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“I keep going over a sentence. I nag it, gnaw it, pat and flatter it.”
- Janet Flanner |
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Hitting Her High Note: Gretchen Richie to Bring Her Jazz Sound to Leonardtown |
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| September 7, 2001 |
Leonardtown resident and jazz cabaret singer Gretchen Richie has finally found her groove.
After decades of performing at West Coast and local venues, weddings and in theater productions, Richie, 49, recently released her first CD, "Close Your Eyes," which she produced on a mere $10,000 budget. Nonetheless, it is earning her the public recognition - not necessarily stardom - for which she longs.
"I don't want to be Madonna," she quips.
In March, she and her band performed at the well-known Blues Alley.
Of late, fans have gotten to know Richie and the "sweet" ballads that are her band's style through appearances at Cate's Bistro in Old Town, Alexandria, Va., and at Café des Artistes Restaurant in Leonardtown.
For those who want to see her locally, she plays Sept. 13 at the cafe and also Oct. 5 at Border's in Waldorf.
But despite these regular gigs, it is the CD that marks a career crescendo for this self-admitted "late bloomer"-cum jazz cabaret singer. Jazz cabaret is enjoying a resurgence with artists such as Diana Krall and Jane Monheit, and Richie is right there in the mix.
Today, the jazz world is filled with those who bow to the trends of avant-garde and experimental jazz, emulate masters like Wynton Marsalis or revere Fusion artists such as Miles Davis. Yet in the midst of all of this diversity is Richie and her passion for the jazz- and swing-inspired American popular music she loved as a child.
All Jazzed Up
Richie is beginning to enjoy her newfound fame, and most earnestly in the Washington-metropolitan area where she is building a reputation. Today, however, she sits in a room in her house overlooking Breton Bay and talks to us.
She is spirited, pretty, petite and blond, but completely unpretentious. She sits on a couch and tucks her feet up under her.
She is ready to talk music. Not celebrity.
Richie reflects on how listening to the music her mother played, when she was young and singing along to wistful tunes such as "My Funny Valentine" and "I've Got You Under My Skin," helped form her musical soul. She recalls: "My mom would sing four-part harmonies with her sisters, and my mom and I would sing in the kitchen. I was always told I had a good voice, but I never really got ambitious about it until last year when I began working on my CD."
She sang her first solo in the second grade, but also came to enjoy the soul of popular music, sung by the likes of Joan Baez, that she later heard. It is this power of lyrics coupled with acoustics that is her lifeblood.
Along the way, despite her lack of commercial celebrity, she was the quintessential singer - performing at private parties and taking voice lessons with Maurice Allison, a Hyattsville man who trained opera singers. "I had to undo a lot of the damage done by singing along with Jackson Browne," she says, laughing.
It Had To Be You
Throughout her life, Richie never abandoned the microphone or her love of performing songs from icons such as George Gershwin and Johnny Mercer. But her fateful fork in the road was meeting Randy Richie. A pianist, he became Gretchen Richie's husband more than 13 years ago and, later, her partner in rhyme.
She moved to Leonardtown with Randy in 1995. They had previously lived in Montgomery County for nine years.
"The turning point for me in really pursuing this came about four years ago when I was going to an audition for a theater production in Solomons. Randy turned to me - it was like he had an epiphany - and said, 'Why don't you put all this energy you have into our music?' And I went, 'okay.'"
Released this spring, Richie's CD points to her shifting into "high gear" many decades after she was initially struck by her devotion to the romantic tunes of the '30s to the '50s. It's a given that the CD includes Bernice Petkere's "Close Your Eyes," but recordings also include "Fools Rush In," "You Go to My Head" and "Let's Fall In Love."
Her voice is warm and clear. The music is syncopated (the tie-in to jazz) and pure. Songs on the disc, which has sold more than 600 copies, are romantic and nostalgic. Yet listening to Richie live is much better.
Kings such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett influence Ritchie and the band's repertoire. But in more closely defining her style, she evokes the names of Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney among the singers she admires most. Singers like these two crafted the unaffected style that is now her trademark.
"They were sweet singers," Richie explains. "I do not rely on the vocal inflections of pop or be-bop or scat. The lyrics are extremely important to me. With this kind of jazz, you seem to [the audience] to know the story you're singing about. You've lived it."
Soul Food
The more you speak with Richie, the more you understand that music is the undisputed essence of her being. Perhaps that is because it is the one constant in a life of travel and change.
Richie spent her earliest years in Florida. Growing up, she lived several years in Jamaica (where she was mesmerized by Calypso music). Later, she lived in New York and spent summers at her family's farm, "Frog's Marsh," in Drayden before moving to Alexandria, Va., and continuing to spend time at the family's second home in Southern Maryland.
Later, after her parents divorced, she would visit her father and his new wife at the farm, but lived the rest of the year in Malibu. There was also other travel: England in her teens and Micronesia in her '20s. Then, after decades living on the West Coast, she eventually moved back to the East Coast.
But she still loves the traveler's life. (She just returned from London, where she met fellow jazz cabaret vocalist Stacey Kent.)
Like Kent, Richie strives to define her music and represent her craft.
Truly, unlike some recordings that are punctuated with effects, Richie's singing encompasses melodies that are not improvisational like most jazz, but arranged. They are also based on lyrics you can understand and tell stories you believe come from the heart. Simply put, they are about having a conversation with the audience.
And this, for Richie and her listeners, is unquestionably the sweetest draw.
To contact Richie, book a performance or learn more about her, call 301/475-5175 or visit www.gretchenrichie.com
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