Interview by Joe Montague
It
was Cyndi Lauper who rode the pop tune "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" in the
early eighties but
"I was just born to be a lover," says Callaway. "I think that sense of love
immediately draws people in. I am so glad that I can sing because all of that
stuff can come out. I think everyone is a lover. I think music is the most
powerful way to refresh that identity of being a lover and getting in touch with
your heart. (You can) really feel things and feel safe enough to feel things,"
she says.
Draw you in she does as the sultry voiced Callaway melts even the staunchest
male ego with her rendition of Richard Rogers' and Lorenz Hart's "Blue Moon".
The Diva Jazz Orchestra's horns sizzle and blow some torrid notes as they
perform on the torch tune. Callaway and Andy Farber added their own arrangements
to "Blue Moon" and the result is an outstanding performance.
"(I bring) awareness attention to my performances. I want to bring people
together, (and for me) to be as close as I can to the audience.
I want to share the secret part of who I am with great courage because it
takes a lot of courage to sing and expose your heart in music," Callaway says in
discussing both her live performances and studio work.
Employing the services of an orchestra while recording an album is something
almost unheard of these days and yet Callaway called upon friend Sherrie Maricle
and the Diva Jazz Orchestra to back her up on Blues In The Night. She refers to
it as, "an electrifying musical and personal chemistry." The orchestra and
Callaway had first teamed up during 2005 in
Sherrie Maricle the bandleader for Diva Jazz Orchestra says, "From our first
shared down beat performing with Ann Hampton Callaway it has been one of the
most exciting, energized and explosive musical collaborations.
Callaway however is much more than just a pretty voice she has always had an
abundance of talent as a composer and arranger but it seems in recent years she
is like a snowball going down hill. Says Maricle, "Blues In The Night
undoubtedly has confirmed Ann as one of the most amazing voices in music, a
brilliant composer, profound lyricist and creative arranger."
"I was really glad that the Diva Jazz Orchestra could join in because there are
certain things that happen to me when I am singing with a big band that I wanted
to put out there with these songs," says Callaway.
Callaway was first inspired to use a big band when, "I heard Grover Washington's
CD All My Tomorrows. I thought this really works. It was so carefully and
beautifully put together. I thought if you just put a little care into this it
can work to bring everything together. I am really happy with how it came out
and how the different sounds of each song blend together."
Callaway collaborated on many of the arrangements with Bill Mays including the
fun "Hip To Be Happy", the melancholic "No One Is Alone" and the pensive "Willow
Weep For Me".
Mays says that
Callaway's feel for the music and her "wonderful phrasing" contribute to her
ability to prompt throbbing hearts and evoke tears. Mays says one of his
favorite songs from Blues In The Night is "It's Alright With Me". "The tune has
never been treated quite that way before and is a really warm and sexy reading,"
he says.
In discussing the emotional investment she makes in her live performances the
singer says, "I commit to being the deepest, most honest, open hearted singer
that I can be. I really listen to my great musicians and live inside of these
songs."
"As I get older I have a sense of the importance of music and how powerful it is
to bring people together.
That is a
very essential part of who I am. When I walk out on the stage I walk out with
the awareness of what we are dealing with as people these days. (I also possess)
a sense of great love and joy. (I am aware of) the power of music," Callaway
says.
She adds, "I try to reach
people on a very strong emotional level.
The way that I perform is being in the moment and listening (to where the
audience is)."
She gives a lot of credit to co-producer Elaine Martone for the success of this
album. "Once you get into the recording process that is when having a producer
as sensitive, supportive and delightful as Elaine Martone (is appreciated),"
says Callaway. She says when it comes time to become a vocalist, "I know that I
can trust her (Martone's) instincts. I can totally count on her to hear 'yes
this is a take' or 'no let's do another one'. She is able to say to the Diva
Jazz Orchestra (things such as) on measure 134 will you please do a crescendo
here," she says.
In continuing to discuss Martone's contributions in the studio Callaway says,
"She is such a musician that if there are things that weren't working in the
take she was able to in a very positive way put that across so we could do the
best work we could.
Having that
kind of intelligence and support made me feel free to just get in there and
sing. "
"Jazz
purists are wary of Ann Hampton Callaway," she says and then quite dramatically
and with a sense of mischief in her voice she relates, "They go, 'Oh my God she
sings songs theatrically sometimes. She actually entertains people. Do we want
such a person in our jazz room?"
Callaway draws upon her use of humor and her commanding stage presence to endear
herself to the audience.
"If they
get the laugh and are responding to the humor you know they (the audience) are
listening more than the average audience," she says.
Callaway says, "The sense of humor thing is really essential to me. If you can't
have fun with people then you can't really connect with the crazy world that we
are living in and you are missing out on the joy of being with people that you
don't know. If you go to a pub in
It is her ability as a performer that led Telarc Records to sign Callaway. After
seeing her perform at Sculler's Elaine Martone who also works in the capacity as
SVP Artist Relations and Production for the label says, "I thought she had one
of the most dynamic voices and compelling stage presences I had heard."
She has the luxury of still being able to bask in the Tony Award nomination for
the Broadway production of Swing.
She appeared in the Robert De Niro movie the Good Shepherd and wrote and sung
the theme song for the hit sitcom The Nanny which starred Fran Drescher.
She is now busy writing the musical score for the
Interview by Joe Montague, all rights reserved, protected by copyright © November 2006 Return to Our Front Page