How did you first become interested in music?

It’s in my blood.  I probably enjoyed music while still in the womb!  My father and his two sisters played piano.  My father was a big jazz fan.  Both my mother and father had beautiful voices and were not shy about singing around the house.  I remember my mother at the kitchen sink washing dishes, gazing out the window, singing “You Make Me Feel So Young” and “Love for Sale”; my father playing piano and singing “The Nearness of You”, “Who Can I Turn To”, “Laura” and other beautiful songs. 

For fun, my father would gather us around the tape recorder and sing, or talk like radio announcers, improvising comedy sketches and interviews.  When aunts and uncles and cousins came over, the singing and playing would start.  I always saw a piano in the homes of cousins and friends.  I thought every family had a piano and someone to play it, just like everyone had a refrigerator.  My father would record himself playing and singing, often joined by my mother. 

Then, when I was 8 years old I woke up one night to the sound of grieving.  That’s when I got the terrible news that my father had been in a car accident and did not survive. Of course, the tape recordings became even more precious, and the songs were more poignant.  From then on, music was the avenue to the joy I had known when my father was alive.  The grieving process never ends, it just goes into remission and eventually becomes a melancholy undercurrent to your joy of being alive.  My joy comes from my family and from music.

Who were some of your first musical influences?

As a child, I began to sing along with an LP of Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins, developing my voice and vibrato at home by imitating her. We had a very good music program in elementary school in New York, learning to clap in rhythm, subdivide, sight-sing, and play the recorder.  In my house we got a lot of our musical entertainment from TV, and my parents bought some great albums.  They played LPs of vocalists and bands like Tito Puente, El Gran Combo, Stan Getz, Eddie Palmieri, Cal Tjader and The Ramsey Lewis Trio,  along with the great Motown artists – Stevie Wonder,  The Supremes, The Jackson 5.  On TV I saw belters like Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Leslie Uggams, Diahann Carroll, Eydie Gormé, Streisand, and of course, the men: Steve Lawrence, Andy Williams, Jack Jones, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole. 

Back in the day I also loved rock music, like Led Zeppelin, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, Queen, Heart, Boston, Steely Dan, etc. – the great rock suites. I was a big fan of funk; Parliament, Sly & the Family Stone, Rick James, Rufus, Earth Wind & Fire. I sang along with James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Karen Carpenter and Chicago. In my home there was always music, either recordings, TV or live.  It was lively and fun!  There was a lot of Latin jazz; lots of sax, vibes, percussion.  When my mom threw a party, it always included dancing salsa.  Come to think of it, I haven’t been to a party like that in quite a while!

How did you become attracted to Jazz?

I originally wanted to become an actress, so I got very involved in the Drama Club, but once I started singing with my high school jazz band, I got the fever for singing! I always loved music from the Great American Songbook. I was also in the high school chorus, which had a very advanced gospel and classical repertoire, and vocal harmony became a real thrill for me. I admired the vocalese of the Manhattan Transfer. I had a strong sense of rhythm and as a teen was impressed by people like Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé and Ella Fitzgerald who would swing and scat. 

I loved the free feeling of instrumentalists soloing over changes. In my senior year in high school I desperately wanted to learn an instrument, so I took up the flute, which gave me the opportunity to learn to improvise a bit and piqued my interest in jazz theory. Later on I really loved jazz fusion, and the sound of Jaco Pastorius on bass. Decades ago when we first became friends, my then-future husband, Nicky Orta, inspired me, giving me copies of jazz albums and Brazilian albums to listen to.

His playing blew me away and we both enjoyed the same music - Weather Report, the Brecker Brothers, Keith Jarrett, Gino Vannelli; and Brazilian music, particularly Gal Costa.  Nicky was, and still is, a big inspiration. Jazz became powerful and profound, associated with important moments in my life. After working in other businesses, singing at parties, and raising my kids, in recent years I made the decision to get back to singing jazz and to do recordings that reflect what I feel in my heart. I’m open to enjoying many influences in jazz. Once you’ve become immersed in jazz, your sense of harmony and counterpoint and musical tension is heightened and a world of color opens up to you, like the scene in the Wizard of Oz.

How would you describe your musical style?

I love to swing and also love jazz/funk and Latin jazz. I do traditional jazz with a new take, and contemporary jazz with a traditional touch.

What would be your 10 favorite jazz recordings of all time?

It’s tough to decide, but here are 10 that come to mind, some fusion, and in no particular order:
1. Any of the Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks
2. Weather Report, Heavy Weather
3. Gino Vannelli, Brother to Brother
4. Tony Bennett, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, & the album with Bill Evans
5. Nancy Wilson, Hollywood My Way
6. Yellowjackets, Shades
7. Dianne Reeves, The Calling
8. Don Grolnick, Hearts & Numbers
9. Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown
10. Steely Dan, Aja

Just before you're going on stage for a performance, what is going through your mind?

The one constant is gratitude.  I am usually thinking how nice it is to be a part of a group of great musicians and to be singing songs I have an emotional attachment to.  My life history is in this moment; whether I’m singing for 2 people or 2,000.  I’m thinking that people out there know my voice and enjoy it, and their applause is like a gift from Time itself, for lack of a better description. 

I’m excited, knowing the next bunch of tunes will be fun to sing and to hear the band play.  I’m feeling that I can’t wait to get started, or can’t wait to do a particular song, because I know that the musicians will enjoy playing it and the audience will love it.  I’m in the moment, ready to give the audience what they came here for, feeling like a million bucks.

What is it about your music that you want your audience to understand after a performance?

I would hope the audience comes away with the knowledge that the elements that go into a musical life are like a recipe for the performer and no two are exactly the same. 

As jazz pianist, Mike Orta says, ‘you play what you live’.  I want them to find honesty in my music and lyrics, something they can relate to, that surprised them, helped them or tickled them, made them want to jump up and dance, or at least - or maybe at best - enjoy what they hear!

What is your best advice to young, aspiring musicians that want to pursue a career as a performing artist?

Many musicians would simply say, “Don’t”, and I know a few musicians who have said it to their kids.  But if you are drawn to the arts, nothing will stop you. So if you are someone who wants to pursue this career, it’s best to take care of your health and avoid the financial pitfalls however you can, by finding a flexible source of income that will help sustain you through the slow process of getting gigs.

For singers, jazz tends to celebrate the natural voice, your tone, your timbre; it’s so welcoming, like a warm blanket! Yet, it’s also demanding, requiring study and precision.  I think it’s smart for jazz singers and instrumentalists to begin by imitating the musicians you admire, learn their solos, good technique, vibrato, nuance.

In this way you acquire a repertoire of possibilities that will coalesce, creating your own style and sound. Most definitely, as I learned later, study music in college, which will give so many tools in music and business and create a huge network for you. Also, get out there and play, rehearse, do gigs, become comfortable with the audience as well as the business end of it, while discovering what comes out of you. Sing in your range.  Be what you are - an artist.