A&E
Janis Siegel brings swing to Barn
By Jacob Weissman ’17
April 17, 2015
Singer Janis Siegel partnered with pianist Rick Montalbano in the Fillius Events Barn on Sunday, April 12, to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month.
Siegel is well known both as an independent performer and as part of the four-part vocal group, The Manhattan Transfer. The 62-year-old Siegel is an impressive singer with successful twofold careers, singing for an astonishing 41 years for The Manhattan Transfer while performing solo for 33 years. She has never left The Manhattan Transfer for her solo career. The Manhattan Transfer has received 10 Grammy Awards in their musical journey.
The Barn, with its dim lighting and café-style seating, was an intimate setting for her performance. She began by performing Lorraine Feather’s “I Know the Way to Brooklyn,” immediately displaying her vocal capabilities by meticulously scatting during the solo. She then followed with Billy Strayhorn’s seasonally appropriate tune, “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing.”
Siegel then performed “Joy Spring,” diving deep into the vocalese genre for which she is so well-known. Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are sung to melodies that were originally instrumental improvisations. Unlike scat, which usually consists of improvised, nonsensical sounds, vocalese does, in fact, utilize lyrics. She cited Jon Hendricks, one of the originators of vocalese, as her “musical father,” and it definitely displays in her singing style. In “Joy Spring,” Siegel displayed her vocal prowess, hitting incredibly high notes while sustaining her delivery power. She never once faltered at the hard-to-hit notes that so many singers attempt to hit.
She then covered one of her obvious idols, Ella Fitzgerald, by singing “In a Mellow Tone,” a song composed by the legendary Duke Ellington. Siegel captured the sweet, warm and honey-like tone of Fitzgerald in her performance. Siegel offered to the audience an anecdote about how she meet Fitzgerald one afternoon, with Ella remarking to her, “So you’re the little lady that sings.” The audience particularly enjoyed the story.
She next performed a Peter Eldridge cover, “Acaso,” a blend of jazz and Brazilian tones. However, Siegel performed the song slowly, especially for a Latin-influenced song, drawing out the Brazilian melodies into a sweet, succulent tune.
Siegel dedicated her next song to The Manhattan Transfer’s founder, Tim Hauser, performing Smoky Robinson’s, “The Tracks of My Tears,” a reflective song. It was quite apparent the pain that she felt from Hauser’s loss in the world.
Hamilton’s very own Professor of Music Doc Woods joined Siegel up on stage for a funky interpretation of Ruth Etting’s “Close Your Eyes.” The piano stopped playing, and Woods was playing the rhythm only with his bass. Siegel adeptly changed to the correct key after being slightly off-key, and she masterfully maintained the lead in the song. She let Woods have a solo as well, truly adding to the funkiness of the song.
Siegel’s next song exhibited her dedication to the craft, performing “Aqeullos Ojos Verdes” in the original Spanish language. She detailed to the audience that, because she enjoys singing in so many different languages, she doesn’t have time to learn all of them. Therefore, she has to learn the songs phonetically—to an audience member, she sounded like she was fluent.
For her next song, her son and Hamilton student, Gabriel Skoletsky ’16 joined her for a cover of the Muppet’s song, “The Rainbow Connection.” It was a wonderful way to end her performance, with the audience giving their applause to the wonderful chemistry between mother and son.
After an encore, her final song was “How Long Has This Been Going On?,” a slow jazz ballad that reinforced her vocalese style—she hit the highs and lows perfectly and scatted with mastery. The audience was moved to a second ovation.
The night demonstrated Siegel’s unbelievable skill as a jazz singer, one of the most difficult genres to successfully sing. She pushed her accompanying artists to new heights, and they pushed back. Siegel showed Hamilton College why jazz not only challenges her singing chops, but why jazz is a challenge for all singers to meet.