For many years jazz singer Alex Pangman has been widely respected and praised as an exponent of jazz vocals from the twenties to the forties, a singer with insightful smarts in the idioms of this repertoire and an inherent sense of swing. On the occasion of her new CD, soon to be released, this interview was held in October of 2014.
James Strecker: The Toronto launch of your new CD is November 3rd at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, so please give us the goods on it. What should we know about the music, the musicians and your take on the songs?
Alex Pangman: It’s an album that we recorded in March (2014) in New Orleans, the city where jazz was born! I put myself to the test and took this recording to a new studio, in a new city, with new players (all NOLA musicians) and new producer! I’m happy to say it was a lot of fun, and I think that comes across on the new disc. It’s a relaxed and happy romp through a swinging collection of tin pan alley songs, plus three Canadian compositions, an Original by me, plus I’ll Never Smile Again, and The World Is Waiting For the Sunrise.
JS: I find that some newer jazz singers do their chosen idiom almost as if they’ve learned it by rote. Others seem to embody an idiom as if it is who and what they are. I have always found you to be the latter, that you seem to live and breathe this music naturally. What do you say to that?
AP: I can totally understand why people who sing other genres would be drawn to jazz at some point in their careers: the melodies, the lyrics, the honesty of it eventually appeals to many. I was lucky to discover jazz in my teens, so I steeped myself early before my brain and voice were done forming! Ha ha ha! Honestly, I can’t blame them, but it does irk me when they don’t do it justice. Some people should just not record it, but it doesn’t and won’t stop them from trying! Good will have out.
JS: What exactly is your repertoire in terms of the dates it covers and the songs you do?
AP: I do love to sing music from the 1920s to the early 1940s generally. Those are the years I tend to cover. I mean I love and listen to a lot of music from other eras and countries, but the earnest songs of that period really speak to me.
JS: Who are your, maybe half a dozen, favourite singers and why do you respond to them?
AP: Ella, Valaida Snow, Ethel Waters, Armstrong, Teagarden, Crosby…. only six? I respond to them by actually getting physically excited listening to their albums. But I forgot Boswell, young Kay Starr, Hashaw, Etting, Waller and more! I’m pretty sure my heart beats faster on some of their recordings. I mean excited. These are honest performers who had three minutes to make a record, no overdubs, no special effects, no studio fix ups. They are what they are: magnificent. I miss that feeling in music nowadays.
JS: What orchestras or musicians from the past especially turn you on?
AP: Chick Webb, Artie Shaw, Armstrong, Django all bear repeat listening. All are convincing and strong personalities that each epitomize a moment in music history.
JS: Art Hodes once explained to me how musicians fuel one another and derive great joy from collaborating with others. Tell us what it is like for you as a singer interacting with the musicians in your band? What do you give them and what do they give you?
AP: Energy. A good night on the bandstand is like a ping pong game of energy between members, a conversation using ears and eyes to make art. And it can be a familiar conversation with your own band, or, as in the case of New Orleans, a conversation with musicians I had just met, a first date conversation as it were. But yes, energy.
JS: How is it easy or difficult for you to write a song in your chosen idiom? Any examples?
AP: It can be pretty hard. I get discouraged sometimes, but recently a musician I really admire complimented me on my songwriting and it felt great. You see, Gershwin already said it all, and Irving Berlin, too! I speak in modern parlance which is often hard to reconcile with classic jazz vocabulary -I’m talking lyrics- but it can be done. One of my fave songs, The Fog Song, was written stream of consciousness driving on the highway, lyric and melody caught on a recording device in my lap. Pretty neat to take it off the piano bench and someplace in the field where I didn’t overthink things. It came out well, I think.
JS: One thing I find hard to take is when singers who do a jazz repertoire pull all manner of affectation out of a hat and seem to be playing at being jazz singers. I don’t want to put you on the spot, but what would you say to that?
AP: I have little patience for vocal affectations.
JS: Tell us how you first got hooked on your music and how, over time you developed a relationship with it?
AP: As a teen I turned away from commercial radio, finding it vacuous and uninteresting. Classic country then caught my attention, itself an honest form of music not unlike jazz in its themes and musical dynamics. By my mid teens I had heard jazz by way of a fellow equestrian. Really, it was like love at first listen and a voracious appetite soon developed for this art form. It didn’t have to court me long before I was headlong in love and obsessed with it.
JS: You have recorded with the legendary Bucky Pizzarelli. I’ve always liked his music, so I wonder what that experience was like.
AP: Pretty far out to be in the studio with a legend such as Bucky. He was so open to recording the good tunes on my song list and encouraged me to record an original. He didn’t like to do too many takes, but then, we didn’t really have to. What a pro! It was fully awesome to be speaking a musical language with a gent who’d hung with Zoot and Frank and the lot of ’em. But that’s what jazz is: a common language even strangers can speak.
JS: I once heard you do poignant rendition of Singing Waterfall by Hank Williams and you are married to country band leader-singer Colonel Tom Parker, so how does C&W music fit into your life? Which C&W singers matter to you the most?
AP: Well Hank of course! His heartfelt singing never fails to interest me. Seeing a yellow and black MGM label in a pile of 78s still gets my attention. I am presently the back up singer in Tom’s band, Colonel Tom and the American Pour, who have a record mostly recorded for a spring 2015 release. I love singing high harmonies to him: and it’s fun to be in a supporting role for once. I do get a few feature vocals in the band, drawn from singers such as Loretta Lynn, Dolly, and Connie Smith.
JS: Tell us about your double lung transplant? How did it affect your life and your career?
AP: It gave me back my career! It has improved my voice to where I never cough anymore. Any singer knows the damage a chronic cough can wreak on your voice. So, in many respects the voice never felt better. I could finally make the phrasing, make the sounds I wanted, without interruption from lungs that were on the blink. It’s a lovely thing to be able to breathe.
JS: What do you do now as an advocate for the donation of human organs?
AP: in 2011 I did a lot of press and awareness raising, including radio and TV and news interviews. Being a donor just makes sense. We recycle our old tin cans, why not our bodies. One donor can save up to eight lives and enhance so many more! That awareness campaign took a backseat when my health began to decline again in 2012 and 2013 to the point where I was listed for a second double lung transplant. I was shy about needing a re-transplant, and I was still working, so I didn’t want sympathy. A successful re-transplant in August 2013 really saved my life — again. It dovetails very nicely with the title of the album we are now launching -“new” -during which press push I plan to remind the world again about being a donor, and talking to your family about your wishes.
JS: Please fill us in about your past CD’s of which you have half a dozen? What do you like about them and what would you change?
AP: That’s a lot of CDs! Each disc from my first to my most recent marks a chapter in my life. My first two albums I was so naive and just learning about love. Then I find my own confidence and learn some of life’s cruel lessons and then I think the albums really start to get interesting. The last few albums have been fairly celebratory. I don’t know that I’d change anything per se because that would be like re-writing history. I did the best I could with each disc. I think I continue to grow, and growth is important to me and why I push myself to try new things, like travel to the USA to make a disc this time!
JS: You’re a horse person and I would love to know about your relationship with horses.
AP: Horses are my “happy place” in life. They make me smile when skies are grey, as it were. It’s where I get my confidence, my relaxation, my exercise. It is through horses that I was introduced to jazz -the riding coach loved jazz- and that really shaped my world. Eventually music led me to my husband, too, so I owe it ALL to horses.
JS: You do a monthly gig at the Reservoir Lounge in Toronto. What other future gigs and recordings have you for us to look forward to?
AP: Right now my future gig is the three album launches planned: November 3 at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room, November 7 at Montreal’s Upstairs, and November 9 in London, Ontario at Aeolian. As for next recording projects, I’m not too sure: Immediately, but I’ll be putting harmony vocals down on my husband’s country album. My information is at http://www.alexpangman.com