January 6th, 2020 – Marissa Zechinato at Teavolve’s Open Mic.

Well, I think that in deference to the fact that not EVERYONE wants their pictures feeding into the algorithms of social media, AND the fact that in my heart of hearts I’d like Facebook to fail and so therefore should try to wean myself away from it, AND on top of everything else, Facebook has changed their functionality so that I can’t really tag many people from my “rob’s open mics” page any longer, with the clarity brought unto me by 2020, I am moving my galleries to my own website. It’s probably going to hurt my standings in the social media world, but keeping things like this in-house makes me feel a little bit better about the world. I hope that it’s not the first step on my path to Ultimate Obscurity… though that’d be a pretty cool band name.

Teavolve welcomes us unto 2020!

I was expecting the first night of the new year to be a pretty big deal and I was NOT disappointed… eventually! It took a sec though. Like, up until I took the stage I was worried it was going to be one of the lightest nights, but it filled in and it filled in with amazing performers. Many thanks to Sharif, my erstwhile bandmate, for coming out with his piano and adding his deliciousness unto the night. He’s such a talented beest and it’s always wonderful to have him in the house.

Tea house that is!

(photographs are all © rob Hinkal – but you’re welcome to use them – be kind and tag me and try not to remove the watermark!)

Featured artists are made possible through donations by our in-house audience and Focus Music – www.focusmusic.org.

Marissa Zechinato.

“Marissa Zechinato is a DMV-based singer-songwriter inspired by jazz, pop, and R&B music. Some of Marissa’s biggest musical inspirations include Corinne Bailey Rae, Jacob Collier, and Hiatus Kaiyote.“

That’s her press quote at least. I don’t know about ANY of those artists because I’m just not in the jazz and pop scene and my R&B is STRICTLY local. Marissa crossed my path as one half of the duo Marevin at my open mic last year, and we had them at Takoma Park Folk Festival to boot. It’s an honour to have her in our little tea house.

With surprisingly agile piano licks that remind me I don’t know enough about music, a lilting voice that surprised me just as I thought I had a handle on her range, and charm for days, Marissa pulls you in with a disarmingly smooth voice right before she jabs in with insightful lyrics that remind you that the paranoia and pain of Life and Love are sometimes at the root of our most beautiful moments.

The Teavolve Café & Lounge open mic happens just about every Monday at Teavolve, signup at 6pm, performances from 7-10pm. 2 songs / 10 minutes whichever’s shorter, with a PG13 environment – and is hosted by rob Hinkal of the band ilyAIMY. Rob’s Open Mics were declared a National Open Mic by Shure Microphones, “Best of DC” from Dcmusicdownload.com and have received recognition from the Library of Congress. Check in at http://www.ilyaimy.com/robsOpenMics/index.html for more information.