Award-winning jazz vocalist Sara Gazarek has released three studio albums, plus one limited-release live album, since 2005, and just glancing at their song lists gives you a strong idea of the varied styles in which she finds inspiration.
Take, for example, Gazarek's 2012 album Blossom & Bee, which CriticalJazz.com called "one of the most impressive releases of the year." You'll find "Some of These Days," a signature hit for the legendary Sophie Tucker; "Down with Love," a jazz standard popularized by the likes of Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand; "Tea for Two," the genre staple heard in 67 separate episodes of The Lawrence Welk Show; "Ev'rything I've Got" and "Lucky to Be Me," by the respective show-tune teams of Rodgers & Hart and Comden & Green; "Unpack Your Adjectives" from Schoolhouse Rock ... .
Hold on. "Unpack Your Adjectives"?!
"That was originally sung by Blossom Dearie," says Gazarek, referencing the late jazz singer and pianist whose artistic output inspired Blossom & Bee, and who originally performed seven of the album's 12 tracks. "She was really active in the '60s and '70s, and her voice is often described as kind of girlish and cute. But her music is witty and sharp, and I think most instrumentalists and singers would agree that it has this veiled simplicity to it, and when you really look at it, it's incredibly musical and sophisticated."
The same could certainly be said of Gazarek's own talents. Currently in residence as Quad City Arts' latest visiting artist, the 33-year-old has, over the past 10 years, recorded both original compositions and covers of songs made famous by such disparate artists as Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, and the Beatles. Yet what unites them all are Gazarek's crystal-clear vocals, intelligent phrasing, and honest, unforced emotionalism, qualities that turn even a tune as familiar as "You Are My Sunshine" - the closing track on Gazarek's 2005 debut Yours - into something warm, rich, and unpredictable.
When audiences attend her residency-ending public concert at DeWitt's Central Performing Arts Center on December 12, they'll understand why the Winnipeg Free Press wrote, "Sara Gazarek's singing is impeccable," and why the Los Angeles Times predicted that "she may well turn out to be the next important jazz singer." They'll also no doubt understand a great deal more about what, to Gazarek, links quiet cabaret numbers to big-band anthems to Broadway musicals to, yes, Saturday-morning children's fare.
"I have a really hard time singing songs that I don't have a relationship with," says Gazarek. "So for me, I have to relate to the lyrics, and feel like there's something in my life that speaks to whatever the concept is behind the composition. And then, you know, it only goes deeper from there."
Happy Instead of Nervous
Born and raised in Seattle, Gazarek says that as a youth "I was always really interested in music and the arts in general," but that she didn't receive her first jazz initiation until she was a senior in high school.
"I went to Roosevelt High in Seattle," she says, "which wasn't a performing-arts-focused school, but which had a strong theatre program and strong music program. So I was exposed to some really wonderful things and did as many different extracurriculars as possible - and one of the things I stumbled on was the jazz choir.
"Lucky for us," she continues, "the jazz-choir director, Scott Brown, was also the guy who led our award-winning jazz band, and he was just incredibly passionate about jazz and a phenomenal educator. We all performed at a lot of different jazz festivals and had a lot of wonderful touring opportunities, and one of those was to compete at the Essentially Ellington [High School Jazz Band] Competition in New York City. It's this incredible big-band competition that's hosted by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, which is directed by Wynton Marsalis, and that year was the first year they had a vocal-soloist competition. So my choir director invited me to go along with the band and compete."
One would think this would be a nerve-racking experience for a high-school senior. Yet Gazarek says, "I remember having a really inspiring conversation with Wynton Marsalis right before I walked on-stage, and then walking out in front of thousands of people at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, and feeling ... comfortable.
"We'd attended other jazz festivals, and I'd had conversations with some really heavy-hitting jazz musicians, and I was always taken with how approachable and kind and humble everyone seemed to be. How there was an element of sincerity kind of pulsing through the music, and how that translated off-stage, as well. Most of the jazz musicians I came across wanted to speak to young people to help ignite the flame and pass along the message of the genre.
"So at Lincoln Center, I felt, you know, happy, instead of nervous." And when her performance of the eventual Blossom & Bee track "Some of These Days" found Gazarek winning the competition's inaugural Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation Outstanding Vocal Soloist Award, the artist says, "I think that was definitely the moment when I realized this was something I wanted to continue to pursue. Feeling really happy and comfortable with how exposed I felt. I wanted more of that."
While still in high school, Gazarek began immersing herself in the works of jazz artists who would quickly emerge as inspirations. "It started with Ella Fitzgerald," she says, "and then it moved on to Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae. And then I started to discover some more contemporary singers. Kurt Elling was a huge influence early on, and a woman named Tierney Sutton - they all kept the inspiration going, for sure."
Gazarek's newfound love for jazz continued with her enrollment at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music (from which she graduated in 2004), where she studied with vocalist Carmen Bradford, pianist Shelly Berg, and bassist/arranger John Clayton, the latter of whom would go on to produce his student's first album. Yet while she was receiving numerous performance opportunities at USC - winning 2003's Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Collegiate Vocalist - Gazarek also found her musical interests dovetailing with educational ones.
"I was always grateful to have had such a passionate educator as Scott Brown," she says, "and I always thought, 'If I could have that opportunity, how many other kids might fall in love with this genre once they really know what it is?'
"So pretty much right after college, I partnered with a nonprofit organization called Music for All that distributes money to public-school music programs. I would tour and raise awareness for the organization by going into schools and doing workshops. And I helped write the curriculum for a jazz-outreach program at USC called JazzReach that sends college kids out into the public schools for private lessons and to lead different ensembles - basically just spreading the word about jazz."
For the past five years, Gazarek has also served as a Vocal Arts adjunct professor for her alma mater's Jazz Studies department. "Going back to USC has been a totally different thing, because these are young people that have already chosen this path for themselves. So I don't really get to see the light bulbs go off, because they've already gone off," she says with a laugh. "But it's so thrilling to be there with them as they make strides in their own paths as musicians."
A Joyful, Organic Experience
As for Gazarek's path toward a successful recording career, it began with her debut album Yours, which also boasted the Sara Gazarek Band composed, at the time, of bassist Erik Kertes, drummer Eric Slocum, and pianist Josh Nelson.
"I had just graduated from USC," she says, "and had already landed a booking agent at William Morris, and had auditioned for some major labels. But the band and I just knew that we wanted to make a record that was a statement about who we were at the time. So we signed with this smaller independent jazz label that would allow us the freedom to make the debut we wanted to make. Instead of being told, as young people, what to do by a high-powered producer and a high-powered arranger - and then, after that first record, still not really knowing anything more about who we were as musicians, you know?
"So that was really beautiful and fun," says Gazarek of Yours' creation. "Getting together with the band a couple times a week, coming up with the arrangements together, meeting with our producer John Clayton, who gave us some really phenomenal feedback, going into Capitol Studios for three days and recording ... . It was a very joyful, organic experience."
In addition to numbers by legendary composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and Johnny Mercer, plus more-contemporary talents such as Joni Mitchell and Paul McCartney, Gazarek and her band decided to add a couple of originals to the mix: Nelson's nostalgia-tinged title track, and "You Got by," Gazarek's and Kertes' wistful yet resolute ode to surviving heartbreak. And when asked if she felt at all hesitant about including one of her first-ever compositions alongside the likes of Berlin and Mitchell, the artist says, with a laugh, "Yes, of course. Those are some really heavy songwriters.
"But I think that the beauty of those songs [on Yours] is that they're all speaking about these universal truths that were relevant to young people back when the songs were first composed, and relevant to young people now. Because when you're talking about love, or love lost, or love reaffirmed ... . Those concepts speak to everybody. 'You Got by,' you know, is something very specific for me, but I think it has a big-picture concept that I think a lot of other people can relate to, as well."
And as she's continued to do with her subsequent albums - 2007's Return to You and 2012's Blossom & Bee - Gazarek made sure that all of the covers included were songs that spoke to her personally.
"I just think there's got to be an emotional connection with the songs," she says. "There has to be a relationship. That relationship can be that I heard the song once a long time ago and loved it, or that it was a song that my mom sang to me every night before I went to bed, or whatever. It runs the gamut. But it has to speak to experience. If your goal with music is to express something, that's really hard to do if there's no connection."
As a Quad City Arts visiting artist, Gazarek and her pianist Nelson - with whom she's collaborated for the past 11 years - are enjoying the chance to share that sense of connection with area students.
"At first," says Gazarek about their elementary-school engagements, "we talk to the kids about basic jazz concepts like jazz rhythms and jazz instruments and improvisation. And then, as quickly as possible, we get them up singing.
"We have them learn how to count off a jazz song," she continues, "and then we teach them a little jazz song and have them improvise on it. We'll do something like 'You Are My Sunshine,' because they usually know that one already, or a jazz standard like 'On the Sunny Side of the Street,' and then we just make stuff up and play around. Of course, we perform a couple songs for them, as well. But I really feel like the best way to ignite that curiosity in kids and make those connections is to be as interactive as possible."
Gazarek's December 12 concert, meanwhile, will find the artist and her trio performing "some brand-new arrangements that we're very excited to share, plus a selection of songs from the three different CDs that we've got."
Including, perhaps, that jazzy rendition of "Unpack Your Adjectives" that could easily prompt patrons to beg for an entire album devoted to Schoolhouse Rock. "I might have to do that," says Gazarek, with a chuckle, when the suggestion is made. "I might have to."
Sara Gazarek will complete her Quad City Arts Visiting Artist residency with a public concert at DeWitt's Central Performing Arts Center (519 East 11th Street) on Saturday, December 12. Admission to the 7 p.m. event is free, with donations encouraged, and more information is available by calling (309)793-1213 or visiting QuadCityArts.com.
Gazarek will also perform recitals at Moline's Black Hawk College, Building 4, room 115 (6600 34th Avenue) on Thursday, December 10, at 11 a.m., and at Moline's Deere-Wiman House (817 11th Avenue) on Friday, December 11, at 3 p.m.
For more information on the artist, visit SaraGazarek.com.
