JAMES STRECKER: If you were asked for 50 words for an encyclopedia to summarize what you do, or have done, in the arts, what would you say?
ALEX PANGMAN: Oh man, this question is the hardest!!! I always find summing up what it is I do to be challenging! (Especially distilling it to 50 words)
I’ll just grab the 50 words from a bio I have kicking around:
“A unique and powerful songstress on the Canadian jazz scene, Pangman has an unerring take on classic-era jazz, making music of the past captivatingly present through her infectious charm and sincerity. Respectfully called “Canada’s sweetheart of swing”, and now on Justin Time Records, she is also a double lung transplant recipient. “
JS: What important beliefs do you express in or through your work?
AP: I often sing songs that have to do with living for today, for the moment. I also sing songs about feeling all of life’s emotions. Being honest about them, acknowledging even the sad ones. There is a catharsis to sad songs which gives the happy songs more meaning.
JS: Name two people, living or dead, whom you admire a great deal and tell us why for each one.
AP :You mean beyond my amazing family?
Well, I’d like to have had a chat with Connie Boswell. She sang from a wheelchair and was still one of the greatest voices and stars in jazz despite that adversity. In fact, she inspired Ella to sing. I’d love to ask her what it was like writing those arrangements in the height of her Boswell Sisters fame: of working with Venuti, Lang, the Dorseys on those seminal recordings. I’d like to ask her how her disability influenced her life and career. Was there pressure to keep it hidden on film? I’m curious about this on a personal level because I’ve dealt with an (invisible) handicap.
Similarly, I’d like to chat to Louis Armstrong whose career spanned a long lifetime & who largely codified the instrumental solo. I find him nearly endlessly inspiring and would just like to hang out with him. I saw his first cornet in New Orleans at the US Mint museum: I wasn’t expecting to come face to face with this historic horn and it brought a wave of emotion over me. He was the man. The great Louis Armstrong.
JS: How have you changed since you began to do creative work?
AP: I believe I have grown as a woman, and so my art has accompanied me on that journey. When I hear my first recordings, I hear a kid, but one with such naiveté that I can never repeat or come close to what I was. It’s charming. But, I am who I am now, and I embrace all the seasons of my life. (Luckily jazz is an idiom in which you are allowed to grow old/mature). Certainly, my band leading and singing have grown more confident in that time.
JS: 5 What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
AP: My largest issue is just that so much of today’s success depends on attending showcases, writing grant proposals, meeting deadlines: it really takes away from the creative process/ mindset. I also spend a lot of time on horseback, which can be just a little distracting. In my defense, I listen to a lot of old jazz to and from the farm, learning from the masters.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life.
AP: I suppose there are many. But for the sake of getting to know me, my double lung transplant was about as major a turning point as you can get! In the space of an 8 hours surgery I was given back the breath that was so slowly stolen from me over a lifetime of suffering from cystic fibrosis. The ramifications of transplant have been both positive and negative. The negative would be that I rejected and needed a re-transplant after a few years. There’s a justifiable fear that at any point I could reject again or have some other side effect from immune suppression. The positives are what I like to focus on: I can sing again at a lung function I never before thought possible! It feels so wonderful to breath, to laugh, to SING with lungs that fill to full capacity and support my artistic ideas like never previously possible. I rarely cough. I am forever grateful to the donors, medical teams and family/friends who helped me when I was so dreadfully in need.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about what you do?
AP: I suppose they may wonder why would a person decide to be a jazz musician in this day and age when people don’t popularly go in for that anymore? Jazz isn’t exclusively an “old person’s music.” It was made popular by young men, young lions, in the earlier part of the last century. It is a music for every age. Are you broken hearted? Got a song for that. Want to dance? song for that. Need to get drunk? Got you covered there with a song. The list goes on and on. You gotta’ understand that I sing this music because it makes me happy to sing it, and to see it make the audience happy. Simple as that.
JS: How and why did you begin to do creative work in the first place?
AP: I was bad at Math. My right brain took over and there wasn’t any point in trying to stop it. Because of my lung disease, I knew I was quite likely here on earth for a short time, so my parents encouraged me to do what I loved. That was to sing and ride horses. I consider myself to be a very lucky unlucky person. Self-active children were encouraging at my school, & so creative work came quite naturally to me.
JS: What haven’t you attempted as yet that you would like to do and please tell us why?
AP: A country record of my own? Singing in Spanish? Portuguese? I love these musics, but I wonder if they aren’t my authentic self. I do love them though. So maybe that would make them authentically Alex. Essentially Virgo perfectionism and doubt hold me back on these fronts.
JS: What are your most meaningful achievements?
AP: Being an advocate for organ transplant means that I’ve given some visibility to the cause. That’s a pretty awesome thing: I’ve known too many people who’ve languished or expired on the transplant waiting list. We need more donors. When I was nominated for the JUNO I used that as a chance to mention organ donation nationally. I think that was the most meaningful thing about that admittedly exciting time in my career. I have lots of great things on my cv: this cause is probably the most important.
JS: What advice would you give a young person who would like to do what you do?
AP: Sing lots, listen to lots. Find your own voice. Don’t be a mimic. Having a unique artistic sound and personality is key to making you stand out. Be you! You are special! And learn the damn melody if you are learning standards. Be wary of that Billie Holiday; she simplifies the melody quite often. Seek out the original sheet music or melodic singers first: like Mildred Bailey & Maxine Sullivan. You can move on to the other ladies once you know the melodies.
JS: Of what value are critics?
AP: Honestly in this day and age, critiques of one’s work in publications are getting harder and harder to find. The value of a good critique in a high-profile publication can really sell one’s work and brand. All the smaller ones along the way can help to build a press kit too to book jobs. A great pull quote from a critique can pull an audience to a venue. Ultimately the best critic of music is the people: if they are dancing, or connecting otherwise, that is the most valuable feedback an artist needs. Beyond that, artists — singers anyways — are often our own worst critics. Holding ourselves to our own high standards can often be the harshest ruler.
JS: What do you ask of your audience?
AP: Come along for the ride, whatever that might be: a touching ballad, a rousing dance tune… a naughty blues song. Or maybe just when I say Hernando’s Hideaway, you say “Olé!”
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world and the arts?
AP: I don’t understand why artists are making (fractions of) pennies for plays on music streaming services while the executives of those companies make a very healthy living. The attitude that artists are good for streaming, and not streaming is good for artists seems bass backward.
JS: If you could relive one experience from your creative life, what would it be and why would you do so?
AP: Wow — hard one. I’d say playing Massey Hall. The acoustics were amazing, everything about the stage, space, and audience set us up for a great show. I wish I could do that gig again and again! Now, if you asked me that question again in a week I might have a different answer. There are so many lovely moments in a career.
JS: Tell us what it feels like to be a figure who is presented somehow in the media. What effect does this presence have on you?
AP: Very little. Hardly shocking, but it’s fairly rare that I am recognized except on the odd occasion, ha ha. That being said, I do have a bit of a Canadian presence and it is always great to get a chance to be in the media. Usually it is CBC or Jazzfm listeners who are familiar with my work.
JS: Name two places you would like to visit, one you haven’t been to and one to experience again and briefly tell us why
AP: I’ve been to all the places on my bucket list… but I suppose I would like to go back & be a fly on the wall in a battle of the bands at the Savoy Ballroom between Chick Webb and some other band, trembling in fear of their juggernaut adversary.
I would go back to several spots, but for the purpose of this question; I loved Portugal — specifically I loved the Fado music in Lisbon. Hearing people sing from their hearts is always a pull to a place, but what took me by surprise was that in hearing them sing in a different language I still felt connected to their passion.
JS: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on, are preparing, or have recently completed. Why do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
AP: A year ago I went to New Orleans to try and get to the root of what makes “old recordings” from the 20s 30s and 40s have that “special” energy they so often have. For this experiment, I took a trio of vintage style musicians into the recording studio and recorded directly into a 78rpm cutting machine. So much of today’s music recording happens in studios where there are bed tracks laid, overdubs, and effects added: it’s so much smoke and mirrors. It was important to me to get to the heart of what recording is about, what music is about. Together in this small room with bass, sax, fiddle and guitar, we all shared the single microphone. Our proximity to microphone was our volume pedal, so to speak. I sung about four feet from the 1930s Presto company cutting lathe as the vibrations we created traveled down the period microphone and cut the groove before our eyes. It felt VERY special. It put me in mind of thoughts Ethel Waters, or Louis Armstrong or even the ODJB would have had cutting the first jazz records. In the moment. Feeling the vibrations happen in the most analog sense ever. In experiencing some of the situational recording details of my early jazz idols, I also discovered some of the limitations, feelings and emotions created in creating a record this way. It was wild! It was real, and I think that is what makes it an important recording.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
AP: I am concerned that without a good way to monetize album sales, that artists will not be able to afford to produce new material. I am happy to see artists funding their recordings through crowd sourcing, but really? Is that the climate we find ourselves in? Selling t-shirts was not the game I signed up for. I get that the music world and the way music is consumed has evolved. I just am so frightened that without a physical product, artists who make good music are going to die off as not everyone can get placements in film and television.
Mostly I’d love to see people consuming melodic and artful music again, live music, eschewing Netflix and other digital age distractions. Music is life!
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising thing about you?
AP: For a jazz singer, I sure love singing country music with my husband! I really loved it when one reviewer called me a singer, and not just a jazz singer. To go along with the country music, I sure love my horses. Why you ask? Well for one thing…. horses have rhythm! They also brought me my career in a fun way: after singing a country song at a karaoke night with some horseback riding friends, I was invited to join a traditional jazz band helmed by one of the fellow equestrians at the stable where I rode. Before then I’d never heard much jazz. Without horses, perhaps I might have found another outlet for my creativity. I’m kind of glad it played out like it did 😉