Are You . . . Experienced?
By Skylaire Alfvegren
LA Weekly: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 - 12:00 am
Continued...
A practiced astral traveler, Stonebrooke had no interest in extraterrestrials until an unprovoked physical journey deposited her in the hull of a metallic spacecraft six years ago. Since then, she has had numerous encounters with reptilian beings, who she believes are preparing her for an apocalyptic planetary unheaval: "I think we’re close to having a global near-death experience — whether it’s brought about by Y2K, solar flares, nuclear warfare, polar shifts or suitcase bombs, something has to wake us up."
To watch Stonebrooke perform is to feel instantly evolved. Clad in salmon silk, she packed the Cinegrill for a recent concert, backed by bassist Tom Warrington, pianist Rich Eames and drummer Dick Weller, trolling out smoky renditions of Cole Porter’s "I’ve Got You Under My Skin," Van Morrison’s "Moondance," a number of originals, and improvising on Miles Davis’ "All Blues." "Roger [Leir, local podiatrist–cum–UFO researcher] got five phone calls from people in the audience who had experiences that night," she says.
The favorite entertainer of the late Gene Roddenberry, Stonebrooke has only given a handful of performances recently, some coinciding with such UFO-related events as the 50th anniversary of the space-saucer crash at Roswell. Much of her time has been devoted to writing Experiencer: A Jazz Singer’s True Account of Extraterrestrial Contact, an entertaining personal account of her reptilian encounters.
"When I first woke up to these experiences, I had a real hard time for about a year and a half," she says. She retreated from music and focused on unraveling the nature of her extraterrestrial adventures. Her revelation that this planet could be "one big, terraformed experiment" led to Experiencer, a "contact-inspired" album of atmospheric, textured jazz, sprinkled with Third World percussives, groovy synthesizers, flourishes of electric guitar and seductive horns. Like a Sade with sass, Stonebrooke wraps her stellar pipes around wordy, worldly lyrics of rain forests, romance and otherworldly visitors.
Billing herself as "The Intergalactic Diva," Stonebrooke sees her music and forthcoming book as tools for enlightenment: "I’ve come to realize I’m on this planet to make peace on some level, whether it be between humans and extraterrestrials, or [between] contactees and those who ridicule us. I write songs about E.T.s because I and countless others know that extraterrestrial contact is real, and that the discovery of this worldwide phenomena is the most profound revelation in human history."
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