I’ve Grown Accustomed to His Face
The next chapter for me in music, I think is also the next chapter for the genre in which I sing: i.e., American Popular Song.
The classics that speak most profoundly to me at this stage of my life are the ones that have been delivered by countless greats including: Ella Fitzgerald, Kurt Elling, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Diana Krall, Anita O’Day, Antonio Jobim, Billie Holiday, Helen Merrill, Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Johnny Hartman, Carmen Macrae, Astrud Gilberto, Chet Baker, Blossom Dearie, Nancy Wilson, Dakota Staton, to name a few who have inspired me.
These singers not only extraordinarily deliver the music but they go beyond that by owning the lyrics and telling their stories in a truly believable way filtered through their own experiences and truths. In turn, they represent a profoundly resonate association for the era in which they sing and serve.
IMHO, these songs endure not because they represent one moment in time or because one individual singer did it better than the one before. They endure and will forever withstand the test of time because the themes of which they speak of are eternal themes of humanity - love, loss, pain, healing and growth.
I sing these classics because I need to be connected with the world before me so that I can fully appreciate the world in which I live now. My unwavering passion is rooted in my true love for the totality of the music, including the time and era in which it was born, the composers and lyricists who created the work, the musicians who interpreted and delivered the stories to desiring audiences - including my own relatives from all walks of life and most likely yours - whose souls were all in need of at one time or another and whose souls were more probably likely than not touched by these very same century old notes and poems just as audiences today.
Don’t be mistaken. I am not so bold to think that I have anything particularly new or unique to bring to these tunes. Nope. Nothing that hasn’t always been there or wasn’t there to begin with, long before I entered the scene. (i.e., DOB 02.16.1971)
I do, however, think that I bring a level of service to cherished stories that spoke to a particular genre with increased popularity 100 years ago and whose familiar tales continue to speak to our real life 21st century world today.
Ultimately, I most enjoy connecting indiscriminately with the purest and most vulnerable parts of humanity - our souls - through this music. Regardless of what’s going on in our individual worlds, I think our souls are connected during these musical moments. And when it’s working, we are all in synch, and that feels good.
When the conversations taking place on the bandstand between musicians today harken back to similar conversations before now. And the stories shared between us all unfold with live audiences and take on new lives of their own. The music becomes immortal. And. That’s goodness feels great!
It is ALL OF THIS with which I’ve grown most accustomed to, what I need and what I love. ♥️
