Ann Hampton Callaway Sings With All-Female Diva Jazz Orchestra
March 21, 2007
Broadway, cabaret and jazz singer Ann Hampton Callaway, renowned in New York City for her live performances of American songbook classics and other music, headlines with drummer Sherrie Maricle and her all-female Diva Jazz Orchestra in an 8 p.m. Saturday, April 14, concert at Penn State's Eisenhower Auditorium.
Perhaps best known for writing and singing the theme song to the TV situation comedy The Nanny, Callaway uses her phrasing, intonation, multi-octave range and charisma to deliver lush interpretations of jazz standards, romantic ballads and pop classics. Her lower-end-range voice has been compared to that of Sarah Vaughan.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are $34 for an adult, $18 for a University Park student and $27 for a person 18 and younger. Buy tickets online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at (814) 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also on sale at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium and Bryce Jordan Center (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays), Penn State Tickets Downtown (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday) and HUB-Robeson Center (11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays).
"For sheer vocal beauty, no contemporary singer matches Ms. Callaway," writes a New York Times reviewer. "The sultry, sweet-molasses voiced veteran singer/songwriter has an impressive pedigree as an entertainment Renaissance woman," notes a critic for the All Music Guide.
Callaway earned a Tony Award nomination for her starring role on Broadway in the musical Swing! Her gift for songwriting is a rare attribute for a cabaret singer. Barbara Streisand has recorded a pair of Callaway songs. Callaway has also co-written and performed songs with pop icon Carole King.
On Callaway's Blues in the Night CD, released last summer, the Chicago native delves into the blues. The Diva big band performs on four of the disc's 12 songs: the title track plus "Swingin‚ Away the Blues," "Lover Come Back to Me" and the witty Callaway-penned "The I'm-Too-White-to-Sing-the-Blues Blues." Other tracks include "Blue Moon," "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," "Stormy Weather" and "Willow Weep for Me."
"I'll be doing several songs from that CD [at Penn State], especially since I recorded some of the CD with Sherrie Maricle and the Diva Jazz Orchestra," Callaway says. "I had so much fun with them. I love performing with them."
Callaway's take on the blues is not a low-key, howling lament. She favors an urbane melancholy and plenty of horn-laden swing.
"I kept asking myself what was underlying these songs other than pain and the struggle to survive?," Callaway writes in the album's liner notes. "Finally, it became clear that the real subject at hand was happiness: how we seek it, find it, lose it and try to get it back."
Callaway's Penn State debut will likely mark the first time a Center for the Performing Arts-presented jazz concert has been performed exclusively by women. The 15-member Diva Jazz Orchestra has performed its deluxe renditions of contemporary big band arrangements at famous venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Maricle and company have also appeared on CNN and CBS Sunday Morning.
"We are pursuing jazz for the same reasons that all jazz players do. We are drawn to it because of a passion for the music," Maricle says. "The issue of maleness or femaleness isn't a consideration that should influence the pursuit of someone's dream."
Callaway says she always looks forward to performing with the Diva big band because the musicians and the audience have such a good time.
"There's just such a great personal chemistry between all of us. There's wonderful respect– mutual respect as musicians–but there's also so much fun and mischief when we all get together and we perform live," Callaway says. "I wish I could do so many more shows with them because we have this delicious, wicked chemistry that people get excited by."
Spats Café sponsors the performance. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal discussion featuring drummer and bandleader Sherrie Maricle and moderated by State College jazz aficionado Pete Kiefer, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814-863-6379