Me & My Jazz with Yomi Sower (Episode 6): Are you a Jazz singer? (Part 1)

You recall in last week’s Episode 5: God Made Jazz – Role of The Church in the Development of Jazz, where a certain Church Deacon asked me the same question due to the ‘Tone of my Voice’.

In that episode, I also mentioned the two busybodies from church who had reported me to my Pastor for singing at a lounge and that my Pastor at that time, never did come to watch me perform at the said lounge ( though I had invited him).

So let me tell you a bit about the particular lounge in question and another venue after that.

This Lounge was located in the same high-brow suburb as the church I was attending, referred to in last week’s episode. Its  Live Jazz usually lasted from about 7.30pm till 10. 30pm. How I loved its intimate but spacious setting.

With a bar tucked in one corner of its lounge space and the band stand positioned on a slightly elevated platform facing the  guests’ sitting space inside the lounge; Also the acoustics of the venue were a singer’s delight.

There was a staircase that spiralled upward unto the managers offices, leading to a balcony from which one could watch the sitting audience below enjoying one anothers’ company, sipping wine and eating gourmet dishes. Yes, it was that kind of lounge in the heart of Accra – luxury and sophistication were its middle name!

Once I had the opportunity to have a meeting  with the management inside their office upstairs and after we were done, I moved over to the balcony area looking down at the seats and elegant cocktail bar, imagining I was in a Broadway theatre from the early fifties dressed in an elegant, long, black shapely satin evening gown, matching long gloves and hair in pin-up style, one hand holding a microphone from which I delivered my best rendition of the Jazz Standard “Summertime” . “Ah…if only this could be!”,

I imagined, after a few momentary seconds of day-dreaming (or whatever its equivalent was called at 7PM ). I was knocked back into reality by the noises from sound-checking taking place  below me. The singer the lounge had engaged was downstairs “…testing one two, mic check- ing” and her pianist was also working some beautiful chords on the venue’s electric piano.  Without seeing the instrument, one could mistake it for a live size Grand Piano due to its impeccable tone produced from weighted keys. And the pianist on the keys that day really  knew how to play.

Actually I had just been in a meeting with the venue’s general manager, who gave me the disappointing news that I had approached the management a little later than the other singer, so they had gone with her. He nevertheless invited me to join the audience to watch the singer’s performance, which I gladly agreed to. It was after this meeting that I had strayed unto the balcony and began momentarily imagining, not even about performing at this venue. No…with the kind of ambience surrounding the balcony area my imagination took me all the way to Broadway, The Apollo Theatre, Carnegie Hall and the like.

The Jazz entertainment began promptly at 7.30PM. The singer was stunning, the pianist virtuosic. I sat with the general manager at the table closest to but a considerable distance  from the stage and I thoroughly enjoyed the show along with the free drinks and hor d’oeuvres I was offered. The singer delivered impressive renditions of some Jazz tunes that I was familiar with, so I naturally just hummed along or sang a few lines very quietly. I didn’t stay till the end of the show, said my goodbyes to the general manager, thanking him for at least meeting with me even if they were not going to engage my singing.

I moved on and didn’t think about the venue anymore, until a few days later when I received a call from the same general manager, which till today I still find flabbergasting  and cannot put a definition to. The phone call went something like this:

G.M: Hello Yomi , how are you, you’re good?

Me: ( enthusiasm mixed with surprise) I’m very fine thank you. And thank you for the other day.

GM: Yeah about the other day, after the show ended, the manager of the singer came to complain to me that the singer complained that you were singing while she was also singing. That you were not supposed to do that. That I should warn you about your singing while the singer was performing. They were really offended.

Me: (Surprise and confusion) Sir, I don’t get you, how did my humming and quiet singing affect the other singer? I didn’t think they could actually hear me and you were sitting beside me, you know my singing was very low. Also I didn’t stay that long for the show.

GM: Well that’s what I thought as well. I am surprised the singer complained to her manager about you, and the manager complained to me.

Me: So should I apologise to them or what am I expected to do, since I’m not coming back there?

GM: Oh no that’s not the reason I called you. You see after their complaints we ( the management) started wondering what is it about Yomi’s singing that would make another singer, whom we thought was already established and popular, feel threatened?

Me: (No response)

GM: So management has decided to give you your own slots at the Lounge. That means  you’ ll alternate weekly with the other singer.

After this phone conversation, I felt a mixture of shock, confusion and of course gratitude for the opportunity. Honestly I had innocently gone to the said lounge after seeing their street sign indicating they were a Jazz lounge. I had no idea they had already engaged a singer. I was genuinely enjoying the other singer’s performance and had no intention of usurping her position or upstaging her. Besides, I had already given the general manager a demo recording of my singing on an  original composition titled “Mojuba”. He had already told me that the other singer had more exposure and popularity than I did, even though I had more techniques. Therefore, I had nothing further to prove to the management or anyone else.

The GM actually told me that if the singer and her manager had not complained about me, the management most likely would not have considered me. The management were foreigners (non- Ghanaians) and their perception of the current scenario was unbiased.

I’m sure you’d love to know what happened on the day of my debut at that Lounge. I shall share that some time later. I assure you the experience was quite interesting. But let me take you a few years later to another lounge in a bustling upscale part of Accra, called Osu. Truth be told, unlike the other singer, I would give anything to have the audience humming or singing along with me while performing rather than have cold stares and “dirty looks”.

This other lounge was owned by a Ghanaian couple recently returned from the U.S, New York to be precise; hence, their preference for Jazz entertainment. I had performed there a couple of times earlier with a combo band i.e. keyboardist and saxophonist. On this particular Saturday Jazz Night, the venue had the advantage of better lighting as its outdoor open-air extension was situated on the rooftop of a 3-storey commercial building close to the newly installed street lights.

This meant that I could see the faces of my audience – every expression, every nuance, smile, frown and even “dirty looks”.  “What a huge improvement to previous performances at this venue”, I thought as I performed, when previously dimly lit bulbs obscured the faces of the audience I was performing to in the night.

I was seeing clearly the happy faces enjoying the music but in the midst of this, there was a young man who sat stiffly on his seat, staring coldly at me with an expression on his face that was a mixture of irritation and disapproval. At this time, I was so thankful for my professional background/discipline, where I had been trained in the art of reading body language and facial expressions.

The look on this man’s face reminded me of the looks I would receive from fair-skinned ladies whenever I walked into a room where they had been prior to my arrival, the centre of attraction. It also reminded me of the looks I had seen on the faces of some singers while I performed  on stage – maybe they thought I could not see them. But I have always incorporated into my stage craft, studying the audience, watching their reaction to my performance, gaging their reception of the music. This has greatly enhanced my performance and earned me numerous accolades and impressive reviews from audiences.

So if this young man was neither fair-skinned lady nor singer, what had warranted his cold stares, stiff body posture and dirty looks…? Hmm. I paid him more attention than usual while singing, because I needed to know what his issue was. As I continued to look at him, it suddenly occurred to me that I had seen his face on TV, Music videos and Tabloids. Alas! He was indeed a singer, one of Ghana’s popular Highlife artistes.

But that didn’t explain the cold stare and dirty looks. Being a Highlife musician, he was not into any music remotely related to mine unlike those other singers I referred to earlier. So I began to theorise. He knew this was a Jazz Night; if he did not like Jazz, he did not have to attend, or didn’t he? Probably, he was expecting it to be one of those watered-down Jazz performances seen at some other venues, in which very talented musicians would play supposed Jazzified versions of Highlife tunes, of which one of the young man’s songs would be featured, especially when the musicians notice him sitting in the audience.

Or it could be that he had expected to see only talented musicians/instrumentalists whom he could later poach to join his band, and was disappointed to discover that this particular Jazz night’s main feature was a female singer, singing real Jazz to which he could not (or refused to) relate.

Or he may have felt that Jazz music was not being true to Ghanaian culture and that the venue should have featured Highlife music instead. Naturally I stopped maintaining eye contact with him because it was not helping my morale. The young man/ Highlife artiste eventually left mid-way into my performance.

Stay tuned to the next part when we examine qualities of  a Jazz singer and the art of  vocal Jazz.

>>>Me & My Jazz are the weekly musings of Jazz Singer & Jazz Radio Host, Yomi Sower. Her programme Maximum Jazz airs on Saturdays 4-7PM on Ghana’s Guide Radio 91.5FM. She is a Professional Voice Coach also offering Vocal Jazz Tuition @YomiSower – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X  and E- mail: [email protected]

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