The Girl is a Vamp: Interview with Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit is part vamp, part little girl. On her albums she may be all diva, but in concert her vocals are just as apt to set you purring as break your heart, and then she’ll turn around and poke fun at something, let out an impish laugh, and say it’s her “inner nine-year-old boy acting up” (see accompanying concert review).

The Long Island native was born into a musical family: her grandmother taught her piano, her mom was in musical theatre, her dad played bluegrass banjo, and her brother plays rock guitar. Shockingly, she was drawn to music from early on. She began studying clarinet and singing in elementary school, and eventually went on to study at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where she had her one and only vocal coach, Peter Eldridge.

In 1988, at the wizened age of 20, Monheit came in second at the Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute Vocal Competition, and two years later released her first album, Never Never Land, which was voted Best Debut Recording by the Jazz Journalists Association. Two of her songs have since been nominated for Grammys for their instrumental arrangements, and her latest album, Surrender, debuted at number one on the Billboard jazz charts and has held steady in the top 15 for nine weeks. She has been touring around the world almost non-stop since the spring (see accompanying CD and concert reviews). Music-Reviewer.com recently had the opportunity to chat with Jane about her life and music.

Jane Monheit: “Well, I come from a really varied musical background, and there are so many kinds of music that I love, and so many kinds of music that I listen to, so I really just think of myself as a musician and a singer. I guess a certain sort of jazz sensibility is definitely the core of everything, but I don’t tend to classify myself in my head to much. That sort of classification is more for, you know, the record store or iTunes.”

MR: You’ve been touring pretty steadily for a few months . . . how’s that going for you?

JM: “It’s been great. It’s been really good, this time around, yeah.”

MR: What’s the best part of it for you so far?

JM: “Honestly, the best part of touring is just being able to get up on stage every night with my husband [her long-time drummer, Rick Montalbano] and my best friends. I mean, we’re very tight in this band and we really dig each other a lot—as people, not just as musicians. I mean, we’re very close. We have so much fun together. We get up on stage every night, we get to play, we laugh all day long. We’re a really solid group, and it makes every experience on the road ten times more fun, you know?”

MR: I caught one of your shows at the Catalina Bar & Grill in L.A., and your husband had to leave the stage for a little bit. You gave him some flack about going to the little boys’ room. Do you remember that?

JM: (Laughs) “Oh, ... you know what, because whenever we’re doing a duet, he’s always running off and splitting, he’s got something to do. We like Catalina’s, we’re very at home there, and we get to be really laid back. So at the shows there, we were definitely just having a good time, and sort of like hanging out with the audience. And you know, it’s a fun thing to be able to do.”

MR: Yeah, what is it, your “inner nine-year-old little boy” kept resurfacing, you said?

JM: (Laughs) “Well, yeah. I describe myself as a nine-year-old boy all the time. Because I’m just . . . I’m a goofball. And I love joking around and being silly and laughing all day, you know. Making other people laugh is my favorite thing in the world, so I try very hard all the time.

MR: Most embarrassing moment on stage?

JM: “Oh, dude, there’s one every night, are you kidding me? Because I’m such a goof. I forget the words a lot. But that’s not really embarrassing, because that’s like sort of an innocent mistake. I’ll get too wrapped up in the music, and you know. . . . I don’t know, let me think. I’ve never had anything really bad happen, like a wardrobe malfunction or anything like that, thank goodness. Oh, you know what? The other night we were in San Diego—it’s a new club down there called Anthology, and it’s very glamorous, it’s a very fancy-schmancy place, and the audience are all very fancy, too, and it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous venue. And so, first time playing there, and the place has just opened, and I’m totally on my best behavior, and I’m in the middle of a tune, and I drop my cordless mike, and it hits the floor with a huge noise and explodes into like a million pieces. That was pretty embarrassing. (Laughing) That was a good one.”

MR: What do you do on a night off, when your not singing? I know music is a big love for you, but what do you do to disconnect from it?

JM: “I’m a big reader. I read a lot. In fact, I don’t even listen to a lot of music. I mean, if we’re traveling, if we’re on a plane or something like that, at a time when somebody else would have their iPod going, I tend to be reading a book. But also, when we’re home and we have a night off, I’ve got a lot of animals; I like to hang out with them.”

MR: What do you have?

JM: “I have two cats and a dog, and so if I get a night off at home—because I never get to see them—often times my husband and I will be domestic, and I’ll cook and we’ll stay in with the girls.”

MR: What are you reading right now?

JM: “Right now I’m reading the new Stephen King. Well, Richard Bachman, you know, it’s apparently the last book of his pseudonym. But I’m a big one for thrillers and horror novels and all that sort of thing.”

MR: You come from a very musical family, I know. Do you remember, what is your first, clear musical memory?

JM: “Oh, gosh. I don’t know, because there was just nothing but music all the time. I remember a lullaby that my mother used to sing to me. I don’t remember it clearly, and if I did, it would be bad because I would just cry torrents, you know. And I also remember really vividly dancing, like being really little and doing cute baby kid dancing to Ry Cooder records. There was a Ry Cooder record I was obsessed with when I was really tiny.” (Laughing)

MR: You have a big milestone birthday coming up this year [Monheit turns 30 on November 3rd]. . . . This is a pretty symbolic birthday for a lot of people. You are now a seasoned performer; you’ve got several albums under your belt. Do you have any thoughts, are you getting reflective at all looking back over your life and your career so far?

JM: “Well, you know, when I do think about it that way, I can’t believe how much I’ve done and how far I’ve traveled in the last seven years. I’ve really only been on the road for about seven years, and god, I just can’t quite believe it. It just makes me excited for the future, for more to come, to get to travel to even more places that I’ve never seen. It’s all very exciting. Honestly, turning 30 really doesn’t freak me out at all. Everybody’s very surprised by that, but it really doesn’t. It may freak out my husband (laughs), but I think I’ll be fine.”

MR: Yeah, I remember when I turned 29, that kind of freaked me out. But turning 30, it just felt like a sense of coming into my own or something.

JM: “Yeah . . . I have no problem with leaving my 20s behind.

MR: Do you guys have any plans for a family as of yet?

JM: “We definitely are going to have kids, whenever it’s the right time. I mean there’s no way my husband and I won’t be parents together. We just don’t know when.”

MR: Let’s talk about your latest album (Surrender). Jorge Calandrelli [the producer] has produced albums for Streisand and Celine Dion, among many others. One of the first things I noticed listening to Surrender was that the sound seemed a lot more elaborate than some of the earlier releases. Was that intentional? Do you think that’s accurate?

JM: “Yeah, no, it is, and it’s something I’ve been wanting for a long time. I wanted a much more complex sounding, a much richer sounding record, with more layers and levels and colors. You know, that’s something I’ve really been wanting for a long time. And Jorge was wonderful in helping me get that. The string arrangements he wrote are absolutely stunning. But, yeah, I wanted a much more complex sound.”

MR: You’ve said that you’re normally very involved in the making of each track, but then on “So Many Stars,” working with Sergio Mendes, that he took care of everything, and all you had to do was come in and sing. What was that experience like for you?

JM: “It was different, I’ll tell you that much. I mean, I’ve done that sort of thing for other people’s albums, but never for my own. But when it’s Sergio, you know, you put your trust in him. I mean, the man is a legend. And I didn’t even know what to expect. I mean I didn’t even know arriving at the studio that day whether or not we’d be making the track together or whether it would be done. I was surprised, actually, to get there and find a finished track. But it was lovely, it came out great. It was interesting, though. I was like, ‘Some girls do this all the time . . . .” It was like, wow. It was really easy, and weird.”

MR: Did you miss having some of the control?

JM: “Well, yeah, I mean, I’m a musician, you know, I like being there right in the thick of everything. I co-produced one of my albums, and I’m certainly going to do that again in the future. I like being involved in every minute of things. But the other way is cool, too, you know what I mean? There’s a lot of great ways to work, and it’s good to be open to a lot of different types of things. If you’re a total control freak all the time, you know sometimes collaborating with other artists is going to be difficult.”

MR: One track that I just dig is “Só . . .” [butchering the Portuguese title] let me see if I can pronounce this . . . .

JM: “Só Tinha de Ser Com Vocé?”

MR: Yeah, that one, that’s the one. (She laughs) It seems like it’s one of the more stripped down sounds on the album as well, and it just swings. Do you remember anything about the recording session, can you tell me anything about that?

JM: “Well, that one we’ve been playing live for a long time, so I think we nailed that one pretty early on. I remember the “Só Tinha . . . ,” or I think it was “Caminhos Cruzados,” actually, is the one that was actually our rehearsal take on the record. You know, we didn’t even rehearse, we just played it once and that’s what’s on the record. But the “Só Tinha,” I remember being super-psyched with the way that came out when we did it. The time is just grooving, it’s so seriously grooving. You know, that’s one thing that’s great about making a record with the musicians that I play with every single night, is that you can achieve that sort of level of real music. Which is amazing.”

MR: What is your favorite cut on the album?

JM: “Probably “Overjoyed” [the Stevie Wonder hit].  And “Só Tinha,” both. But really probably “Overjoyed.” I love “Overjoyed” because I love pop music, and I love really great pop music. You know, like Stevie Wonder-level pop music. (Laughs) Being able to take a song like that, that I loved growing up, and to be able to seamlessly blend it into my genre, what I’m doing, is fabulous. Plus, I got to do a lot of fun background vocals. I love doing background vocals for myself, it’s totally fun. You know, I wish I were triplets (laughing), . . . so I could have it on the road. And plus I just love the arrangement that Miles [Okazaki], my guitarist, did for the tune.

MR: “Moon River.” You’ve said that Audrey Hepburn’s rendition of that song is your favorite version ever (“Oh, yeah”), and that you and your husband can’t even listen to it without crying (“Oh, no”). Does it bring back a particular memory for you? Do you remember the first time that you and your husband saw the movie [Breakfast at Tiffany’s]?

JM: “I think it was, yeah . . . I think it was probably up at his parents’ house when we were dating. But I mean, honestly, it’s just a song that . . . it just shreds us both, you know? And always has. We’ve both felt that way about that song for a very long time, so when we came together and met and realized that we both felt this way about this song, then it became almost a song for us, too, you know? And certainly, whenever I sing it, I’m definitely singing it to my husband. That’s a given. Any time I sing “Moon River,” even if he’s off stage—because sometimes I do it as a duet with my pianist, or sometimes I do it with a full band—it’s always being sung to him.”

MR: The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, partly talking about your album In the Sun, has lamented that you, quote, seem “to be packaged for the middle-aged and seniors market” (she begins laughing), with “too many maudlin songs” for such a “successful and happy young woman.”

JM: (Really laughing now) “I pick the songs; I love the drama.”

MR: Are you conscious of trying to reach a particular audience?

JM: “No, I mean . . . you know what? When I first started out, I realized everything I was doing was skewed very much older. You know, they were dressing me, and they were putting me in ball gowns . . . it was ridiculous. And now I’m older, and now I’m in control of my own world. And I totally just am myself. And I notice that we’ve attracted a lot younger audience in the last couple years, just from me sort of breaking free and being myself. So there’s no specific thought about it now. Now it’s just like me being my own 29-year-old girl self, and whoever wants to listen, please, we’d love to have you. You know?”

MR: Who’s your favorite contemporary jazz musician right now?

JM: “Oh, god, that’s really hard . . . . You know who is consistently my favorite, of all the guys that are out there right now? Brad Mehldau. I still am not over how incredible he is.”

MR: What is it about his stuff that you like?

JM: “Well, gosh, everything. The way he moves around through the harmony of every tune. His ability to simplify something down to the most basic musical thought, and have it be the most heart-wrenching thing you’ve ever heard in your life—when he’s clearly capable of doing things that are more complex, like anyone. I don’t know, there’s just a way that he approaches the music and the piano that I’ve never heard in anyone else, and I just think he’s incredible.”

MR: You’ve mentioned that for years now it seems like the whole band has been moving more toward Brazilian music. How did that come about?

JM: “We all just really love it. We all really love it. There’s a big Brazilian scene in New York, so most New York jazz musicians are well versed in Brazilian music. I’ve never met a person in my life that doesn’t love it. So, as a band, I sort of wanted to move in that direction a little more, because it’s so just . . . right for me, or something, you know . . . all the guys are like, ‘Hell, yeah, sweetie, let’s do it.’ We travel to Brazil a lot, we work with so many great Brazilian musicians all the time. It’s just been this incredibly fun, really natural thing for us.”

MR: Jeff Winbush, from All About Jazz.com, wrote that Surrender is the album that you have, quote, “been building up to since [your] debut on the music scene in 2001.” Is that accurate? Do you think this album is where you’ve been headed?

JM: “Yeah, I think that is accurate. And you hope every album is that way. Every album that you make should be another level in the culmination of things that have been happening . . . you know, in your life, over time, in your career. This record is certainly the record I’ve been hoping to make for ages. It’s the only record that I’ve made that this far after the release, I can still listen to all of it and be like, ‘Yeah, that sounds really good!’ You know?” (Laughs)

MR: What’s in the box next, or do you have any idea?

JM: “I have a lot of things that I want to do. And basically what it’s going to come down to is sitting down with my record company and my producers and saying, ‘Okay, guys, what order are we going to do these things in?’ So I don’t know what’s going to happen next, or when, because we’re really just focusing on touring for this album. But (laughing) I’m already starting to itch to get the next thing going.”

SEE THE REVIEW OF "SURRENDER"

SEE THE CONCERT REVIEW