To me, one of the great things about singing is you get to explore and rediscover those great moments in life." ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY - Appearing Friday through Sunday at Blues Alley. "Or finding out that My Funny Valentine' was written by Lorenz Hart while he was looking in the mirror, because, apparently, as the story goes, he was writing the words that he wished someone would sing to him. "I love telling stories like the one that Rodgers and Hart painted in It Never Entered My Mind,' " Callaway says. Meanwhile, singing brings more than sufficient rewards. "I must have rewritten a few little lines about a hundred times, literally," Callaway notes with a laugh. Before Streisand recorded "At the Same Time," she asked for a few revisions. Or maybe "rewriting" is a better word for it.
Callaway's currently writing lyrics to a melody that Streisand adores. Still, writing assignments keep coming in. In addition to her own concerts, she occasionally performs a two-act show called "Sibling Revelry" with her sister, Broadway veteran Liz Callaway. I'm really trying to surround myself with the best people so I can start to stretch and challenge myself to be what I think is probably lurking there."Ī demanding tour schedule prevents Callaway from writing as much as she'd like. "When I look at Ella and all of the great singers of jazz, one of the reasons they're great - it's not just their warmth, heart and wisdom - it's because they've surrounded themselves with great musicians. The estimable Hank Jones, Callaway says, will likely appear on her next album. "I don't consider myself a premier jazz pianist, and now that I have the financial ability to pay the kind of artists I want to work with, it's really a thrill." Among the distinguished jazz pianists who've accompanied Callaway, onstage or in the studio, are Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut, Bill Charlap and Bill Mays. "Artistically, it feels good to be doing that," she says. That's the biggest challenge of my career - to bring all of these elements together in one person."ĭespite the big band thrust of the Ella tribute recording and Callaway's recent symphonic debut with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, the singer says she's leaning more and more toward uncluttered jazz settings, the kind of intimate showcase a club like Blues Alley can provide. As a songwriter, the kind of pop-jazz of Al Jarreau and the poetry of Joni Mitchell always appealed to me. "But I realized when I was about 16 that I was more interested in jazz. "I had a very developed voice for my age, and I was primarily interested in classical music for a while," Callaway recalls. Her mother, an accomplished singer and pianist who now teaches voice in New York, instructed Callaway on the finer points of a musical education. Growing up in Chicago, Callaway was introduced to the music of all of the jazz greats by her father, a radio reporter for the local CBS affiliate. I still feel like she's out there somewhere." She was a very important influence in my life. It saddened me because I really wanted to meet Ella. "What initially was a thank-you album turned out to be a tribute to a person we had lost. "The album took on another presence when Ella passed away," says Callaway, speaking on the phone from a benefit concert stop in Florida. I mean, tell the story like Gilligan's Island'? Tell the story about how the nanny got her job in 42 seconds? Oh sure, how relaxing."Ĭallaway has had her share of good luck on other fronts, too, Barbra Streisand recently included one of Callaway's songs, the world peace anthem "At the Same Time," on her "Higher Ground" album, and several notable jazz musicians, including Wynton Marsalis, have helped her record a couple of well-received albums, "To Ella With Love," and "After Ours." The Ella Fitzgerald tribute, which features Marsalis, was in the process of being mixed when the legendary jazz vocalist died. "I was just shocked when they chose my song.
writers," saysCallaway, who performs at Blues Alley Friday through Sunday. "I wrote two songs for The Nanny,' and I was competing with some major L.A. After all, Callaway is not just the composer of the television theme for that ubiquitous sitcom, "The Nanny," she sings it too, a job she landed once Manhattan Transfer fell out of the running. If that's the case, then watching television these days must be an out-of-body experience for the Chicago native. "IT'S FUNNY," says singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway, "but when I get these breaks, I feel like I'm having somebody else's luck.