A Conversation with Kiki Ebsen – HuffPost 10.24.14

Mike Ragogna: Kiki, your last name brings a certain notoriety with it, you being Buddy Ebsen’s daughter. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you make that connection for any projects until this point. Why did you record an album of songs closely related to your father, including “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” it having a somewhat extended connection?

Kiki Ebsen: When I was first starting in music, my father had a lot of opinions on my musical direction. He wanted me to sing jazz standards, period. My parents’ strong personalities, combined with the famous name motivated me to make a break to find my true voice far away from the bright lights of Hollywood. That journey led me to a life of a singer-songwriter and back-up musician for some of the biggest names in pop/rock including Chicago, Boz Scaggs, Tracy Chapman and Christopher Cross. I found peace, enlightenment and maturity through my songwriting. By recording and releasing my records, I reached a new level of personal growth that would ultimately help me deal with life’s challenges. A few years ago, I found a box of old scripts of my dad’s from the 30’s. This included his songbook from The Wizard of Oz when he was cast as the Scarecrow. He lost the role to Ray Bolger who had a better “rubber knee” dance and was eventually cast as The Tin Woodsman and the filming commenced.

After a couple of weeks, he became very ill from the repeated dusting of aluminum powder to his face and hands. The aluminum coated his lungs like paint and he could not get oxygen to his blood. He was hospitalized for several weeks and the part was recast. I got chills holding the scripts in my hands. A lot of emotion came up for me as I recounted my father’s amazing career and our life together. I had an intense desire to talk with him and have him tell me about his early life, his fears and desires. Parent/child relationships are complicated at best, but add the fame element and the generation gap between us–he was 50 when I was born. Suffice to say that there was a lot unsaid between us and I felt a deep loss that I never allowed myself to feel before. I realized the next step in my journey would be to make the record he always wanted me to make: a record of standards that had a connection to his life and career. I felt now that I was in a great place in my life and career to truly honor my dad’s request and sing these amazing songs. The experience would bring me closer to him than I’d ever imagined.

MR: Let’s go over the tracklist. Obviously, beyond these songs having meaning in your dad’s film life, you’ve also lived with them for a long time. Do you have specific memories with some of them or how they personally relate to you?

KE: “Moon River” is from Breakfast at Tiffany’s a movie that I watched many times as a kid. It made me cry (and still does) when my dad appears midway through the movie. He plays Audrey Hepburn’s estranged husband, a homegrown country veterinarian who attempts to bring her home with him to care for the kids. She refuses and the look on his face is just so sad. That scene always brought tears to my eyes.

Captain January is one of my favorite Shirley Temple movies. Their dance routine during Codfish Ball is one of the classic routines ever filmed in my book. I remember as a kid feeling so proud to watch him and know that this twenty-something kid was actually my dad!

“Tea for Two” was my dad’s signature dance routine. I watched him dance to it a thousand times if not more. To sing it is to remember the feelings of being in the audience or the wings watching him and even on stage with him doing a family vaudeville show. Very comforting and familiar.

“Missing You” is a song that he wrote with Zeke Manners. I am not sure of the year or what the project was, but I found it towards the end of his life. I was able to sing it at his memorial service at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the summer of 2003. This song was to be the climax of a very moving two-hour memorial service where many of his co-stars and friends including Dick Van Dyke, Max Baer, Donna Douglas and Lee Merriweather shared their fondest memories. When I got up to sing I was shaking with emotion. I was to sing live over pre-recorded music. But for some mysterious reason, once my performance started, the track kept stopping in the middle of the song. A very uncomfortable awkward silence ensued in the audience after each start and stop. I finally just had to stop and explain that it must be my dad putting me on the spot to see if I could improv my way out of this. Everyone laughed and a boat load of tension was released. I then sang the song without interruption. We still don’t know what happened, but I graduated to the ranks of “trouper” at least in the eyes of Dick Van Dyke and I’ve never been the same since. My dad showed me that facing your fears with a willingness to be honest and vulnerable is really all you need to connect to your audience.

MR: You employed a stellar cast of New York studio musicians to back you as well as using David Mann. What was the recording process like and did he also have a passion for the material, maybe offering insights into it beyond what you had known previously?

KE: Working with David Mann was absolutely amazing. We met in Christopher Cross’s band, but this was my first time working with him as a producer. I had always been a fan of his sax playing. A few years ago while we were listening to my newly released record of original songs, “The Beauty Inside,” I revealed a desire to record a project of jazz standards as a gift to my father, but wasn’t sure how to do it. David expressed genuine interest of getting involved. Being one of first-call session players in NYC, I was thrilled at the idea of having him on this project. He has loads of experience in the jazz idiom and had recorded with many singers in this particular style. Since it was my first foray into the Great American Songbook, I was more than a little intimidated. His confidence in me was contagious. I really think that he saw the end product right from the beginning and knew that I would sound terrific on it. He heard a quality in my voice that I was yet to discover: a purity and simplicity that would be revealed as the recording process went on. David was sensitive not only to my voice, but to me as a songwriter. His arrangements, especially “If I Only Had a Brain” and “Moon River,” mix so beautifully with my material that in my shows, I can meld the two eras, which was something I wanted to do originally.

I knew that I would record on the East Coast because that is where my dad’s career started. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone completely. New town, new producer, new players, new genre! While I was there, I retraced my father’s steps with the help of his autobiography, “The Other Side of Oz.” I found his old flat and many of theaters where he performed. I tried to imagine the fear and fortitude it took for him to leave his family in Orlando, Florida, on his own with just $26 and a letter of recommendation. This whole project was a desire to reconnect with my dad in the present and create something really cool in the process.

David and I handpicked the band. I wanted great players who would also embrace the project and the story behind it. John Patitucci, Chuck Loeb, Clint de Ganon and Henry Hey were the perfect choices. Enthusiastic, professional and all stars in their own right, each one delivered personal and heartfelt performances every time. For two days, we holed up in this charming hundred-year-old church turned state-of-the art recording studio nestled on Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. We recorded twelve songs with me singing live the entire time. I knew these moments would be special and I did not want to sit out for even a minute.

David was the ultimate producer: quiet, focused, calm and encouraging. He also arranged, performed, and mixed this project. He listened to my ideas, honored me as an artist and fulfilled my vision for this record. I couldn’t be happier and more grateful to him than I already am.

photo courtesy of Kiki Ebsen

MR: What made you decide on music as a career?

KE: It chose me. I was always playing the piano. It was my therapy, my escape and my solace. I love to write my own melodies and what I wanted to do was play in a band. I got very lucky in the touring side of the business. I started playing in rock bands in high school then got a degree in concert voice from the California Institute of the Arts. My first tour was with the legendary group Chicago as an offstage keyboardist. From there, I joined Al Jarreau’s band on stage, which included an up and coming music director on bass named Rickey Minor who went on to be the music director for The Tonight Show and American Idol–and toured steadily with big name artists for the next couple of decades, I would also record five solo records with “Scarecrow Sessions” being my sixth album.

MR: You used Kickstarter to fund the project. What’s that story?

KE: I was on the fence about crowd sourcing. I didn’t want to ask my fans for money, but then I realized that it might be a great way to get everyone involved from the very beginning and start a buzz about the project. It was still hard to do. Selling a project that you have so many emotions attached to it, I felt naked and so vulnerable exposing my relationship to my father. Something I rarely talked about before. I’d never promoted myself or my music in conjunction with my dad so it was a big step for me. I really wanted to get past the famous name and get to the essence of the project, which to reconnect with a parent who had passed on and honor his early request for me to sing a style of music that he thought I was really suited for.

MR: Are there musical contemporaries out there that you admire and who are they?
KE: My favorite singer is Ella Fitzgerald. My main writing influences are Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones. I love the music of Steely Dan and the Yellowjackets. I do greatly admire jazz singer Cassandra Wilson in so many ways. Amazing voice and wonderfully unique arrangements!

MR: If one were to classify what you do, they might either say “jazz” or “cabaret.” How would you define your own music?

KE: With this project, I would say I am more cabaret, especially with the stories that are attached to it. I am already a storyteller with my own material and this just adds a whole other element to that. Give me a piano, a mic and a lovely listening audience, and I will take you on a musical journey.

MR: Which creative or career highlights are you most proud of?

KE: Out of college, I won the American Collegiate Talent Showcase and then produced my first record, “Red,” now a collector’s item. It features great performances by Boney James, Jimmy Haslip and Paul Jackson Jr. The songs are timeless and that experience ignited my artistic journey. I’ve enjoyed two decades with the Christopher Cross Band, which culminated in a live concert DVD a couple of years ago called, A Night in Paris. I am very proud of my last record, “The Beauty Inside,” because by writing those songs and telling such a personal story, I was able to move to a new stage in my life, which put me in the perfect place to deliver “Scarecrow Sessions,” which may prove to be the biggest highlight in my career so far!

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

KE: “Never turn your back on enthusiasm”. This is something that my dad always told us always. He also had framed the following Calvin Coolidge quote and gave it to us all at an early age: “Press On.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

MR: It’s a given you miss and love your father. Do you have any particular memories of him or the two of you together that you’re especially fond of and did he ever offer you any guidance or direction when it came to your music?

KE: I loved our family vaudeville shows. We usually would perform at his “Barnaby Jones” wrap parties and during the holidays for the veterans and for the Motion Picture Country Home. I would sing and dance with Dad and my sister, Bonnie. Sometimes I backed him up on piano. He had such a casual way of creating a show. It was usually assembled right before the performance – winging it as usual. A highlight of my childhood was learning to sail from my dad on our little yellow sailboat while living on Balboa Isle, CA

In my early twenties, I was preparing for a challenging piano recital. It was the most difficult material I’d ever tried to master: Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” and Chopin’s “Premiere Ballad.” The night before, I was terrified and filled with anxiety. May father took me outside and said “Look at the sky. Do you see all of those millions of specks of light? Just remember that we are just specks on a little speck in the sky.” He was just trying to put it all in perspective for me. He was cool and calm, and not afraid to fail.

MR: What are the future plans for Kiki Ebsen?

KE: To continue to perform, write and interpret music. To continually grow and challenge myself as an artist. To explore this new genre and hopefully record more records with David Mann!