My dear friend, Mary Chun Neuhoff (who is now an excellent conductor) heard my music and encouraged me to sing with the college stage band. I resisted auditioning because as a singer- songwriter/ guitarist I was unfamiliar with such a big sound behind me. However, Mary persisted in her efforts and asked me to sing a West Side Story medley. I had a great time with it; not knowing the band director was in the next room. As you can guess, soon after I was performing with the stage band. As their lead vocalist I won the state stage band competition for best jazz vocals and Don Ellis (trumpeter) presented me with the plaque. I became a frequent guest on a local radio program where I played my guitar and sang. I continued to perform as well as write and directed a youth choir.
I started playing open-mike nights in the LA area. I sang at Joan River's Ye Little Club, the Gypsy Club, the Bla Bla Café in Studio City, the Improv…. I was a favorite at Joan River's Ye Little Club because I sang comedy songs in between the other comedians.
Ahh, Studio City, California. I loved that time and place. The area was hopping with open-mike nights and I got numerous gigs. I particularly enjoyed opening for Al Jarreau and all guy bands. I sang ballads, foreign language songs and lots of comedy songs. The contrast was a good combination, girl performer opens for guys.
During that time, I met Bud Dashiell of the duo Bud & Travis, a former Warner Bros. act.(For more information on Bud and Travis click here.) Bud was a unique guitarist/ vocalist, an old world cabaret performer in the Brel tradition. I studied with Bud for four years while I was playing and singing in clubs in Los Angeles. He taught me how to be a solo artist, how to hold a room intimately, to entertain, to handle an audience, to stand alone in that bare place in front of the crowd. Chick singers with guitars were hot in Los Angeles at the time and I played a lot of hotel and restaurant gigs. Those lessons really came in handy.
A respected producer used to come into a club where I performed regularly. One night, he talked to me about doing vinyl (records). He asked me what I wanted to do? I told him that I wanted to record but for the time I wanted to keep honing my skills in front of audiences. He thought I was a promising live performer and suggested I move to New York City or San Francisco. He said that San Francisco had a nice Cabaret scene, so I took his suggestion and left Los Angeles for San Francisco. (I'm a Californian and I wasn't that crazy about the NYC rat race.)
I played and sang in the Bay area at the Purple Onion and many other cabaret bars, restaurant and hotel lounges. I took a gig in Japan and came back to San Francisco to find rooms closing left and right. It was the beginning of the AIDS health crisis and a lot of club owners were ill. I spent some time singing in and managing piano bars for a few years, then in 1988 I began studying singing seriously with a master voice teacher, Edward Sayegh.
Once again I found a great teacher and received excellent training. After three years he asked me to assist him in his studio. I assisted him for almost five years before I left to start my own studio. There I began to work on my first CD and launched my record label in 1998. Now here we are.