A Conversation with Janis Siegel – HuffPost 9.27.13

Mike Ragogna: Hi Janis, how are you?

Janis Siegel: Hi, Mike, I’m well, thank you! It’s been a long time.

MR: Rumor has it you’re mixing concrete in a little while. So how does mixing concrete affect your music?

JS: Well, anything that is a repetitive motion like that puts you in a kind of zen state of mind. I get my best ideas in the shower and at the gym, when my body is busy and occupied and my mind is just resting. So mixing concrete definitely falls into that category. Plus it’s great for the upper body.

MR: Okay, you’ve got this new album, Nightsongs: A Late Night Interlude. How did all this interluding start?

JS: This all came about because of shows and a relationship I was developing with pianist John Di Martino, who I actually met at sea…are you getting this? I was on the jazz cruise and I was playing with my own group, but there were these after hours jam sessions on the boat, and John was at the helm, definitely, every night, so I got to sing with him. I know a lot of wonderful pianists but occasionally, there’s someone that really piques your interest and you can tell that they’re great accompanists, and you can tell that they love songs and they love singers and they draw things out of you. I felt that way with John. So we started working together and we would just hang out and come up with ideas for songs and we started doing gigs together. Nightsongs really developed because I just wanted to go into the studio. It’s been a while since I did a solo record. My last one was for Telarc, Thousand Beautiful Things, and I wanted to go into the studio and document what John and I were doing together, with a trio, probably. It was going to be very simple and quick, and of course, it wasn’t. It was still pretty quick, but it wasn’t simple. We said, “What if we had this? Well what if we had that?” Before you know it, we had a full-blown recording project and the songs just seemed to be a late night vibe, something maybe you put on at the end of the day when you’re trying to relax. There are a lot of Latin grooves, which I’ve become very interested in lately, and John is very conversant in that scene as well. But then, tunes that I’ve always wanted to record, too, like Randy Newman’s “Marie” and Burke’s “Midnight Sun.”

MR: Yeah, “Marie” is such a classic. You’ve been with Manhattan Transfer for a long time and had all your hits with them. I’m trying not to offend you here, but it must be challenging to have a solo career when the Manhattan Transfer is such a force of nature.

JS: Oh certainly not, you’re not offending me. That’s the truth. I haven’t had the time to properly pursue a solo career. The Transfer has been my main thing, I’m a harmony singer at heart, but I’ve been singing outside of the group since the late seventies. It’s just something I have to do and I enjoy doing.

MR: Right, and the question I was trying to form through my rambling is how does Janis Siegel know what kind of material she should be doing versus what she does with The Manhattan Transfer? I mean, there’s an overlap in the sound, which I guess is unavoidable.

JS: I think, in a general sense, it’s anything that moves me particularly in an emotional way that’s personally expressive. I know that’s for me. When you say there’s overlap, I can understand what you mean because a lot of times, I’ll overdub my own voice and I’ll write a vocal arrangement for myself. I love to do that, that’s like my favorite thing to do. I love singing harmonies, so in that sense, there is a little bit of overlap. But I feel like I delve a little bit deeper into Latin rhythms than the Transfer ever would, really, because that’s not what we do. I love singing on other people’s projects, too. That gives me a wider range of experience, everything from working with a Turkish classical composer. He wrote something for me where I sang the poems of Nâzim Hikmet, and the Beaux Arts String Quartet was behind me. There was that and various pop things and cabaret things and different songbooks. So I have to do that to keep myself sane, really.

MR: You mentioned before how you like Latin rhythms, and I have to tell you that Brasil is one of my favorite Manhattan Transfer albums.

JS: Well thank you! We so enjoyed that project. Really, it’s Brazilian pop music.

MR: How did you choose the songs on Nightsongs?

JS: There were songs that I had been working on for quite a while, and “Salvapantallas,” or “Love Saves,” was one of them. I was hoping to do it with my girl trio JaLaLa and it just never came together. When this project looked like I was going to actually go into the studio, I thought, “Oh, god, I have to do this song,” so I finished the lyric. I originally wanted to keep it really simple and guitar-centric, so I contacted Armand Hirsch and Julian Lage to play it together. They’re two very, very fine young guitarists in New York City. But then there was a scheduling conflict with Julian and that didn’t come together. There are always reasons for this stuff. It killed me. Out of the blue, I called up my old friend Steve Khan and he absolutely jumped on it. He jumped right on it and Jorge Drexler, I listen to him for pleasure. Over the past couple of years, I’ve listened to most of his music and I want to do that on this record; things like “Midnight Sun,” I had been performing in concert. “Sweet September Rain” happened when the Transfer was working on The Chick Corea Songbook because Bob Belden was initially involved in that, and because he knew I was a fan of his, he would send me his own music occasionally and this was one of the pieces he sent me, which was from a move called Three Days Of Rain, and this was the theme. So I wrote the lyric with my boyfriend Rabbi Levin. It seemed perfect for this spot. I wanted to keep the vibe of something you put on when you’re sitting with your significant other and you just want to relax. “You’re Mine, You,” I don’t know. I heard Chet Baker do it. Something just grabs you about a song. It’s usually musical with me, although it’s becoming more and more the words, as I get older I guess it means more to me.

MR: And I guess it’s about touching experiences as well. For instance, everybody used to refer to Karen Carpenter as having that “chill factor” when she sang songs like “Superstar.” It’s goosebump raising. It’s that type of stuff.

JS: Yes. I have to have that feeling with every song that I pick. Ann Hampton Callaway’s “Slow” is something I’ve loved since we were a label-mates on Telarc. I got a copy of that and that song just jumped out at me. Beautiful. Except instead of a bossa, like the way she did it, which is beautiful, we took it into the realm of the slow rumba. It’s called the Yambu and it really, really worked. I have to compliment the contribution of Luisito Quintero, at this point. He orchestrated all of the percussion for everything on the record.

MR: I have to tell you your swing at “Clair De Lune” was really cool. Please forgive the Manhattan Transfer comparisons, but obviously, that evokes that whole “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” and “Foreign Affair” vibe. You guys know how to close out an album.

JS: [laughs] Oh that’s nice to hear. I can’t tell you what a big Janelle Monáe fan I am. She just floors me. That album The ArchAndroid, I thought, “What the hell can she do after this?”

MR: What an amazing album, what a classic.

JS: It’s amazing. But either “Say You’ll Go” is based on the chords of “Clair De Lune” or there’s something that evokes that because she, in her version of “Say You’ll Go,” has a choral version of “Clair De Lune.” But we decided to do this.

MR: Maybe it’s from the years of material that’s been thrown at you and having such a refined ear, but you do know how to pick your material.

JS: Well, first of all, I’ve been in the Transfer forty-one years, but I’ve been singing since I was twelve. So that’s a lot of picky material under my belt there. But it’s still the same criteria. It’s got to give me goosebumps. You know I would love to actually study this neurophysiology of why some music, some chord changes, sounds, rhythms, give you that feeling.

MR: Yeah, well we don’t have to get too vedic or ancient monk about it, but aren’t there chants that you do at certain parts of the day? Maybe they were onto something.

JS: Well music therapy is a fascinating field and, in a sense, in my own stunted way, I’m trying to use those principles.

MR: What about singing with your musical partner on the project, Peter Eldridge. Fun?

JS: Oh my God, that was so much fun. The Manhattan Transfer and The New York Voices have been working together a little bit. We’ve been doing vocalese concerts in tandem with John Hendricks and many of these have been put together by Larry Rosen and The Jazz Roots Organization. They are fun beyond the limits of how much fun you should be able to have because we each do a set, but now we’ve got a repertoire of material that we do together. All the women do something, all the men do something, we have a vocal throwdown on stage, it’s pretty awesome. Lauren Kinhan sang with me in JaLaLa, so that’s how I got to know her and also through Bobby McFerrin’s record VOCAbuLarieS, which we both sang on.

MR: Wow, that was a great one.

JS: So through Lauren, I really got to know Peter, and he is just a musician’s musician and unsung genius, really.

MR: Maybe what needs to happen is a Manhattan Transfer meets New York Voices project.

JS: That would be really fantastic! Darmon [Meader] already has a couple of charts written that could work for all of us. That’s a great idea! We adore them as people and as musicians.

MR: By the way, with the AC hit “Mystery,” I believe the Transfer was promised that if that went number one or Top Ten, Atlantic was going to work it pop and they never did. Then Anita Baker comes out with it years later. That was an annoying moment in music history to me.

JS: Yeah, well, just think how I felt. But I mean hey, that’s showbiz, as we say. It’s too bad, but we’ve moved on.

MR: It’s always felt a little weird hearing people refer to the song as someone else’s hit.

JS: Well it was written for us!

MR: Exactly! But with The Manhattan Transfer, you’ve been part of a creative force that really has, even though you might have been inspired initially by the great vocal groups like Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and similar vocal acts, what Manhattan Transfer has given cues to many groups including New York Voices. Do you get that The Manhattan Transfer has had a significant global influence?

JS: Yes, I think, at this juncture, we do. We’re seeing the fruits of our labors, although we never thought of them as labors. But The Manhattan Transfer tried to bring a certain style of singing to the forefront, and we thought that it should be a popular style. Four-part harmony singing used to be part of popular music and we felt that it should stay there. I feel we’ve done a great service in keeping it alive and keeping the art of vocalese alive in particular. We definitely recognize that there are many young groups now all over the world that are picking up the torch and we’re very proud. We’re like proud parents.

MR: And I feel that you taught generations of listeners about vocal music , many who may not have known how to get into it after the mid-seventies.

JS: It’s true! Also, I feel like one characteristic of The Manhattan Tranfer has always been eclecticism. We never said we were a “jazz” group, we never said we were a “pop” group. We just said we were a vocal group exploring different styles of American music, mostly, even though we did do the Brasil album, it was done in an American style. That’s why we purposely didn’t go for the bossa nova route. We did sing a little bit in Portuguese on “Capim.” That’s my favorite cut on that record. It’s with Stan Getz.

MR: Yeah, your collaborations have been amazing, too. The Vocalese album, I think, was a breakthrough as far what anybody had ever done vocally to that point. That’s an historically important album to me, an album you would study in college music departments.

JS: Actually, it’s so funny because we meet these young kids now that know these arrangements.

MR: And there was The Chick Corea Songbook. Awesome, challenging vocal arrangements.

JS: Yeah, I think artistically, we did a great job. That was not an easy task, deconstructing Chick’s tunes and adapting them for voices. He wrote a couple of songs like “500 Miles High” and “Spain” of course. “Spain” is the only one we do regularly.

MR: Speaking of the younger demo, what advice do you have for new artists?

JS: There’s no doubt that the music business has changed radically and is changing at a hightening rate of speed because of technology and just the way the world is changing. I still think that the best advice really is to work hard and follow your intuition and passion. I don’t think you can go wrong if you do those two things.

MR: Do you feel like regardless of technology and regardless of how the business changes, regardless of delivery systems for music, that the creative process really is essentially the most important thing?

JS: I think so! I think it comes from that “a-ha!” moment when you take an idea and you develop it instead of leaving it to be forgotten or fallow. However, you’re going to manifest the idea whether it’s turning on a drum machine or sampling stuff and looping stuff with your voice; I love those kinds of things that are happening with technology. There’s so much creativity that just can’t exist with the technology, but I think it’s the same essential process. You have to recognize the kernel of a great idea and develop it.

MR: Yeah, and I guess it’s all about those goosebumps.

JS: Yes, yes. And for me, personally, I prefer the studio. I work up ideas in the studio. Sometimes, I’m prepared with a couple of ideas that I’ve written down, but I like to be able to respond to the moment. A couple of those situations definitely happened on this record. For instance, the end of “Slow.” “Slow” was just supposed to end. It had an ending written, but we were feeling so good that nobody stopped during the take and they kept going into this other groove and we just kept it going. Then I wrote stuff over that. I improvised some stuff at the session because I like to sing with the musicians at the session, but then I sort of developed those ideas over the fade at the very end of slow.

MR: As John Lennon said, life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans. And arrangements.

JS: Yeah, yep!

MR: You’ll be touring to support this album?

JS: Yes. I have a fairly rigorous Manhattan Transfer schedule, but I mostly do a solo in that show, which will most likely be from the new record. I’m just trying to find the time because I definitely want to tour with this record.

MR: Nice, and after all these years I’m imagining that The Manhattan Transfer is family.

JS: Oh, yeah, we’ve seen the best and the worst of each other. Really, we have. It’s a very complex and beautiful relationship because we’re not only business partners, we’re creative partners, we’re friends, we compete with each other, and as I say we’ve seen the best and seen the worst and we know how to push each other’s buttons, it’s amazing. There are not many groups that can stay together that long. As long as people still want to come and hear us sing and as long as we can still do it and keep coming up with new ideas, we’re going to do it.

MR: Beautiful. After all these years, what is the difference between the Janis Siegel fromExperiment In White and now?

JS: Wow, that’s a great question. I was very much under the spell of Joel Dorn, my dear, dear friend who left this Earth much too soon. I was learning his way of working at that time. I hear the youth in my voice. The sound is very much different. For me, the perfect example is “Guess Who I Saw Today.” Joel surrounded me with the absolute best musicians. It was like he was setting a jewel, which I will be eternally grateful for him. If I wanted to a Latin tune, if I wanted to do “Bolero,” he got Tito Puente’s rhythm section and Paquito D’Rivera to play flute. If I wanted to do a ballad, he got Tommy Flanagan and Ron Carter and Grady Tate. So that’s what he did. And “Guess Who I Saw Today,” when I listened to that version, I hear the youth. It’s all histrionics, it’s very dramatic, I’m working it that way. I actually recorded it again, I wanted another shot at the tune, so I recorded it again with Joel when we did I Wish You Love, and it’s just much more calm, there’s a lot more nuance in the voice, the youthful energy on Experiment In White is amazing for me to listen to today, but I’ve gone through a lot of life since then and I’ve learned a lot about music and singing since then, and I think that all of that experience is apparent on my songs. I’m taking my time with things, I don’t mind space, whereas on Experiment In White, I’m kind of filling up everything. Actually, Nightsongs is the first record that I’ve produced for myself, so in a way, it’s an homage to everything Joel taught me plus many other great producers that I’ve worked with over the years.

MR: Well, it’s that time, I really want to thank you for the time, Janis.

JS: Any time! It’s nice to talk to someone who asks intelligent questions and is knowledgeable.

MR: Oh boy, now you’ve done it. Let’s talk another half hour.

JS: [laughs] I would!

MR: So The Manhattan Transfer will be appearing in my neck of the Midwest woods soon, well, about five hours away, whatever. You’re in Chicago on Friday, September the 27. [Note: That would be today, you loyal Manhattan Transfer fans.]

JS: We’re playing in Chicago at City Winery. It’s just the four of us, we tell some stories, we do show and tell, we deconstruct the harmony, we do some songs we haven’t done for years.

MR: [laughs] That’s 1200 West Randolph. I’ll see you there. You’re awesome. No, magnificent.

JS: Oh, shut up! [laughs] Beautiful, thank you.

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne