July 15, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Honoring the standards

by Chuan-Mei Lee

As a teenager, Wendy McCain would stand in the Reno desert behind her childhood home and sing improvised tunes into the night air. That's how she learned to be a jazz singer -- by simply doing it.

These days the Palo Alto resident is more likely to be found singing at venues across the Bay Area. McCain will be performing American jazz standards from the '30s and '40s at Stanford's Campbell Recital Hall on July 21, in a concert presented by the Stanford Jazz Festival. Her husband, bass player Seward McCain, and several other musicians on the Stanford Jazz Workshop faculty will accompany her.

Audiences at Campbell can expect romantic songs in an intimate setting. McCain especially enjoys smaller venues, which enable her to interact closely with the audience and, with any luck, draw them into the spell of her music.

While McCain did not reveal the specifics of her set list, she will be performing a familiar repertoire of jazz ballads from the likes of George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter and Ned Washington. She said she might throw in a few of her personal favorites, including Jay Gorney and Sidney Clark's "You're My Thrill."

In general, when McCain is putting together a show, she works with a particular theme in mind and thumbs through dozens of music books before finding songs that will provide just the right dynamics for a particular performance.

"It's the combination of the chords surrounding the melody and the lyric," McCain said. "Sometimes the melody is stunning. But other times, for me just to hear the chords or what the other musicians are playing, really makes a moment happen."

For jazz musicians, it seems that the moment is everything.

"When the conditions are just right, it's almost like a magic that can happen on stage," Seward said. "And even a performer can get goose bumps. You prickle sometimes with this energy. When you play in a jazz situation, the dangerous part is that everyone in the band is always improvising, and the beautiful part is that everyone in the band is always improvising. So you're on this edge -- will it connect or won't it."

Often, thinking of a specific experience while performing will help McCain connect on stage. Life experiences enable her to bring out the genuine emotions of a song. Whenever she sings "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," for example, she thinks of her husband.

"Sometimes I'll think of him first before I sing it, and other times I'll be singing it, and the lyric captures such a beautiful moment in time that it makes me think of him," McCain said.

McCain and her husband met on a gig. Both acknowledged that there was an instant connection, though they did not get together until many years later. Performing together seems to have only strengthened their connection, which they say comes across on stage.

"[Performing] is something that we can really share," Seward said. "We've been on stage together. We know the experience of performing for people. And we've done it together. So it makes our relationship better, and I think it relays to the audience. They can tell we're happy to be together on stage."

Offstage, the McCains both teach at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, which they said has been a rewarding experience. They enjoy seeing students grow and change during the week of jazz immersion at Stanford. They also teach students privately (emerging jazz singer Hale Baskin, who was profiled in the June 17 Weekly, has studied with McCain).

While both musicians consider themselves performers first, the slowdown of the economy over the past few years has affected the number of gigs available. The McCains said they teach more often, and they're forced to travel farther, adding that this is true for many jazz musicians -- even those in New York City.

They see it as a blessing in disguise, because now they have more time to work on original material. They have collaborated on an album of original music, which they hope to release independently in the fall.


Who: "Wendy McCain: The Great American Songbook." The concert is part of the 2005 Stanford Jazz Festival.


Where: Stanford's Campbell Recital Hall.


When: July 21 at 8 p.m.


Cost: Tickets are $16 general; $8 students and can be purchased by calling (650) 725-ARTS (2787) or online at www.ticketweb.com.


Info: Call (650) 736-0324 or visit www.stanfordjazz.org.

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