ourselves fully. And as the summer and our story unfolded, the guy took off,  but 'Latitudes' (Sparrow & the Bluejay), 'Be with Me' and 'Words to Hold' came to visit and stayed... in that order.   These four songs are essentially  the journey I took last summer uncovering layers and layers of deep pain I didn't even realize was there - the catalyst of course being a short lived (Latitudes) and abruptly ending love affair without explanation (Words to Hold), which challenged me to go into places, sad and dark places in my heart (Be With Me), finally ready to be accessed for healing and a richer understanding of the one true love to seek out,  the love and acceptance of myself.  After much thought, two oldies but goodies -  'Molded' and 'Love Aquarius',  were added to the mix completing the 6 song EP. They fit right in. 'Molded',  is one of the first songs I wrote nearly 15 years ago, so it was  meaningful to finally record it for real. Full circle.

 Today Latitudes, formerly titled "Vertical Love" -  is finished and ready to share. Well, sort of ready. We're in the final stages of editing images for the album cover, shot by friend and awesome photographer Eleonora Ghioldi. So now after one beautiful - crazy - painful - joy-filled year from setting my intention, I'll have a CD in my hands soon.  A release is on the horizon. This is living.

Photos by Eleonora Ghioldi

http://eleonoraghioldi.com

15th Annual Inspiration Awards marks my 5th year at Step Up!

 With friend & former student (LA Leadership Academy 2008-2009) and 

current incoming LMU Junior, Yessenia Hernandez. 

The Inspiration Awards always marks the end of the school year and my time at Step Up. Here I am playing on the "green" carpet (above) with Brittany Ballard of Little Plow Films. Soul sista' and inspiring kindred spirit, we started out the same year at Step Up in 2008. She taught the film workshop and I the Spoken Word Poetry.  What a journey! I've been Blessed to get to work with countless amazing young women in the classroom as well as connect with and be exposed to successful, empowering women set on changing things for females of all ages, creeds and backgrounds everywhere. If things don't get too hectic now that the album is done, I most def am going to try for a 6th year with the girls, but for now, I simply sit in Gratitude for the last five and all that they've given me as instructor and friend to so many beautiful young women.

Special thanks to long time friend, mentor and the woman responsible for bringing me on board:

 Step Up LA's Managing Director Jamie Kogan.

Spring Cleaning

I resonated with this quote and image so much that I just had to share it and ponder upon how yes, for me, it has been a time to let go of fear. Fears of failure, Fears of Success. Fear of what people might think or not think at all about my voice, the music, my image. As I forge forward through the final mixing stages of my first album, Latitudes - I reflect upon the countless days and nights since the beginning of this path of music I chose some 16 years ago...remembering moments, long chunks of time when I believed that this probably would never happen for me.  Fear is a prison if you allow it to be.

In a short time, I will have in my hands the fruits of many years labor  - not just physical, but emotional, mental, spiritual - feeling free from expectations, entitlement, fear, full of joy, gratitude and humility. Having learned once and for all that the only way out of fear is through it. Having earned once and for all a seat upon the throne of my True Self. The Self that is here to create with abandon, to share an abundance of love and to give and share freely as I grow in loving what I do - with the "wild" idea that it might help others to learn to find and love their true selves too. Today is always a good day to go of anything that no longer serves us.

Postcards from Monster Studios: Recording Latitudes in Nashville

View from the main console: Monster Studios  is 

owned and ran by Producer/Musician Brian Irwin.

She is a string Goddess : Andrea Young brought magic on the final  day of recording. 

 Happy Feet...

 Recording in a room with a view: Nashville Green. 

 

Mr. Irwin

Grateful...

It's like boarding a train in the dark, carrying one small piece of luggage - Destination

Unknown. When I first arrived here I had 6 songs, some chords on a guitar and an incredibly gifted Producer/Musician - Brian Irwin - our train's conductor if you will.

Our train moves so fast, but at just the right speed. This is going to get corny, full steam ahead... At just the right speed, we weave through rocky canyons, swiftly pass pristine lakes and endless valleys of tall Tennessee trees dressed in leaves the color of heaven - our train spars with blinding sunlight followed by warm drops of cold rain.

We manage to pick up a few passengers along the way. A little Percussion, some bangin' Drums & two Guitars. A beauty filled Bass and a rather victorious Viola color our path with new songs and laughter. There were of course moments when I couldn't see the sky. Our conductor swiftly twists yet smoothly maneuvers our train across the tracks - makes us believe we can fly as we rise above more valleys, over deep gorges and dance pass undiscovered bodies of water at record speeds... We rise above the tracks as if floating through time - suspended inside newly birthed patches of  blue, we see the stars as if for the first time.

Five days later we arrive - warm, dry, safe, liberated. The journey was the destination, and the destination turned out to be : continued...

Ushering in 2013

It's a new year and I'm walking in the light of Gratitude for all that 2012 has brought into being. The resources and endless players who've arrived to help bring my dream of recording an album of music is coming to life. So much change -  moving from busy urban jungle Korea Town to quiet tree lined street South Pasadena...to saying goodbye to an amazing job working with teenage girls at Step Up in June, only to return to it (for the third time) in January.  A wealth of rich and textured experiences with my beloved friends and family (nu and not so nu) - including witnessing the birth of my niece Emmie. Surviving being hit by a car this time last year whilst on my bike rushing for the train. Slowing down. So much love and support from folks I know, folks I've never even met (re: youtube, kickstarter). Spooky journeys into the unknown, journeys into love and heart ache like never before pain and back again. Death. Going inward. Lessons. Growth. Acceptance. 

                                              Designe, Simon, Eric Bolarie Photography, Make Up Angela Johnson

2012 brought me a new guitar which heralded New Songs for my New album out this beautiful new year, 2013 - Vertical Love the EP is on the horizon and in the works. It is literally 15 years in the making.  New Mentors, new alliances, new ideas and re-newed vision. New prospects, deeper connections and a beautiful black rescue Kitty, Osho who keeps me sane and teaches me true love everyday. A new road bike, the red Dragon. Watch out. A newly deactivated break from social networking ie: Facebook & Twitter.  Falling in love again with the simple things in life, the basics, finally learning to folk-us (focus). Embracing the easy come easy go's, creating healthier boundaries and really eye-spying the red flags in life as a I daily strive to carry the white flag of surrender in all that surfaces. Letting go  to let all that truly matters in. More and more, having more to give of myself. It's a new year, and I'm walking in the light of Gratitude for all that has come to pass and is coming.

Vertical Love in South Pasadena, CA

What a fun evening sharing tunes new and old with friends new and old at Buster's Cafe in lovely South Pasadena where I also reside. This town truly appreciates and supports Live Music! BigThanks to the Busters Familia, crew and to everyone who came down.

First Show in 2012: String Theory Acoustic Music Festival, DTLA

A Decade of images: "Outtakes" opening at the new Braj Gallery

Pre-Installation of main wall. It took about two
hours to sift through the entire collection.

The first Polaroid up: An early Self Portrait taken
on the 7 Train Platform in Queens, NYC circa 1999

Gallery owner Caren Braj standing next
to the first Polaroid placed on the wall.

Though I've been honored to create my brand of Polaroid Installations here in LA, Barcelona, Rome and Paris, at the end of 2011 I was thrilled and proud to present my first solo Art Show at a dear friend's new Gallery Space on Temple Blvd. in Echo Park - A neighborhood close to my heart since I not only lived there for 2 years between 1998-2000, but it also is the place where I was living when I first got inspired to start exclusively shooting with Polaroids for what would be the next ten years. Looking back it seemed an appropriate "coming full circle" moment for me and my cherished Polaroid images taken on all of my travels to end up there first.

It was especially meanigful for me to show video work for the first time. Below is a blurb created for the gallery.

View from the front door. 14 Film shorts were projected on the wall above right.

View from the back of gallery. More images were placed

in a line on the opposite wall of the main installation.

Music Producer, Artist Alejo and friend.

Performing/Visual Artist, Educator Kraig Blue

Family: My brother Hassan Booker, his wife Bet and

my nieces Sabrina, 4 and Aaliyah, 5.

Artist Leland Bankowski and Caren Braj looking good enough to eat.

Colombiana Poet reciting a 10 min piece en espanol.

I've got to get her name from the friend whom invited her!

Taking footage of her partner reciting his politically charged poems.
He did two moving pieces.The two poets and activist's invited are a couple.
It was a Divine experience and the perfect Blessing for the new space.

His name, also still needs to be retrieved.

This is my dear friend and one of biggest supporters Caren Braj; also a painter and film maker and yes, a newly Grammy Nominated Producer (for her Production work on a video for TV on The Radio) was the beautiful platform that made this magical evening possible. We've dreamed of this night and space for many years and we were like two 5 years old's having a blast in the sandbox the 24 hours it took to prepare for the big night which, by the way was a spontaneous decision made just two days before the actual event. In other words on Wed. night we decided to do an opening in her new gallery, Saturday. Looking forward to the closing. Thank You Caren.