One of the things I promised my Dad before he disappeared over the rainbow into the next dimension, was that I would use my alto tones. He and his girlfriend had been big band singers, and I knew that they were politely holding back their opinions about my rock and roll singing. Though I had been signed to big name labels, and done a lot of radio and TV, to them, rock singing was just so much caterwauling. I guess they disliked the genre as much as I dislike the screamo-emo stuff. So, I did promise that I would look into a few ballads.
Nowadays, I don't need to scream so much. I've gotten pretty good at it, but I've been exploring the old standards. As a guitar player friend said who switched from the blues 12 bar to the jazzy 32 bar structure, "I got sick of the same 3 chords'.
I sort of agree. While there is practically no song as hypnotic as 'Woolly bully" or 'Too many Teardrops", Billy Holiday's "Don't Explain" tears the gut right outta the bucket. Nat King Coles' "Nature Boy" is as mysterious as 'Sally Go Round the Roses". and 'When Sunny Gets Blue"..has always been my song, an ode to hormones and clinical depression.
Well, anyway, now I get to sing some of these beautiful old songs as Anita O'Day in Roz Nixon's latest musical, SS Nirvana, at Birdland on November 3rd. I get to sing with all these lovely jazzies, Ghanniyya Green, who plays Sarah Vaughn, Charles Bartlett, as Louis Armstrong, TC3 as Johnny Hartmann, and Nikita White as Ella Fitzgerald.
This is like stepping off into a time capsule of the late fifties, and early sixties, when singers were inventing like crazy, creating scat and vocalese at a time when Bop was king and big bands had shrunk down to tight, fast little combos.
Now, I get to sing some jazz here and there, with Jim Satten's MMD jazz trio, or even on a little date where I'm booked to work with a group I don't know.. But the music is like comfort food for me, reminding me of the music of my growing years, when the record player was full of Peggy Lee and Dakota Staton, and Dinah Washington and Miles Davis, and Chet Baker and Gil Evans, Stan Kenton and Broadway tunes. Music is a shape shifter. It starts out as an old tune that brings back memories, and then it changes up and becomes quantum mechanics, where time warps and speeds up and slows down according to what? The moon? The room?. Then it becomes a crazy meditation, bringing on levitation and out of body experience. Anyway, I'm glad I'm doing what I'm doin'.
Nowadays, I don't need to scream so much. I've gotten pretty good at it, but I've been exploring the old standards. As a guitar player friend said who switched from the blues 12 bar to the jazzy 32 bar structure, "I got sick of the same 3 chords'.
I sort of agree. While there is practically no song as hypnotic as 'Woolly bully" or 'Too many Teardrops", Billy Holiday's "Don't Explain" tears the gut right outta the bucket. Nat King Coles' "Nature Boy" is as mysterious as 'Sally Go Round the Roses". and 'When Sunny Gets Blue"..has always been my song, an ode to hormones and clinical depression.
Well, anyway, now I get to sing some of these beautiful old songs as Anita O'Day in Roz Nixon's latest musical, SS Nirvana, at Birdland on November 3rd. I get to sing with all these lovely jazzies, Ghanniyya Green, who plays Sarah Vaughn, Charles Bartlett, as Louis Armstrong, TC3 as Johnny Hartmann, and Nikita White as Ella Fitzgerald.
This is like stepping off into a time capsule of the late fifties, and early sixties, when singers were inventing like crazy, creating scat and vocalese at a time when Bop was king and big bands had shrunk down to tight, fast little combos.
Now, I get to sing some jazz here and there, with Jim Satten's MMD jazz trio, or even on a little date where I'm booked to work with a group I don't know.. But the music is like comfort food for me, reminding me of the music of my growing years, when the record player was full of Peggy Lee and Dakota Staton, and Dinah Washington and Miles Davis, and Chet Baker and Gil Evans, Stan Kenton and Broadway tunes. Music is a shape shifter. It starts out as an old tune that brings back memories, and then it changes up and becomes quantum mechanics, where time warps and speeds up and slows down according to what? The moon? The room?. Then it becomes a crazy meditation, bringing on levitation and out of body experience. Anyway, I'm glad I'm doing what I'm doin'.
