Vocalist Stepahnie Nakasian will be performing at Nich Anderson’s JazzVox House Concerts tonight on Camano Island and in Federal Way/Auburn tomorrow. Stepanie will be accompanied by Bill Anschell (piano) and Doug Miller (bass) . For more information about these house concerts, visit http://www.jazzvox.com and for more information about Stephanie Nakasian, visit her on the web at http://www.stephanienakasian.com
Acclaimed jazz vocalist Stephanie Nakasian took some time with Nich Anderson of JazzVox for a phone interview:
JazzVox: Tell us a little about yourself, your background and how you got started with jazz singing.
Stephanie Nakasian: I was working on Wall Street and I lived on the upper east side in New York on 54th Street and had heard a friend of mine who said ‘you gotta go hear my uncle, he’s a jazz piano player’. I didn’t know anything about jazz. She said he’s on 63rd and 1st – he plays at Gregory’s (that was really down the street from me). I was kind of getting tired of hanging around just bankers and brokers so I decided to go by and see what it was all about and saw Hod (O’Brien) and heard him and just you know, really loved the whole feeling of the music. I knew the songs because I’d heard of Rodgers & Hart and Gershwin songs, but I’d never heard them done in a swinging, exciting style all improvised and everything. And he was cute… and I said people think I have a good voice, would you mind listening to me sing? I was kind of at a place in my career where I just I wasn’t that happy with being in the business world and didn’t really know which way to go and was looking for something else. Hod listened to me and liked my singing and we fell for each other. He had me sit in with him at gigs and then I started to get gigs and it wasn’t long until I really had to make a decision between staying up until 3 and trading currents and futures at 7 in the morning. So I decided to – well it looked like I was going to have a shot at doing something and I had to learn about it. So instead of trying to do half and half, I decided to commit to it for five years and threw myself a big party, invited my banking friends and Wall Street friends and my new jazz friends and decided for 5 years I was going to just do jazz and see what would happen. I started getting a lot of work and things started to roll and I never looked back from that. I loved it – a lot of personal interaction with people and great music with a very high level of music and it was so spontaneous – different every time I did it. I love it – I think it’s great music. I never get bored!
JV: Who would you list as some of your major musical influences?
SN: Well, immediately it was Hod because he was introducing me to bebop and to the whole sound of jazz. Then I really started listening to a lot of people – listening all day long pretty much… Ella, Sarah, Louis Armstrong. Hod was very helpful to make sure I listened to the instrumentalists as well as the vocalists. So… Basie, Ellington, some of the bands, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster. I’d listen to horns and how they play as well as the singers. June Christy, Anita O’Day and a lot of other singers. I kind of made it a habit of studying the whole history of it so that I could not just have a few influences but get a little bit from all the greats. So I really listened to a lot of people and there’s something to be gained by listening to all of them. You get a little bit of something from all of them. That’s always a hard question but I guess I felt closest to Ethel, Ella, Sarah, June Christy kind of mold, you know? That kind of straight-ahead, swinging, improvising, melodic side of things.
JV: What are your thoughts on the future of vocal jazz?
SN: Well… that’s a hard question. Right now we have a fusion going on of cabaret and R&B and pop and folk music coming into jazz. There wasn’t much vocal jazz identity for a long time because there wasn’t any work in the 80s – and really 90s – there really wasn’t much going on. And then all of a sudden there was the success of Diana Krall and Natalie Cole – a lot of these girls have come over and crossed over from the other types of music and I think jazz has gotten into the popular vernacular a bit more. So… it’s changed a lot. I try to stay purist about it – I’m sure I’m not. I mean, no one’s Ella anymore. Not brought up in her era – I just had a whole cultural difference in the way I was brought up. I think there’s a lot of demand for vocalists now, which is great. There are a lot of very good singers out there. I can only hope that they will take as much from the legends and that it won’t change too much. I really like the pure jazz music. I like my folk to be folk. Well I mean I like Joni Mitchell – she’s a crossover artist, right? But I don’t consider her a jazz singer. I think it’s going to be good. Right now it’s kinda working itself through this period of people coming into jazz from these other places. But I’m always hoping that after they’ve heard Diana Krall that they listen to Peggy Lee and Carmen McRae and Nat Cole – those are the originals, not the derivatives. That’s how I try to study – from the originals. I don’t know where it’s going to go. I think there’s a lot of demand for it. I know there is – I mean everywhere I go there is. It’s hard to know in this crazy business because no one’s buying anything – as long as no one’s buying anything we don’t have an industry, really. So it’s a really serious situation for the industry. People love the music – they always have, but you can’t have an industry without people buying things. College students don’t buy anything but they listen to everything.
JV: So you’re in Virginia – how is the “scene” there?
SN: Well, it’s not really too much of a scene. I’m mostly teaching and raising my daughter here and then I’m on a commission for the arts touring roster which has us doing a number of concerts and workshops around the state. It’s a pretty big state, actually. If you go from Washington, D.C. to the part that sticks out into West Virginia, you could drive 7 hours, actually. So it’s a bigger state than most people realize. I do most of my touring up and down the east coast and then some in the mid-west and then in California quite a bit. That’s pretty much where I’ve been active. Virginia “scene” – there’s not really a scene anywhere much anymore except New York and a little bit in LA. But there are GREAT musicians everywhere. There are things happening. I’m singing with string quartets and I’m singing a 1890s to 1920s concert – I do all these wild things – it’s interesting.
JV: Who are 4 or 5 jazz singers that aren’t household names that you think should be?
SN: Oh – that’s interesting! Well, I love Nancy King (as you do too) and I love Meredith d’Ambrosio as a ballad singer. And I love Terry Blaine – she comes out of the pre/early swing era – she doesn’t have a bebop and beyond sound. Hmm – well, I hope Mark Murphy’s a household name – some of the greatest vocal records ever made are his. People know Kurt Elling but they don’t know Mark Murphy. He’s as good as they get. I think Bob Dorough – everyone should know him – he’s kind of a cult figure. Again, I don’t think they know these people as well – they’re older. Sheila Jordan should be know as a household name but she’s a little more… well, she’s interesting and unique and she doesn’t have that “dinner party music” style of voice. She doesn’t sing “nice”, she sings bebop (laugh). There’s two types of singers – the nice singer you put on for background music while you’re having dinner and then there’s the really kind of wild, weird, bizarre type…. Just a straight-ahead swing singer is not as in demand as… Patti Austin’s recording some wonderful stuff right now. She’s doing what Ella did – as a matter of fact she’s using the same arrangements. She’s coming out of that R&B place but she’s such a great technician – it’s wonderful to hear her. I mean, she’s a household name but isn’t known as a jazz singer… until recently. I don’t know – I hope we’re going to have more of them. I hope there’s more demand, more scrutiny, more interesting… I think the audience is getting RE-educated about jazz vocals – it’s starting all over again in some ways.
JV: Do you have a very memorable gig you wanted to reflect on?
SN: On a cruise ship when I stood on the stage with Phil Woods and Bud Shank and “Fathead” Newman all next to me playing saxophone – that was really quite something! My tour of Russia was very memorable… I’ve had moments in Japan that were incredible. I’ve had moments in Richmond, Virginia – where I’d be in the middle of singing and people would stand up and scream in the middle of a song – weird stuff like that where you know you’re really connecting to people. It doesn’t have to be a flamboyant place or thousands of people – it can just be a happening moment, you know? Musically that’s what I live for… making connections. So I try to make that happen everywhere I go.
JV: What was it like working with Jon Hendricks?
SN: Well, he was my teacher. I had just started singing jazz 2 years before I joined his group and I had a lot of catching up to do! I didn’t know any of the names. I had to learn all these solos and I helped with the organization of the group and rehearsing and transcribing some of the parts – it was very very demanding for me musically, which was fantastic. Everything was happening with him. He’s the most brilliant performer and just standing next to him I had my apprenticeship. Hearing his phrasing and hearing how true to a horn sound he could sing. So I learned how to be a horn from him. Plus all the stories of his history. So he was invaluable to connect me to history. Well, actually Hod does too, because Hod came up in 1959 with his first recording with Art Farmer and he played with Dizzy and did all these heavy gigs and was with Oscar Pettiford. Hod has a lot of history and he’s a purist too, so he kind of keeps me on the straight and narrow so if I start going into a cabaret or Streisand “moment” he pulls me back and says… well he doesn’t have to say anything but just keeps me swinging and into the “jazz place”, which I like.
JV: What’s coming up next for Stephanie Nakasian? What are your musical dreams, goals, and projects…?
SN: Well I’ve got this recording we made in Monterey that I want to get out – we’re mixing and mastering it and I’ll do some of that material in Seattle when I’m out there. It’s really good music and it came out well. So that’s going to come out. And then in the fall, we’re going back to Russia. We were in Russia for the first time last year and we’re going back again. And… Ronnie… our daughter Veronica (Swift), she tours with us a lot of the time. She’s 13 and she has her second CD coming out. So we always tour around that a little bit. We’ll also go to New York in the summer and probably play the Jazz Standard or Lincoln Center. We did Jazz at Lincoln Center this year – that was a very happening moment to play Lincoln Center – it was great. So just trying to move ahead. I’ll be doing a pops concert with the symphony orchestra and since I’m finishing up this CD, my brain’s still in that a little bit. I always come up with another one. I’ll come up with another project after that – it’s never ending. And I’m finishing my second book which I’m just editing now – A singing book.
JV: That leads us to my next question… You released two educational items in the last few years – tell us about the inspiration behind them and what you wanted to provide with each.
SN: Well the book I wrote, “It’s Not On The Page”, is about rhythm because I’ve been doing so many workshops with choral directors and band directors who wanted to know why when they play the notes it doesn’t sound swinging. So I just put down some of the explanations I use with my students (I teach at two universities here in Virginia) and it turned out great. It was very direct and straight-forward and gave the students an introduction to jazz rhythm. So I thought it was going to be used by teachers but it ended up being used by students, both instrumentalists and vocalists. I presented that book at 30 conventions around the country including a couple national conventions. It was a good book for me to do and it seems like it’s been received really well, so that’s been great. And I guess you mean the Thrush Hour CD? That came out of a show I did called the Great Ladies of American Song and the Great Ladies of Jazz. I did a sort of review starting with Bessie Smith and went into …some went into the 50s and 60s but I didn’t go too much further than that. That became a course I taught – a music history course. That started to spread into theatre and all sorts of other things because I found I couldn’t keep it centered on jazz and get the whole story because, for example, Sophie Tucker was studying with Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday was going to hear Mabel Mercer. There was all this cross-over, so that was very interesting for me. Then it became a CD which I did in tribute to 20 different jazz singers whom I felt were really originals and not derivative… who really changed the style and had something really new to say. I was going to do Nancy Wilson but Nancy Wilson said ‘I come out of Dinah Washington and Lena Horne’ – that’s why I did Dinah and Lena, because those were her influences. The book I’m finishing now is a singing technique book where I’ve covered my exercises with students. Anyway, I’m just always thinking and trying to put the stuff down. You always think if you stop doing something tomorrow you at least want to have something to show for it – a record or a book or something.
JV: What instrumental albums do you suggest for up and coming vocalists to digest?
SN: I try to get them to listen to Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster, the Duke Ellington Orchestra because they were both sax players that ‘sang’ melodically – it wasn’t really complicated like Charlie Parker or Gillespie. It was a little easier to hear and that’s a better place to start: very singing-oriented and of course swinging. They were very bluesy also, both of them. Some people like Chet Baker – which I do – he’s fun to listen to. I don’t know… any horn player that really “speaks” the horn. Once they’ve listened to those guys, they can listen to Dizzy and Roy Eldridge and… there’s so many – “Sweets” Edison and J. J. Johnson – all personalities and they all had voices. Stan Getz… Some people can hear Louis Armstrong and sing the solos – I had a student is Astrophysics at U.VA who memorized Louis Armstrong solos – that’s really hard to do! Lester Young is great but he’s hard to learn – for me at least, I found it hard to learn. Any of those guys are fine – I think it’s going to teach the singer the vocabulary and get them away from scales and modes and a technical approach and just learn the language. When you’re learning a language, you can learn it in a dictionary or you can learn it by talking to people and actually living the life. So if you hang out and listen to live music and you jam a lot and you hear a lot of the music you get as close as you can get to living the life in 2008. I also try to get them to watch some movies and try to get a bit of the flavor of it so they can get the context. It’s the context of it rather than just seeing it as a bunch of notes. They’ve got to understand the feeling underlying the solo and the story that’s being told – that’s very important.
JV: So you’re a parent – tell us a bit more about Veronica Swift
SN: Aaa! Two hour conversation – haha.
We took Veronica with us everywhere in her early childhood days. She slept in a trunk in Holland with us. She’s been singing onstage with us since she was about 9. She writes songs and Hod records some of them. She’s recorded two CDs – one is going to be released this year by Fresh Sound. Harry Allen with Richie Cole. She’s just a really interesting child – she scats, she hears the music from the inside out – she understands it. She loves classical music and plays great trumpet. Her proclivity is kind of toward composition. She hears arranging. She’ll listen, for example, to Harry Potter music and then she’ll study the soundtrack and say ‘mom, what’s happening in this measure… there’s an instrument that doesn’t play anywhere else’ and there will be one measure where there’s an English horn or something and she’ll still hear it. She’s an interesting child. She comes up on stage and we scat together – it’s like a family… a family of bop (haha) – it’s really fun.
JV: What else would you like to share that I haven’t covered?
SN: Oh… just that I’m really looking forward to being back in Seattle. I have only been a few times. I headlined at the Port Townsend festival when Bud Shank was there and we just had such a wonderful time and I met so many great people. I really appreciate you, Nich for bringing me out there and all you do to make it happen.
JV: Oh it’s nothing – I’m just so excited to hear you!
SN: Thanks – I’m looking forward to working with some of the singers in the area too. There are a lot of people with a lot to say – a lot of stories to tell. I hope that the marketplace will support them – that they can be developed as artists. It’s very hard to be developed as an artist if you work once a month in a concert – it doesn’t work. You have to work like three days a week in a dingy bar with a piano player doing 6 hours a night of tunes all night long. Then you work your craft. Then you can do concerts. Everybody seems like these days… zip onto the concert stage. That’s hard to do. I hope we can get young people interested in coming out and getting involved – it would be great.
JV: Thanks so much – can’t wait for this weekend!