I was sitting late one night in my car chatting with this friend of mine, Kay Douglass.  Now, I love Kay because no matter how crazy your idea is, she thinks you should do it -- and do it wearing gold lame.  I have been thrown out of some of the hottest parties in town with this woman!  I'd just finished writing Love Me Like Candy, I was thinking about doing a CD, and had this idea for the cover...

Have you ever seen the cover to Whipped Cream And Other Delights? Herb Alpert? well, when I was a kid I LOVED that cover. Imagine having your picture taken while buried in mounds of whipped cream! Heaven!!! I used to wonder how much whipped cream the model got to eat when no-one was looking.  Anyway from that to lounging in a tub filled with M&Ms was just a short, happy step in my mind. (and by the way I also discovered that no-one lets you eat ANYTHING when you are shooting)
  
So now you have a band.
 
I had no intention of starting a band.  But once I did the album and had the charts I thought well, I guess I have a band...I was SO wrong.
 
What do you mean?
 
I was naive.  The first time I ever in my life even tried to lead a band was at my CD release party. WHAT an idiot!

But it was a success
 
Well, you never let 'em see you sweat, as the old saying goes, but truthfully, I was petrified! Nowadays I'm an old hand; but honestly, what was I thinking?? to just get up on a stage at THE DERBY of all places, and lead a 9 piece band without ANY idea of how to even read a chart - but then again I've spent most of my life doing things I had no preparation, knowledge or particular skills for. 

Example?

My first singing job was in jazz club in this hotel in Cambridge Massachusetts. I got up and sang one night - guess I had one too many boilermakers - and was offered a job on the spot. I cheerfully accepted it, and it didn't occur to me until the next morning that I didn't know any other songs...not to mention the teeny tiny problem of being six months underage. I had exactly one week to learn enough songs to fill four sets. I bought a book of Hits From The 30's and 40's!, figuring "Jazz" meant "Old Stuff", and learned the entire book alphabetically - A-train, All Of me, April in Paris, Begin The Beguine, Blue Champagne, Blue Moon....it was hard to break myself of the habbit of singing them in alphabetical order.

My first few weeks in the club I'd sing my entire repertoire and then, with a couple of hours to go, I'd have to start over again, hoping no-one would notice. Now my friends, they LOVED my new job; they'd come to see me sing just so they could yell "hey, sing Oaklahoma!".

You studied singing
 
I studied Opera; very different.
 
Why Opera?
 
Curiosity

So music was always your goal?

Well, I wanted to be performer, I wasn't too concerned about specifics in the begining. Since everyone in my family writes, sings, plays piano, and is a complete ham , the fact that I became a performer shocked only my parents who were hoping for a rocket scientist. I've worked as an actress,a voice-over artist, I write cartoons with my writing partner... I started a theater company back in Boston... I had an Andrews sisters act in New York... writing is starting to take over as my favorite activity, but I'm glad I do many things.
 
Who do you work with?
 
You mean musicians? Los Angeles is filled with wonderful musicians - The interesting thing about musicians is that one week they're touring with Sting and the next they're playing for 50 bucks at some dive in the middle of the Valley. I met Red Young of Red and The Redhots years ago while I was a singing waitress!! And they don't give it a second's thought. They're playing.
 
Pretty democratic
 
Actually I think it is a bit of a stinker; I think talented musicians should be paid well. I'm much more mercenary than they are I guess.  
 
Do you play around town?
 
Anywhere I can; we do a lot of private parties, corporate events, plus the little jazz clubs like, the Lux, Spazios, Lunaria, the Money Tree.   In little places I work with a trio or quartet.
 
And you do swing?
 
Sometimes.  That was where we started.  And in the swing joints like Suzie Q's or PBDA or Neimans or festivals or any other gig that wants a swing band we'll swing, and swing hard, and dig it.  But I also like contemporary jazz, 60's lounge, Latin... its all fun and I like to keep evolving.  I'm writing a lot, listening to different kids of music, and I spend a lot of time looking for stuff I want to sing, from every time-period.  My husband thinks I have really hokey taste particularly with the lounge stuff but I think sax players are really narrow-minded. If its not Miles Davis or the Brekker brothers, forget it!