Ooh Aaaah – The Girl From New York City

Ooh Aaaah – The Girl From New York City

One of the world’s great vocalists, Janis Siegel, is here for a short concert tour…and Coral Drouyn is excited.

When you already have nine Grammy awards (from 17 nominations), the only thing left is to win a tenth so that you can have your own bowling alley. Janis Siegel could easily do that on any given day, as one of the world’s top female Jazz vocalists.

Some lay people may be saying “Janis who?” – not realising that she is the voice on The Manhattan Transfer’s hit records “Boy from New York City”, “Operator” and “Chanson D’Amour” among others.  And if you don’t know The Manhattan Transfer, where the hell have you been for the past 35 years or so? But TMT, as their fans call them, have always been more than a great pop vocal group. They are, to Jazz, what The Hi-Lo’s were before them – and in fact Gene Purling, from that group, did many of their spectacular vocal arrangements. Janis herself won a Grammy for her vocal arrangement of the iconic “Birdland” and is responsible for many of the group’s album tracks. Where traditional harmonies are in 3rds and 5ths – TMT sing harmonies in 4ths, 6ths…even 9ths and beyond, with marvellous use of passing chords. If all that sounds too technical, let me put it more succinctly – it’s bloody difficult.

Though Janis’ roots are in pop and folk (she gave up nursing studies to concentrate on her all girl pop group Laurel Canyon) she was only 20 when Tim Hauser…founder of TMT…asked her to sing on some demos. It was the first time she had been exposed to Jazz and Swing and she was hooked. Previously she had been writing pop songs in NYC’s iconic Brill Building, but it’s impossible to pigeonhole a genre for her. She simply IS vocal music, with her own unique style.

"The question about The Manhattan Transfer was always: 'Are you a jazz group or a pop group?'" she says. "When we were concentrating on jazz, we recorded our album Vocalese which came out in 1985 and was wildly popular for us. We were embraced by the jazz purists and jazz radio, but pop radio wouldn't play us. But then when we did pop records, oh my God, the jazz people just went to pieces."

The thing is, for Siegel, genre is secondary….there’s just good music.

Her Jazz career has lasted three decades and has been wildly diverse. She’s been on stage with Bobby McFerrin in his “Voicestra” project, sung with every high profile musician on the planet, worked with The Beaux Arts String Quartet on a modern classical project, even recorded with our own flautist Jane Rutter (she and Jane will catch up for some studio work in Sydney). Then there is her fabulous album of show tunes. Really? …yes, Siegel recorded some showstoppers from Broadway. Sketches of Broadway, spotlighted classic Broadway hits by Irving Berlin, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and others. Produced by Gil Goldstein, Sketches of Broadway offers eleven showstoppers, including the opener "Show Me" (from My Fair Lady), "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top" (Oklahoma), "I Have Dreamed" (The King and I), "I Got the Sun in the Morning" (Annie Get Your Gun) and "My Best Beau" (Mame).

Siegel has done so much in music that you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s 110 years old. In fact, she’s still in her prime, singing better than ever, and when she’s not on the road with The Manhattan Transfer or some other great musical offering, she’s in the recording studio.

So why am I telling you this under the banner of Stage Whispers? Because, this weekend, one of the world’s truly great singers will be on STAGE in Melbourne for three nights, followed by just one night in Sydney. She’ll be accompanied by her long time partners in Jazz, John di Martino (piano) and Boris Kaslov (bass) as she explores some of the fabulous songs from her “Nightsongs” album:- beautiful songs from a beautiful singer.

"I think people will always respond to emotion and to great songs sung well," she says. "And I think the vocalists in particular will always be in demand.

There's nothing that approximates the human voice. In the end, when you come down to it, people want to feel something." And that where Siegel excels.

Janis Siegel will be at The Melbourne Recital Centre on July 3rd, 4th and 5th

And in Sydney at The Camelot Lounge on July 6th.

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