A Journey of Hope

BY ANN PARENTI

Did you ever start a project that was a deeply buried dream of yours only to find it take on a life of its own once set in motion? Well, that is what this story of hope is all about. Many people have quizzed me about what possessed me to follow my dream over the years, so here is the condensed version of my crazy tale.

It all started less than ten years ago. We were just emerging out of the wicked recession, and I had a bit more time on my hands. If I hadn’t gone into my current profession (which I still am working in), I asked myself what would I have done?

I had always hoped to record a CD with a few originals and jazz standards. So, I asked myself, if not now, when? I have written songs and played guitar since I was about 12 years old. I also wanted a little companion book to go along with it that featured a few of my artist friends, and I envisioned it in my mind as a spiral-bound book. I went to a convention in Los Angeles called TAXI, specializing in Arts and Repertoire (A&R). That weekend, I met a few folks there who changed my path for the future. One was Rob Case, another whole story mentioned later in this tale, and the other person was Debra Russell.

Debra was a speaker at the event, and I met with her in a private one-on-one meeting while at the convention. While explaining my “dream” to her, she asked, “Why don’t you consider doing a little film of the guys that play on the album since they are all seasoned jazz musicians and get their stories?”

Debra also said maybe I should consider doing an “LP” album, and that was BEFORE the big comeback of the LP! I remember saying to her, “Who will buy an LP these days?”

I didn’t buy stock in Apple early on, either, oh well… So, I went back home to Las Vegas and said to myself, “If I am supposed to do this project, then I will get some messages to guide me.” I am weird that way. Sadly, I only get these messages to grow my spirit, not my pocketbook. Come on, guys, could you throw me an Apple lead occasionally!

Well, less than a week after my return, I walked into a little recycle store, and way back in the store, I saw a recycled LP that was made into a spiral ring notebook! I then asked a few of my musician friends if they would like to be filmed talking about the days when they first started playing the strip. It didn’t take long for the list to grow to 88 performers, artists, and poets to be a part of this project. My fate was sealed. I could not seem to figure out how so many things were falling into line at such a rapid pace. Let’s just say, in exactly a year, with the help of a lot of folks, too many to mention, or this would not be a short story, we completed Midnight Muse – Milestones in Music – Las Vegas. It was a book, a two-CD set of various musicians and vocalists, and a film that went on to be aired on PBS – Las Vegas, based on the last 50 years of live music and jazz in Las Vegas. It is now on Amazon Prime and Golden Network TV. You can find a trailer for the film at www.forgottensongmusic.com. Ironically, I sang only one song on the CD but did write and co-write several of the songs for others to sing.

Midnight Muse Las Vegas Book, CD, and DVD Collection

Now, fast forward a year or two later, and two dear friends asked me— Carolyn Freeman (who has since passed away) and David Tupaz—to help secure a grant for a project we would do together called The VIVA Awards (Vegas Icon Visionary Awards) to help raise funds for both of their 501c3 organizations. I was not a 501c3, nor did I want to be a foundation. However, I had the product that fit the prerequisite of what the grant was for. We went before the board of the Centennial Grant Commission as a trio, and through a series of bizarre events (again, too complicated for a story of this size), I ended up as a solo act. The board suggested I consider becoming a 501c3 and present my project of Midnight Muse to them at a later time if I should decide to do the one final thing to qualify—become a 501c3.

After much contemplation, I decided this was the path to take. The grant could aid in finalizing the film by obtaining a lawyer to help get releases from the celebrities we mentioned in the movie… no easy feat! It also could help me re-engineer and make new copies of the CDs and reprint the LP spiral ring binder book. Yes, I sourced the manufacturer of that same notebook I found in the recycle store and gave them a large order. Now, here is where the story gets even more quirky. I asked my accountant to file a 501c3 request and call the foundation Forgotten Song Foundation, Inc., a sister to Forgotten Song Music, LLC, for profit. To this day, I use those words “for-profit” very loosely!

I got approval back in less than a month, which was unheard of at that time. It was just in time for the next Centennial Commission meeting, and over a few meetings, I walked out of there with two separate grants to finish the project in grand style. The film hit PBS within the same month we released it to the public. We also were able to secure funds to do a separate filming of classes that featured some of the jazz greats that were a part of the music scene in Las Vegas for decades. They are still online to this day and can be accessed from the website at:
forgottensongfoundation.org.

Our mission statement is simple. It reads as follows, “Forgotten Song Foundation, Inc., a registered 501c3 organization, is dedicated to recognizing, remembering, and sustaining the visual artists and performance artistry of live music for future generations.”

Our board does its best to sustain that passion by holding special events throughout the year, culminating with our awards celebration – The VIVA Awards. Also, the Foundation gives out yearly scholarships to students at UNLV Jazz Studies, CSN Jazz Studies, the Visual Art Department at UNLV, The Smith Center, The Composer Showcase, and we also offer grants that we have generously given out to a few other likeminded organizations and qualified students over the years. We are proud to say that we have given out $45,000 in scholarships and grants thus far.

We will be seven years old this coming March. We are “hoping” to give out $100,000 by the time we turn ten years old, if not sooner. We have a dedicated board that has been with us for many years, featured on our website. My husband, Curtis McCoy, is the President of the foundation and has stood beside me through all of these madcap journeys over the years.

We also did a very unusual grant with Carolyn Freeman’s foundation called American Jazz Initiative a few years back. With a lot of collaboration and the help of some additional angel donors, we helped produce the fabulous project called Las Vegas Suite. Nathan Tanouye wrote all the music and arrangements, and Clint Holmes wrote the lyrics and performed on it. Rob Case of New Pants Publishing, Forgotten Song Music, LLC, and American Jazz Initiative produced the album. The Forgotten Song Foundation gave Carolyn’s organization a small grant to help finish this most ambitious project. It was a 32-piece orchestra called The Las Vegas Jazz Connection. Jerry Blank graciously designed the art for the cover of the CD, and it was all recorded at the UNLV Recording Studio. Ron George engineered the CD, and Gil Kaupp mastered the CD. See, I told you earlier Rob Case was for yet another story…

You can find the CD on almost any online music outlet store, including www.forgottensongmusic.com.

Las Vegas Suite CD. Artwork by Jerry Blank

After Carolyn’s passing earlier that year, we did a memorial concert to release the album in November 2019 at Notoriety, downtown Las Vegas. Upon their opening, we were the very first event at Notoriety. It was a time that will live in my heart forever. Imagine the sound of a 32-piece orchestra and vocalist coming off that stage that day! It was a time not to be forgotten. I am sure Carolyn was there with us that day, cheering us all on.

Then, somewhere during this crazy adventure, my friend Carolyn Muse Grant and I offered to help David Tupaz with a magazine he published called L’Vegue. Well, as I like to say, no good deed goes unpunished. Somehow (that indeed is another story all in itself), I was guided onto another path that I never thought I would wander down. Let’s just say I am now the owner of Chic Compass, and Forgotten Song Music, LLC is the magazine’s publishing arm. We try to collaborate to co-host magazine launches with a fundraiser for the foundation whenever possible. After all, FSF and FSM are sisters.

Now, here we have come full circle, and another calamity hits not just our nation but the world. The COVID pandemic will be in the history books one day, but until then, we are all writing our own little piece of history on how it affected us all. Needless to say, all 501c3 foundations were taking a one, two punch during this time. How could you have a fundraiser when we couldn’t even leave our own homes most of the time?

As an organization, we thought we could only give out half of what we gave yearly when this began. However, that is not how it played out. In a strange turn of events, I was tasked with caring for a close relative in the transitioning stage of passing, dying too young of cancer. That dreadful disease will continue to haunt humankind long after COVID has come and gone. If you do the numbers game like they do the COVID numbers game, you will get blown away by how many people die yearly of this vicious disease. Before passing, my cousin Sarah was generous enough to donate to the FSF foundation, and with that donation, we will give out a grant in her name every year until the money has expired.

In the summer of this year, some angels came knocking on my door—a group of interior designers and vendors who work in my industry that I still work to this day. They did a fundraiser on the Foundation’s behalf and raised a considerable about of money in that one event. With both donations, we were able to give our usual amount of gifts that we give out yearly at The VIVA Awards and have enough for next year, too!

We did a few special things this past year with additional capital. We gave extra money to CSN to help their students survive through the pandemic; we gave additional funds to The Composer Showcase, who helped so many of our out-of-work musicians and performers in Las Vegas devastated by no work for 18 months. Yes, I said 18 months! In many cases, most of them didn’t qualify for unemployment or PPP money. It broke our hearts as an organization to see our friends get taken to their knees over this. I only wish we could have helped even more.

Now, we are seeing a bit of light, ever so dimly, at the end of this tunnel we have all been living in. The entertainers are slowly getting back to work and hope they will prevail one day soon. As we all brace ourselves for the newest Omicron variant, all we can do is hope and pray this will be the final test for us all. Well, one can HOPE, anyway.