Me likey coffee
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 4:42 pm on January 14th
I love you Lynn... I'll always be your friend...
I gave up coffee almost entirely for two months. SCREW THAT! I just hooked up the espresso machine. It's coffee time, baybee! I feel like singing about coffee! My voice isn't even warmed up, but do I care? Nope.
Monday, January 15th...
Ooooh. So now I remember why I gave up my morning latte. Phlegm is not a singer's friend.
But coffee... my dear coffee... I love it so.
What's a girl to do? I think I'll try to sing a few more songs. Phlegm be damned.
The Good, the Bad, & Vegas
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 12:01 pm on October 19th
A weirdly smushy-faced version of me with Anita O'Day in 2000
Yep, I disappeared for a while. And I shall soon be disappearing again for a weekend in Vegas with my friend Lisa from Oklahoma. We met on a Greek ferry and traveled through Italy together in May. She's an undercover narcotics cop. We have a deal: I will teach her how to play craps, and in return she will put people into chokeholds whenever I ask. It's a very symbiotic relationship.
I haven't been singing at all lately since my cold. Since I have a huge gig in LA on November 9th (for a casino-themed private party that rented out the fancy shmancy Jonathan Club), when I get back from Vegas I'm going to have to go into heavy practice mode and go through my entire repertoire. I'll be on deadlines for my day job but plan to take occasional daily breaks to practice. And I'll try to put my practices on here. I need to get my voice back in good shape before my gig & remember all of the words to my songs! Don't wanna make an ass of myself in front of a 5 piece band & 300 people. Yikes.
In the meantime, I'm going to feature tunes from two of my favorite singers for your listening/watching pleasure. Just remember people... if I upload an mp3 that's not of me? I don't want any of you copying these songs to your own computers and breaking all of those piracy rules. That's a very bad thing to do. Just say no to piracy.
But I digress.
The ever-so-flashy Anita O'Day belts out "Tea For Two" at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival
Jack LeCompte, my drummer in LA (he's my music director for the gig in November) used to be Anita O'Day's drummer a few years ago so I had the pleasure of meeting her a few times. She has clearly been through many forms of hell... jail, drugs, wealth, poverty, infamy, you name it. Her vocal cords were damaged during a botched operation so she can no longer hold notes well, she can't sign autographs using her right hand any more, and onstage she can get disoriented in the middle of things that the old Anita could nail in her sleep. Fact is it's amazing that she's still standing upright and propping herself up on a stage, even though she is a shadow of her former musical glory. There's a new documentary being made of her experiences... but on a purely selfish level, the decline of such a powerhouse has been hard for me to watch so I'm not sure if I'll see it. But because I always want to support her, I probably will.
That's thing about aging jazz musicians though... once they stop performing, many times they've got nothing left to do but sit around & wait to die. Without music there's no reason to get out of bed. No reasons to put on the feathery outfits anymore. When old jazz singers stop wearing sequins & feathers, it's over. And do any of us want that kind of talent to end? No. So if you have a chance to go out and see jazz legends perform... DO IT. Support them. They need it.
Anita's (possibly heroin-inspired) interpretation of "Sweet Georgia Brown" The blase, bespectacled crowd is amazing. I just want to slap them.
And now for the "bad" part of this post. See, I am a HUGE fan of Wing. Have been for years. I have almost all of her albums. Are they good? That's not the point. She hits notes that you couldn't hit IF YOU WERE TRYING. Fact is, if she improved and became a great singer I would lose all interest in her. She would cease to bring me joy. I love Wing for Wing. I love that she loves music. I love that she tries so hard. I love that someone convinced her to cover AC/DC songs on top of her Carpenter's repertoire. I love that the boys from South Park actually made an episode about her where she got beaten up to the jeers of Sylvester Stallone... and she didn't get upset or offended by it. She just keeps making more music.
When I think of my favorite Wing tunes, it's hard to choose just one. When I listen to her, a smile forms from ear to ear... although I believe my ears may be bleeding. Anyhow, at first I was going to upload one of her jazz interpretations from Porgy & Bess... but I then changed my mind. There's a special place in my heart for her versions of Sound of Music tunes (her "Lonely Goatherd" is impeccable!) and since this blog is all about singing, I decided to break it down to the basics.
So please enjoy Wing's version of "Do, Re, Mi"... listen and learn how to sing! Seriously, stick with it... she'll grow on you. Kinda like a fungus. You too may learn the joy of Wing.
Lordy!
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 7:08 pm on October 7th
Girl gets a bad cold and resoldo falls asleep? Come ON people!!!
Still not quite in vocal shape to record myself doing anything, but almost. I am finally feeling like a member of the human race again. Phew! Good to be back.
This week I've been attempting to further train my puppy & realizing I desperately need to wean her from me a bit. It's just like having a kid, I swear! Zoe (a little red dachshund/terrier mix) was a runaway (I'm guessing this because they had absolutely NO information on her) that I picked up at the San Francisco SPCA in June. Thing is, now that she's gotten the hang of me working at home, she doesn't much like being without me... and I'm going out of town twice in the next month so she's got some upcoming abandonment issues to cope with.
Admittedly, laying around on the couch with a sick version of me for over a week didn't help matters, it has left her a little bit too clingy. She needs to get used to my absence, so today I took her to stay with a dogsitter & meanwhile I've been using my puppy-free time to ransack my apartment & sort through junk. (So far I've mostly just turned my place into a BIGGER mess!)
As I sort away, I'm blaring Sinatra Live at the Sands. I've listened to it a zillion times before, but not since reading Rat Pack Confidential (not the most well-written biography, but interesting nonetheless). Now I am hearing Frank's banter with a little more insight than I did before, but one insight hasn't changed... you can hear in the recording just how much Sinatra had people captured in the palm of his hands. (Not to mention that he could seriously sing & The Count Basie Orchestra was wonderful.) But even when he's doing his shtick and says something that makes him seem like kind of an ass, the audience clearly just laughs their heads off and it's palpable how honored they feel they are to be in the room listening to him. It's an amazing feat for any entertainer to be able hold that much unswaying power over a crowd. It's like they were hypnotized.
Anyhow, since I'm going to Vegas in a few weeks... I'm finding myself merrily belting out "Luck Be A Lady" with Frank as I clean my closet. Truth be told, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon...
Karrin Allyson, Jon Hendricks & Nancy King @ Yoshi's
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 10:33 pm on September 24th
Today my friend Melissa and I went to check out a Karrin Allyson matinee show at Yoshi's. Because Jon Hendricks and Nancy King were featured on her latest album, they were there too. So of course that lured every singer in town to the room.
After getting there early to fight for good seats (Yoshi's is that kinda place) we killed time walking around the farmer's market on the Oakland Pier over to the "Rendezvous" where Jack London used to drink. If you've never seen it, it's pretty hysterical... just a little shack that's still a working bar even though for the last 98 years the entire floor has been at a crazy slant from 1908 earthquake damage.
Karrin Allyson's show was great, although it was a bit short. Only 1 1/2 hours. The band was really great though, and the harmonies between the three singers were really nice. I liked Karrin Allyson more than I expected to, although I'm not so sure about her funky haircut. Jon Hendricks is 85 and a living legend. I'm not a huge vocalese fan but I like him and there's no denying that he can write amazing lyrics. He was pretty adorable onstage in his black & white patent leather oxfords and fancy duds. I'm noticing that while female jazz singers have a thing for sequins, older male jazz singers seem to have a penchant for the color orange. Not sure what that's about.
I wasn't familiar with Nancy but she was good too, the one song she did as a solo was Waltz For Debby, and her version was so quiet and nice it really made me want to do that song. It reminded me of when my niece was a little girl.
After the show, we socialized with some other singers and then bought a few cds and had them signed. Nancy was very chatty. Jon was very sweet & signed everything "Love you!" Karrin was a bit obsessed with keeping the line moving so I didn't get a great vibe off her, unfortunately. She wasn't exactly sociable this afternoon. I met her mom & her mom was very sweet though.
Since Nancy King inspired me, I decided to see what it would sound like if I sang "Waltz For Debby" with the composer, Bill Evans. It's not in my key and I'd rather do it a lot slower... but when you're singing with Bill Evans you're doing good just to keep up.
I Love the 80s... kinda.
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 12:21 pm on September 24th
Ok, I was a SERIOUSLY 80s girl. I'll admit it. There are photos of me with asymmetrical hair and blue eyeshadow... wearing big hoop earrings, a gigantic shirt with the collar up, black leggings and moon boots. There aren't many photos however, and the ones that exist are in a locked safe, buried underground in an undisclosed location. Don't look for them... you'll never succeed.
Anyhow, after my attempt to sing London Calling, I decided to try a few more 80s songs this morning. No reason. (Why do I keep repeating that I'm doing this stuff for no reason as though that's not already clear?) I'm trying to prove to myself that it's the singer & not the song as they say... and that even the cheesiest song I can make listenable. Or that I can make a song heard in a new way perhaps. Whatever works I suppose.
It's so weird to be singing all of this stuff a capella because... it's hard to get past the music behind that really drives most of them. It's easier to try to make the song sound different when you have a band putting different sounds behind you instead of trying to make it different solely with your voice and tempo. I worry that they sound boring. Or incredibly cheesy. Maybe they do. But it's still good vocal practice for me. And it's all about me, isn't it? Of course it is.
Jobimapalooza
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 12:01 pm on September 23rd
Antonio Carlos Jobim
My dad is six years younger than my mom. When I was little, she was the one with the Benny Goodman and Bing Crosby 78s, and meanwhile my dad played a lot of Henry Mancini, Herb Alpert, Perry Como & Antonio Carlos Jobim. I actually can't listen to Perry Como to this day because he provided the soundtrack to their ugly divorce. Oh, and also because he puts me to sleep. Antonio Carlos Jobim, on the other hand, I can listen to for days on end. Especially if sung by Joao Gilberto... niiicccce.
I have a lot of singer friends who do Brazilian music. My friend Gretchen Parlato does a really nice job with it. It takes a particular subtlety. Your notes have to be soft yet clear. The vibrato should be minimum. The rhythm & chords are written so clearly to go around one particular melody line that if you stray too much from it, you can really lose the true beauty. So I feel the same way about Brazilian music that I do about scatting or about big ballads... if I can't sell it right, I'll hold off on singing it until I feel I can. So far I have held off for the most part. It drives me nuts that I find myself wanting to do "jazzy" stylized things that ruin the beauty instead of settling into the stillness. To be honest, I get the feeling that I would only be able to sing Brazilian music really great if I was high on something and so mellow that I was melting into my chair with every note.
So today I'm experimenting with... no, not drugs. I'm going to try some Antonio Carlos Jobim songs totally sober. Admittedly this would be a lot easier with a guitarist behind me, but I'm trying to teach myself to sing it exactly as written and as clear as I can. I won't say I'm still... but that will take a lot more than one day for me to nail. I hesitate to improv Brazilian melodies, but on the first two I tried improvising at the end just to get it out of my system. This will take practice before I actually think I'm any good at it, and practice is what this blog is all about, right? Sure. Why not.
Wish me luck.
**********
Ok... so I decided to practice the hardest song ever... Waters of March. This song? GOES ON FOREVER. It's very repetitive, it's basically the equivalent of singing someone's grocery list. But the good part is that there's no time for jazzy embellishments so it's perfect for me to try practicing that whole "stillness" thing. If you aren't still when you sing Waters of March, you mess up the lyrics (and finding a web page that has the correct lyrics is a challenge in and of itself). I just spent a half hour messing up the lyrics on a constant basis... this was not an easy one for me. But I finally got a take that was sort of still and sounded okay. Phew.
P.S. I know I may have done a few melody notes wrong on this one, but I was doing good to get through the words...
Challenges are my sunshine!
Posted by Lynn Garrett at 9:37 am on September 21st
Well, Mr. Mountain Man dared me to sing "You Are My Sunshine" with all of the feeling that my urban-worn heart could muster.
That's no challenge, man! Don't be fooled by my erudite city slicker exterior... I'm quite soft & gushy inside. Not to mention that I also come from San Diego white trash... I mean, how many people do you know who have TWO uncles named Bud!? (Not kidding!) And truth be told, I have a weakness for Hank Williams Sr. & Bob Wills. Yeeeeehhaawwwwww! I can do some mean harmony on both Lovesick Blues and My Bucket's Got A Hole In It (I Can't buy No Beer).
So I did a little research on the song... and come to find it's the State Song of Louisiana. Did I know that? I think I did but forgot. Anyhow, it was written by Jimmie Davis who was the state's Singing Governor. Davis passed away in 2000 at about 101 years old. Wow. His parents were sharecroppers and he had 11 children. Busy guy.
Here's what he said about writing the song: "I didn't write it about anybody special, although I might have been courtin' two or three at the time. I believe it was written after a rainy day in Louisiana like this. Sunshine is a welcome thing. It brings a lot of brightness. I still like to watch the sun go down in the afternoon. I carried 'You Are My Sunshine' around but nobody would let me record it, and I couldn't get anybody else to record it. They either didn't think the song was any good or that I was any good. I recorded my own version in 1931 in Chicago, but nothing happened with it."
After looking around itunes, I realized that while it may not have caught on at first, "You Are My Sunshine" has turned into one of the most bizarrely eclectic cover songs I've ever seen. Check this out... it has been recorded by the likes of: Anne Hampton Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Bill Henderson & Oscar Peterson, Bing Crosby, Booker T & the MGs, Boxcar Willie, Bryan Ferry, Buddy Ebsen, The Carter Family, Dee Dee Sharp (of Mashed Potato fame), Frankie Yankovic WITH DORIS DAY, Gene Autry (that's the version I know), Ike & Tina Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Lawrence Welk, Mitch Miller, Mose Allison, Ray Brown, Pete Seeger, Ray Charles with Chris Isaak, Ricky Nelson,Trini Lopez, The Wiggleworms & Willie Nelson. All I can say is that I hope Jimmie Davis' 11 children got some royalties.
And with no further adieu, my first attempt at "You Are My Sunshine" a capella. And now my friends, I must go do some actual paying work instead of writing essays on state songs. :)
