but lately, I have been completely enthralled with AOL Radio's "Jazz Vocalists" to listen to while at work.
I think that when it comes to singing, if I were to ever attempt a career in vocal music at this late stage of the game, it would be jazz -- probably Great American Songbook type of things. I purely love when a Billie Holiday tune comes across..... oh my. And I have been floored -- in fact, beautifully pleasantly surprised -- by Renee Fleming.... yes, the operatic soprano has a mezzo voice for jazz that is phenomenal. I've discovered the music of Blossom Dearie other than what I grew up hearing on Schoolhouse Rock.... she's the one who sang about us unpacking our adjectives. Her version of "Someone To Watch Over Me" is absolutely endearing.
I catch myself walking around at work humming tunes and most of them are the jazz standards. Or I'll be singing something in the car and it's got a jazz feel to it. There's not a lot in life that I regret -- I don't like the idea of looking back and thinking "what if?" But these are the times I think, "Yeah, I should have been a vocal performance major."
As much as I completely love rock and pop, I couldn't have sung it. I don't have the grit in the voice. I probably could do indie/Americana stuff.... but it's not me. I do sing church music.... in church. (Just for the record -- attention haters and naysayers: choosing to keep my church music in church has ZERO to do with proving to ANYONE the depth of my love for Christ. God already knows. Now....)
But jazz/GAS stuff.... yeah, I could do that.
Le sigh.
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It was 2004, a nice unassuming September day. I was on my annual junket to Birmingham, and this one day was riding around my old stomping grounds of Tupelo, Miss. Website research at the library, yes. Danver's roast beef, ulteriorally yes.
In any case, on this day my radio had found itself on a local AM station that, at the time, was running the Music Of Your Life format. 'Till then, I could take the "GAS" music in small doses. A lot of it carried baggage from a certain past era.
But it was 45 minutes later, when I realized my radio was still on this station, that I was truly enjoying every minute of the music.
Yeah, that's when it occurred to me that I truly had cultivated a fondness for the Great American Songbook.
Why such a station in the Savannah/Hilton Head area does not exist is a mystery for the ages. Retirees out the Clooney along the Bluffton-Sun City-HHI corridor. And no "standards" station.
It's a hole. And were I to have my own station here, my choice of format, I would be playing this music five minutes ago.
Even my love for rock & roll has taken a mellow turn of late. I'm getting old. A good kind of old.
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