In My Own Words

My story is not that deep. I love music. I have loved music forever. A good song can replace a meal - but they go very well together. I listened to the singers that my mother listened to. Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson, Gloria Lynne, James Cleveland. I never really thought of these singers as influences when I was younger but I hear it more as time goes by. Then came Stevie, Gladys, Aretha, Donny. Jean Carne. And I don't sing like any of them. I think it's their soul that's influenced me more. How they make me feel. What they sing about. Although I was raised in church I didn't really sing there with the exception of the congregational songs, which were really important in consolidating the collective spirit in our pentecostal church. I really miss this communal form of making music. I am working on a "Community Sing" project where regular folk get together and sing.

I always sang. In elementary school, I walked home for lunch to sing. My repertoire was developed from r&b radio. When I was supposed to be in piano lessons, I was actually shopping for 45's. I loved the Emotions. My musical tastes began to congeal when I was a teen member of the Operation Breadbasket/PUSH Choir. We sang at every Saturday morning service and musical guests came through Jesse Jackson's pulpit often: Cannonball Adderley, Billy Eckstine, Roberta Flack et al.

Through my work with the choir, I became friends with many singers and years later I reconnected and joined a group who called themselves, Reality. All of us were alumni of the OB or PUSH Choir. This was a fun time. I learned so much about harmony, vocal blending and arranging from the super-talented members, Mae Koen, John Harper, Andre Linton and his brother, Ricky Linton, the riff king. ( A riff or "run" is a kind of vocal acrobatic.) Reality had a recording produced by Leroy Hutson. Through this association, Mae and I became Hutson's background singers and toured with him for a couple of years. This too was a wonderful experience that allowed me to work with many great musicians.

To be continued ......