Performing and All That Jazz

Photo by Brett Bird

I love to perform.  You could say I live to perform.  I can't imagine my life without performing.

And besides the performing itself, I love to dress up.  By the time I was five, I had dressing up down to an art.  I changed outfits multiple times a day just for fun--leaving discarded outfits strewn on the floor of my room.  They eventually ended up filling laundry baskets.

Given the amount of laundry I produced, my mom could not keep up.  So she showed me how much work she had to do to provide clean clothes for me each day.  She suggested a ground rule for my daily dressing up.  I could lay out on my bed three outfits I could choose from during the day to change into, depending on my whims.  I could mix pants with dresses, frills with bathing suits, and wear in public whatever I chose to wear without her correcting me.

She was pretty smart to show the consequences that resulted in work for her, then suggest an alternative approach all the while limiting the number of outfits yet allowing me total latitude to wear whatever I wanted to wear regardless where I would be seen wearing totally incongruent combinations.  My strong sense of self-identity revealed itself from a very young age!

One of my favorite outfits was a pastel yellow, blue, and pink ruffled shirt paired with a brown corduroy skirt.  Another outfit was a pink one-piece bathing suit with a toucan bird on the front with a parasol and pink winter boots.  Sometimes I wore a skirt or shorts over the bathing suit.  Ah, to be a child again!  My fashion sense has, fortunately, improved.

Now I love black velvet and feathers.  I just love stylish ensembles!  I love hats and very high heels.  I love jewelry and make-up.  And every time I perform it feels like it is dress-up time when I was a little girl asserting my identity and individuality.  Except now I look more presentable!

Maybe that's another reason I love jazz so much.  As a "girl singer" I'm allowed, even expected, to be more dressy as a performer.

But at the heart of performing is the music.  And what amazing music it is!

Here's one of my favorite songs--and it will be on my jazz standards CD this summer--"Can't We Be Friends" sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.