Jazz Spotlight  Special Feature - Celebrating the Feminine Side of Jazz For the month of May we would like to honor those women who have had a significant impact on the direction of jazz in the past, present and future.

Celebrating the Feminine Side of Jazz
- Feature Story by Paula Edelstein

[Mary Pearson was interviewed for this article. Other women featured were Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mimi Fox, Valerie Capers, Cassandra Wilson, Katherine Davis, Abbey Lincoln, Diane Hubka, Peggy Stern, Patricia Barber, Keely Smith, Ernestine Anderson, Susannah McCorkle, Ella Fitzgerald, Napua Davoy, Kelli Sae, Lori Andrews, Claudia Acuna, Carol Sloane,Tierney Sutton, Brenda Carol, Kate Hammett-Vaughan, and Billie Holiday]

Mary Pearson Talks About Her Debut for Arkadia Jazz, "YOU AND I"
Interview by Paula Edelstein

Mary Pearson has created an original tapestry of romance with her debut offering from Arkadia Jazz entitled YOU AND I. Mary covers the title song and classic Stevie Wonder ballad from a very sensuous and romantic feminine side of jazz. She sings each song on the CD as a duet with a different instrument or instrumentalist, but the main attraction is Mary Pearson's beautiful voice as the centerpiece of each song. The collection of 12 compositions features classic ballads ranging from "Lazy Afternoon," to the Rogers and Hart favorite, "My Funny Valentine." Mary is joined by some of the best known sidemusicians in jazz, namely Fred Hersch on piano, Steve Davis on drums, Lynne Arriale on piano, John Hart on guitar, David Lahm on piano, and Harvie Swartz on bass. Mary's light vibrato and rhythmic vocals leave enough space to showcase the musicians comping her and according to Ira Gitler, has a "fine tone, presence, and delivery with a sound and style all her own." According to Pearson, some of her major influences have been from both the jazz and pop worlds and as a result she has been able to personify a well-designed style. Because of her dedication to her craft, hard work, and the ability and drive to keep on pushing, Mary is the first living vocalist signed to the independent Arkadia Jazz label. Now that's the story behind the music!!

In an interview for The Jazz Review.com, we were delighted to talk to Mary about the development of her career, some of the obstacles she faced as a jazz singer starting out and her great new CD from Arkadia, YOU AND I!

JAZZREVIEW.COM: Hello Mary, congratulations on YOU AND I, it's absolutely beautiful.

MARY PEARSON: Hi Paula. Thank you!!

JAZZREVIEW.COM: YOU AND I is a major milestone in your singing career and also for Arkadia's since you are the first living vocalist on the independent label, signed to an exclusive long-term deal. They say, every 1000 years something magical happens! Would you consider this signing your "magical happening?"

MARY PEARSON: Of course a record deal is every musician's dream. I've wanted this a long time and yes, indeed, it seemed like a thousand years, but the only really magical part is making the music. This wonderful contract with Arkadia will provide the concrete proof that I've been allowed to be a part of that magical process, again and again. But hard work and good planning got me this contract, not wishin' and hopin'! Arkadia's trademark is "The Artist's Choice" and I chose Arkadia. I loved its artist roster, especially the wonderful Billy Taylor, I loved their marketing strategies, and I loved what a hard worker CEO and owner Bob Karcy is. Lucky for me, the feeling is mutual!

JAZZREVIEW.COM: It has been a long road to the top for many women in jazz. Did you ever feel that you should have chosen another career because as you've mentioned in the past, "you literally made your first quarter playing on the street the summer of 85?"

MARY PEARSON: I made my first quarter as a piano player/singer in '85 but I'd been making music for cash for the fifteen years before that summer. I've been a guitar-strumming folk singer, a shake-your-booty wedding singer (in disco's prime), a cabaret diva, and a stand up singer in many a jazz joint before acquiring the ability to earn a living as a self-accompanied, autonomous act. I've always been a musician. It's what I love most and do best so "choice" doesn't really apply. Music chose me, not the other way around. As for making it to the top, you know that saying: "Success is blurring the line between work and play." By that criteria, I'm already at the top.

JAZZREVIEW.COM: Your surety of tone and intimate style of delivery is exceptional and inviting. "Take Five," is just beautiful - your range, nuance, and phrasing is truly captivating. When did you add this Dave Brubeck classic to your repertoire?

MARY PEARSON: Thank you! I sing for a living. I sing so much and so often that as long as I remember to breathe every so often, I'm covered technically. Not having to concentrate on the nuts and bolts of singing allows me to stay "in the song" keeping my style conversational. I've been doing "Take Five" for about a decade. That might seem like a long time, but I've been performing certain other tunes for THIRTY years!

JAZZREVIEW.COM: The song selection on YOU AND I exemplifies not only your great vocal skills, but those of your musical partners. John Hart's beautiful but light guitar accompaniment on "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?" is especially sensitive. Had the two of you collaborated previously?

MARY PEARSON: The only one of the instrumentalists I'd played with before the recording date was Fred Hersch years ago. And though I'd heard John Hart a few times I don't believe we ever officially met till that day. He is marvelous, isn't he?

JAZZREVIEW.COM: Yes, he is!

MARY PEARSON: I feel each of the six gave me magic. What incredible generosity! This is what is so especially unique to jazz, to be able to spontaneously create something gorgeous right on the spot. If you gather the right people, that is!

JAZZREVIEW.COM: The beautiful melodies from Lynne Arriale's and Fred Hersch's pianos are a testament to their versatility and sensitivity on "I Am Yours/You Are Mine" and "Over The Rainbow." These songs have been arranged so beautifully by you Mary and literally re-created. What's the story behind these songs?

MARY PEARSON: "I Am Yours/You Are Mine" aka "You Are Mine" aka "I Will Love You" is a song I wrote about twenty years ago. "I Will Love You" was a 45... remember 45's?

JAZZREVIEW.COM: I sort have a memory of them from my mother's collection!!

MARY PEARSON: And then about ten years ago, with my husband in mind, I rewrote it and recorded a pop/love-anthem version of it, "You Are Mine". Both versions were quite rangey: 2 and 1/2 octaves the first time & 3 octaves the second. It underwent one more rewrite. I cut it down to a singable/ coverable octave and a half, and after several takes and two days of attempts "I Am Yours/You Are Mine" finally ended up having the intimate quality I wanted for YOU AND I. "Try playing it like you're soloing," did the trick. I'd done a "London fog" intro-and-ending whistle thing on the first two versions but Lynne's rendition was so perfect and complete, this last version ended up whistle-free. "Over the Rainbow" was done in one-take. "How about a ballad, how about something 3/4", said Fred. Need I mention how wonderful Fred Hersch is?

JAZZREVIEW.COM: We're loving his great chops!!

MARY PEARSON: Harold Arlen's always been my favorite composer, probably from the early "Wizard of Oz" exposure. In fact, I felt is was fate when Sam Arlen, Harold's son, offered me my first "break" by becoming my publisher. We didn't manage to find any monetary success together, but the association was a great validator of my writing. "Over the Rainbow" is the last song on the album on purpose.There are eleven songs of longing and seduction and passion. The last song is a testament to the loving support of a devoted partner which allows an individual the freedom to excel. My husband and I try to do that for each other.

JAZZREVIEW.COM: It's so great to discover the beauty and origin of such inspired works. Which song do you consider to be the definitive song on the CD?

MARY PEARSON: "The More I See You". I love the way Lynn Arriale put generic love ballad hints in her solo: a half quote of "Tenderly," a flavor of "The Days of Wine and Roses". All of the tunes are sensuous. It's easy to imagine one song ending in an embrace or another with a wink or a come-hither look or a raised eyebrow or tumbling into bed or even tumbling into a flower bed! But this one always seems to end in the most breathless, warmest of kisses.

JAZZREVIEW.COM: As a hopeless romantic myself, I know what you mean!! Who are some of the singers that inspired your adaptable style?

MARY PEARSON: I've worked this one out before! Chronologically, in order of my personally discovering them, that would be, Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Mathis, and Barbara Streisand. Then in college, Richie Havens, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor. Right after college, Phoebe Snow and Kenny Rankin. A little later Al Jarreau and Dianne Schuur, then once I was totally immersed in jazz, Irene Kral, Johnny Hartman, Ella, Sarah, Billie, Dinah, and Carmen. Let's say Carmen twice!! Then the newer crop of Roseanna Vitro, Madeline Eastman, Diana Krall, Kurt Elling, and Wesla Whitfield, plus my two living favorites Rosemary Clooney and Etta Jones. Although I've only recently become aware of this wonder, my favorite jazz singer, and to me the greatest singer on the planet past or present is Mark Murphy. (You owe me a quarter, Mark!!)

JAZZREVIEW.COM: What do you feel is your most endearing trait to an audience, other than the creamy rich tone of your beautiful voice?

MARY PEARSON: I need to entertain an audience, make them feel good, make them feel. This is as much of my "job" as sounding as beautiful as I can manage. Of course it's always a pleasure getting the opportunity to work in sophisticated places where people are actually there to hear me and have the ability to appreciate the subtleties of vocal jazz.

JAZZREVIEW.COM: YOU AND I truly celebrates the feminine side of jazz with its great love ballads and sensitive inspiration. You are one special woman in jazz. Will you be appearing in concert soon and if so where?

MARY PEARSON: I am a huge supporter of women. I hire women as side musician's often. Among many other productions throughout the years, I produced and performed in a concert celebrating women's history month a few years back that became the largest gathering of women musician's in New York City that year. 23 female performers, ranging in age from 17 to 86 years old, graced the stage (including the fabulous big band DIVA), in an event hosted by WBGO's Rhonda Hamilton. The performance consisted primarily of selections arranged and/or written wholly or in part by women. And it was perfect! But I don't believe there is any such thing as feminine music. As much as I am a feminist, I am even more so a humanist. I strive to explore and expose commonality, universality and co-operation in everything I do, especially in my music. Women don't have the sensitivity-market cornered, as men don't have a monopoly on powerful, fiery playing. As for upcoming performances, I mostly play in clubs, lots of clubs, and perform concerts for seniors in elder care facilities, but I do have one very special, very exciting date planned. I'll be the guest vocalist with Dr. Billy Taylor's trio on July 28th. I expect more of this kind of excitement to follow!

JAZZREVIEW.COM: After hearing YOU AND I, we have no doubt that the excitement is already here! Thank you for this interview Mary and congratulations on YOU AND I. Keep in touch with Mary Pearson at http://www.arkadiarecords.com

Mary Pearson's 1/18/99 interview
with on-air host Gil Ellis
WLIM/1580, Patchogue, Long Island, NY

"My One and Only Love" from Mary Pearson's soon to be released CD "You And I" plays.

GE: 1580 WLIM. And that is Mary Pearson, and Mary Pearson is our guest. ... let me ask you some basic questions. When did you start singing?

MP: Professionally, probably when I was eighteen. I made my first nickel when I was eighteen.

GE: I'm not going to ask how many years ago that was...

MP: About thirty. I've been doing this for about thirty years.

GE: Oh my.

MP: About four years ago I opened my eyes and said, "Ooo, nobody knows me. Let's get famous.

GE: Now, who played guitar for you there? [on "My One and Only Love"]

MP: On that tune, it was John Hart.

GE: He's got a nice sound. He really does.

MP: Yes. He's also got a Concord recording contract. Got a few albums out on that.

GE: And you take the song at a very slow pace.

MP: Um... maybe a tad slower than the Johnny Hartman version that people probably know.

GE: Yes. And, let's see, this is your first CD..

MP: It's the first one that's going to be released. I did do one of all my own tunes, originally. And I was advised that I needed some standards. So, I called the most famous piano player I knew, which was Fred Hersch, and did a couple of standards with him and mixed them in with my own tunes and decided that they jarred each other. And somewhere along the line I had done a demo of a tune I'd written, with David Lahm, and I said, "Ooo, I have the beginnings of a duet album." And so I got other instruments, I got my voice with guitar, my voice with bass, my voice with drums, and put together this album.

GE: And what are you going to call the album?

MP: It's called "You And I"

GE: "You And I". And those are the duets; you and a particular instrument.

MP: Uh huh, and it's also all very romantic, to-your-lover kind of songs, so it's got the dual connotation.

GE: Now, you're gonna be appearing, with not just an instrument, but you're gonna be appearing with a big band at the Swing46 supper club.

MP: Yes, every Thursday in January, I still have two more dates coming up, the 21st and the 28th, and yesterday I was able to sing with them in Co-op City, a big community in the Bronx, a community in which I live, and we were hired to put on a show there. It was really fun. It's always fun. I don't have a lot of big band experience so it's just a super treat for me.

GE: I was going to say, it's quite a difference between what the CD is and what you'll be singing because it's a swing band! My god, they're are over the place!

MP: Oh yes, the trumpets blare. Absolutely.

GE: And how do you like singing with a big band?

MP: I love it. I love it. I really love it. I also love singing just voice and one instrument. I play for myself. I work in town just as a piano player/ singer, so I can go solo to big band. Big band is just incredible, you're just floating along the top of this wall of sound.

GE: It's great.

MP: George Gee is just so much fun and he hires great guys -- and gals. It was a wonderful experience.

GE: My big band experience had to do with working out of Chicago out of Local 10, and working with the big bands that came in, but by the time I was doing it the big bands didn't travel intact anymore. They came in with the rhythm section, lead brass, lead reed.

MP: Uh huh, and just a pick up band after that?

GE: And, yes, and they would get people who could read. Well I was a literal reader.

MP: What did you play, Gil?

GE: Trumpet. So I got gigs all the time. Because I could pick up a piece of music and I could play it in tempo.

MP: This to me is phenomenal. You know, where I hand them a piece of music, in fact they do one of my tunes, and you hand them my tune and poof it's instant music... and they never heard it.

GE: All you have to do is to count, if you learn how to count and learn to read notes there's no reason why you can't ... produce the sound.

MP: Well, it doesn't hurt to know how to walk and chew gum at the same time, too.

GE: Well it gets to be a habit after a while. Ever try chewing gum and walking?

MP: Nah, I'm not so talented.

GE: Now, tell me, you're gonna be appearing where now?

MP: Well, Swing46 on Thursdays, just the next two Thursdays in January of this little run, and then on every Wednesday I do an Early Bird Jazz thing at Cleopatra's Needle.

GE: And that's where, on ninety...

MP: 92nd and Broadway. So every Wednesday I'm there from about six to about 8:30.

GE: That's a charming little place.

MP: It's lovely. It's lovely. The bar crowd gets a little rambunctious later in the evening but I like it. I like the owners very much, and I've been there about six months doing this Early Bird thing. It's fun.

GE: I know a group that has been up there. I think they do the late things up there. They're very late. I think they go on at ten or eleven or something.

MP: Well the regular act starts about nine and ends at one, and I am sometimes the regular act. Some-times I do a marathon, I stay straight through the whole night and bring some other people in at nine.

GE: Well maybe you know this group I'm talking about, they're called String of Pearls.

MP: Oh sure, the vocal group. I've not seen them, I've not heard them live, but I have heard them on WBGO, the jazz station I listen to in town, where I am.

GE: Because, they're really good. I like the way they do things. Nice.

MP: The bookers are quite discerning, one of the owners is a vocalist herself, so she pretty much only hires people that she likes. It's not a fill-the-room kind of place.

GE: Isn't that a nice thing.

MP: Yes, yes, it's really nice.

GE: Now, tell me about the arrangements here, you and instrument.

MP: For the album, "You And I"?

GE: Yes.

MP: Uh huh. Well I wanted just voice and one instrument -- and I hadn't thought of vibes, if I had I would have put one of those in -- so, it's three different piano players on it, only one at a time, one guitarist, one bassist, Harvie Swartz, who's pretty well known, kind of infamous...

GE: And who are the piano players?

MP: The piano players are Lynne Arriale, David Lahm, and Fred Hersch.

GE: Not bad.

MP: Yeah.

GE: Not bad, good piano players. And you being a piano player, of course, are very discerning about what piano players you would have play for you.

MP: I definitely have my favorites, and three of my favorites are on this album.

GE: So that they don't get in your way and they don't clog you up and they lay down a bed for you.

MP: Uh huh. And it also has to be interesting. I feel that everybody gave me a piece of magic on this album. I couldn't believe the generosity of the players. I'm just thrilled with the instrumentation.

GE: Now let me ask you where you've appeared. Yes, I know about Cleopatra's Needle, yes I know about Swing46 supper club with the big band. Incidentally, who did your arrangements for the big band?

MP: The big band... the three tunes that I had done with DIVA, you know the big band DIVA? The all female band?

GE: Oh yes. Yes.

MP: The lead sax is Laura Dreyer, she did the arrangements...

GE: Oh, Laura?

MP: You know Laura?

GE: Yes, I know Laura Dreyer.

MP: I asked Sherrie Maricle who is the leader of DIVA who she would recommend, 'cause I wanted to work with them, and I said, "I want to sing with you." "Do you have charts?" "Not yet, but I will." And I asked who she would recommend and she recommended Laura, and Laura gave me three beautiful charts...

GE: Yes, Laura's very talented.

MP: Uh huh, one tune that I wrote called "I Can't Believe", a nice little swinging thing, that seems to have become my theme song at Swing 46. I do it each time there. And we did it yesterday too. And "Twisted', the Annie Ross song...

GE: Oh sure.

MP: ...to the Wardell Gray solo. And "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" -- Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand.

GE: Michel Legrand, right. "What Are you Doing the Rest of Your Life" is one of the things that you have on your album.

MP: Yes. I like it a lot so I've had it done in a big band arrangement. And then there are two other tunes that I've been doing in this run, at Swing46, with George Gee and his Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra, and those are "That's All" and "There Will Never Be Another You". And those tunes I got from a man I met on line. On the computer. And he just was advertising on this singers' site -- who wants big band charts?, and I said, "Ooo, I do I do", and we communicated and it was a great price, and I just got these charts by mail and never heard them till yesterday.

GE: You're kidding!

MP: Yeah and it was just like, "Okay, can we run through these? Because I don't know where I'm supposed to come in, either you throw a spit ball at me or we have to run through them." So we had a tiny little rehearsal, ran through those two tunes. And you know, when somebody is a great musician ... it just was beautiful. I was shocked how well they did it. And of course I know the tunes...

GE: Well you know the tunes...

MP: ... just had to quick learn how long and where ...

GE: Well you're a musician.

MP: Yeah, well singers are musicians. I bristle when people...

GE: Not all singers are.

MP: Well if they're good singers they are.

GE: Ah, there's a qualification.

MP: Yes.

GE: Usually a musician makes a better singer, than a singer trying to be a musician.

MP: Ah, I'm not sure, but... okay... there are singers that learn to play piano -- that was me, I started out a singer and then I learned how to play piano.

GE: Yeah, but you became a musician.

MP: Um, well I always was... I feel I was born a musician. But I became an instrumentalist.

GE: Do you read?

MP: Well, yeah. Not great, you know...

GE: Well, no but you...

MP: I wouldn't hire me, except for the solo gigs, I wouldn't go out of my way to hire me, but, I'm getting better, I'm getting better. Working at it. But you can't learn how to sing.

GE: You can't?

MP: No. An instrumentalist who tries to sing... you can learn to be a better singer but you can't learn how to sing.

GE: What about all these singing teachers that earn their living that way?

MP: Those people are teaching people to be better singers, but you can't take a non-singer and make them a singer if you can't carry a tune there's no way you're ever gonna carry a tune.

GE: Ah, not only that but it's the voice as well. The timber of the voice. So, we know all that.

MP: These things are things that can be developed but you certainly have to start with something.

GE: Right. Now during these thirty years that you've been singing and playing piano... how long did you sing before you played the piano?

MP: I just started playing, I started earning a living playing piano about 13 years ago. And I had only played for about two years but boy did I work at it, eight to twelve hours a day.

GE: I can understand that.

MP: I had played some guitar, I had played for many years, some guitar, but it was not my instrument, it never was, and I didn't realize it wasn't or I would have switched to piano years before. And I really just started playing piano when it just got so difficult to break in new piano players. And I said -- this is ridiculous, I'll...

GE: So you really, actually, learned piano to accompany yourself.

MP: Yes. The very first song I learned to play was Satin Doll -- not Yankee Doodle Dandy. I got a recommendation from my voice teacher, who was Nanette Natal at the time, and she turned me on to Art Labriola who has a jingle house in town and I was one of his two students. He likes to say, "All of my students work", 'cause there's only two of us. So I said, "This is what I sing, teach me how to play it."

GE: So who hired you to do your first piano job?

MP: My first piano job was probably on the street. My husband said, let's take our life savings, which about a thousand dollars at the time, and we bought a portable keyboard and a little Mouse amp, a portable amp, and I went out and sang near the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I made a quarter the first day. And my husband, who is such an angel, said -- look at that, the very first day you made a quarter! Is that incredible?

GE: Let me get this right. Let me understand this.

MP: I hid in the trees, I was very embarrassed about being out singing on the streets.

GE: Now you had a keyboard?

MP: I had a keyboard, a battery operated keyboard.

GE: I was gonna say, it had to be battery operated. You couldn't plug it into one of the lions there.

MP: No, no,no, it wasn't at the library, it was at the museum.

GE: At the museum, right, well they've got those marble balustrades there. Anyway. You went ahead and you put this piano forte, this electronic piano forte out there in front & you played.

MP: Well, kind of hidden in the trees on the side of the museum. I wasn't bold enough to get anywhere near where people were walking.

GE: So how could you expect to earn any money?

MP: Of course not! But I did, by the end of the summer I was making about fifteen bucks an hour and I thought that was pretty good.

GE: Not bad. So you would recommend street musicianship.

MP: Probably not now with Guilliani's empowerment. He doesn't like things like that.

GE: You've got to have a license?

MP: I'm not sure. I'm not sure how they do it. But I'm sure it would fit somewhere under the non- quality of life kind of thing. And I really wouldn't recommend it. It's not a romantic, glamourous kind of thing to do at all.

GE: Mary, tell me about "In Your Arms" which is on the CD. Tell me about it.

MP: It's a song I wrote. It's the first song I wrote after I moved up here about four and a half years ago, moved up to the Bronx. And it's the first song that I wrote expressly for the man that I'm married to. And it's very romantic.

GE: Boy you are a romantic.

MP: Oh I am a very romantic person. The whole album is nothing but romance. Romantics "r" Us -- should be the title of it. And I had it demoed, 'cause I was, of course, trying to sell it to Maureen McGovern or somebody, and I knew David Lahm and asked him to demo it with me. And I liked it so much that it ended up on this album.

GE: Well it's a beautiful piece.

MP: Good! I'm glad you like it!

GE: It is. It's a beautiful piece, and ... our time has flown here... I'm going to play it, but I'm gonna say "thank you".

MP: Ok. Thank you, Gil. Thanks so much for arranging this chat.

GE: And we're going to see you at Swing 46 Supper Club. That's gonna be Thursdays, this Thursday and next Thursday. And at Cleopatra's Needle. And you're there when?

MP: Wednesdays, Early Bird, from six to eight thirty.

GE: Wednesdays, 6 to 8:30 and Cleopatra's Needle is 92nd Street and Broadway. The Swing46 supper club is on 46th Street between 8th and 9th. We'll come down and see you, Mary.

MP: That's great!

GE: All right. 1580 WLIM. Here's Mary Pearson. This is her song. It's "In Your Arms".