Mar 23, 2007

‘Forward Motion' propels singer’s career

Jazz vocalist makes first West Coast appearance

By Paul Freeman / Entertainment Writer

Great music pleases the ear in any setting. And New York jazz-soul-pop vocalist Jamie Leonhart is certain to captivate audiences this week at two University of California, San Francisco, locales: the library and Pub Lounge.

The spellbinding Leonhart will sing original tunes for 50 minutes at the noon concert. In addition to songs from her wonderful "Forward Motion" CD, she'll preview material from her upcoming album, due in June.

Leonhart be joined by her husband Michael, who will play the Wurlitzer. Leonhart will chime in on Indian harmonium, toy piano and glockenspiel. The two are not traveling with their bassist and drummer. But Jamie needs little accompaniment to mesmerize a crowd, especially in such an intimate setting.

"I'll exercise my quieter, more contemplative side in the library," she said, and added, "Maybe a little more of the bawdy, ironic side of me will come out in the pub."

During the longer pub set, Leonhart might include reconfigured standards, including songs penned by her inspirations, such as Laura Nyro or Elvis Costello. Michael might pull out his trumpet, an instrument he has played with such luminaries as Lenny Kravitz, Wynton Marsalis, Natalie Merchant, Mos Def and Joshua Redman. He also tours with Steely Dan.

Michael is a remarkably gifted and versatile musician. "Within his own music and as a producer and sideman in more contemporary, less jazz or brass section-oriented things, he has shown himself to be an amazing piano player, and even branches into multi-instrumental stuff, like guitar and bass. He's a vocalist, too," Leonhart said.

She and her husband met when he was playing music with some of her friends. The two subsequently teamed on various projects.

"We realized not only how much we enjoyed working together, but just spending time with each other," she said. And each grew musically through the interaction.

Trained as a classical violinist from age 3, Jamie had eclectic tastes that were expanded by her older siblings.

"My interests weren't genre-based. It came down to - was it good, interesting, thought-provoking?" she said.

Michael came from a jazz background, influenced by his mother Donna, a vocalist, and his father, a bassist.

"I got a lot more education about jazz being with him," Leonhart said, "and he about weird popular or fringe music from me."

While earning an English literature degree at Barnard College of Columbia University, New York, Jamie sang in local clubs and theaters. The first song she co-wrote won a prize in the first International John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

"I write the worst when I'm trying to write something that has rules to it," Leonhart said. "I write the best when I'm just trying to have fun and express and see what comes next ... and then editing will make it listenable."

She recorded with a band called Methuselah Jones, then performed as a soloist with the Metro Mass Gospel Choir at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall.

"I've been singing for a really long time and always had an easy time shifting to whatever vocal quality is needed for each genre," she said. "Hopping from something that requires an emo, no-vibrato, wispy kind of thing to a big R&B kind of thing to more of a jazz feel, it's helped me discover the little places in my voice or my writing that I want to blow up a little more.

"Whenever I'm working on other things, I pay close attention to what it's bringing out in me - maybe something I haven't discovered about myself yet - and see if I can put it authentically into my own writing and singing."

Leonhart's had similar experiences as a vocal coach. "A lot of times, I have these 'Aha!' moments, by witnessing someone else work through a struggle or making a discovery."

Gradually, Jamie has found the right musical direction, blending jazz, pop and cabaret into a style distinctly her own. Now it is just a matter of widening the public's awareness.

"There's such an ability now to get self-released and self-published music all over the Internet. It's wonderful that I have that ... but everyone else has that, too," she says, "So there's still the question of how do I get myself heard by an audience that's receptive, curious and hungry for my music?" She admits, "I'm not totally sure yet."

Her dates at UCSF, her first on the West Coast, are a good start. Leonhart hopes to tour more extensively when the new CD is released.

"What I love about performing is, whatever happens is unexpected and exciting. There's so much room to play with things."

Leonhart says, "I feel like I know more now where I want to go. I feel really connected to the music I'm writing, how I'm performing it and who I'm associating myself with as a performer. It's a really cool, interesting place to be, in this kind of new hybrid of music."