STILL PEACHY – Veteran soul diva Melba Moore talks to SJF. · PDF fileSTILL PEACHY – Veteran soul diva Melba Moore talks to SJF. ... 'I Got Love.' It was at Buddah ... STILL PEACHY

STILL PEACHY – Veteran soul diva Melba Moore talks to SJF.

Written by Charles WaringThursday, 16 February 2012 21:34 -

There was a time when MELBA MOORE was a frequent visitor to the charts on both sides ofthe Atlantic. She enjoyed five UK chart entries between 1976 and 1983, breaking into the BritishTop 10 with the rousing Van McCoy-penned dance anthem, 'This Is It.' But it was in her nativeAmerica where she experienced most success, racking up an astonishing thirty two hits onBillboard's R&B chart during a fertile fifteen-year period spanning the years 1975-1990.

Blessed with a supple multi-octave voice and renowned for sustaining a single note for alung-bursting amount of time – exemplified on her signature song, 1976's 'Lean On Me' or onthe 1986 R&B chart-topping ballad, 'Falling' – Melba began her career as a background vocalist

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before successfully auditioning for the stage musical 'Hair' in 1970. A stint in another Broadwayproduction, 'Purlie,' followed, for which she earned a prestigious Tony award. A year later, in1971, at the age of 26, she signed with Mercury Records and received a Grammy nominationfor her debut LP, 'I Got Love.'

It was at Buddah Records in the mid-'70s that Melba began to accumulate hit records, her firstbeing the plaintive romantic ballad, 'I Am His Lady,' in 1975. A productive session with thelegendary soul music producer and songwriter, Van McCoy, in 1976 yielded two of Melba'smost enduring records – 'This Is It' and 'Lean On Me.' A label switch to Epic in 1978 witnesseda US Top 20 smash with a soulful interpretation of the Bee Gees' 'You Stepped Into My Life.' In1981, Melba joined EMI America briefly – a deal masterminded by her then husband, CharlesHuggins – before switching to its parent company, Capitol, where she stayed until 1990. Thatphase of her recording career was the most productive in terms of commercial success and sawher scoring two Stateside number one records – 'A Little Bit More,' a duet with Freddie Jackson,and the impassioned ballad, 'Falling.' In addition to that, infectious groove-based songs such as'Mind Up Tonight' and 'Love's Comin' At Ya' established her as the queen of early '80s dancefloor R&B.

The 1990s witnessed Melba Moore drop off the soul radar as changing tastes in music and therecord industry's obsession with youth pushed mature performers into the background. Fastforward to 2012 and Melba Moore – who returned to recording with 'Gift Of Love,' a duets albumwith Phil Perry in 2009 - is preparing a comeback. Not only is there a new solo album in thepipeline but she's also just announced that she's visiting the UK and will perform here for thefirst time ever (at London's Jazz Café on April 29th).

SJF's Charles Waring recently caught up with Melba, who talked excitedly about her newrecording venture as well as her keenly-anticipated trip to the UK and also looked back at keyevents in her long career...

I can't believe that you've never performed in London before.

Yes, this will be my debut performance - my first concert performance. I've done sometelevision promotions a very long time ago but I've never performed in concert there. Never.

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What can we expect to hear from you in London?

We'll be doing 'Standing Right Here,' 'Pick Me Up, I'll Dance,' 'This Is It,' 'Lean On Me,' 'Love IsComin' At Ya,' 'Mind Up Tonight'....

You have a new single out.

Yes, it's called 'Love Is'

I believe it's taken from a new album you're working on.

Well, it's brand new music, which very often veteran artists sometimes don't get a chance to do;the audience only want to hear the old things. So I think what's happened with my life and mycareer is that I've had to make a new start and one of the great things is that my old music isbeing re-released and re-remembered both here (in the States) and in the UK. So it kind ofbrings everybody up to where I am now and I think it also allows me to show you what I looklike, who I am now and what I sound like now. So it gives me an opportunity to do new musicwhich means the challenge for me is to be my age – and be age-appropriate - but also becontemporary and relevant.

I've been working with a producer called Terry Silverlight and two other producers and they'vegot good, solid, R&B songs with good stories that are simple and positive but realistic. I like toinspire people so sometimes I might do that with a lot of yelling and screaming and riffing andhigh notes but you've got to have something to scream about so I'm looking for songs that havemeanings. I'm a grown-up, I'm an adult, I'm mature now so I can't sing fluffy things. They don'thave to be grim and serious but they do have to be sensitive.

When's the album likely to come out?

Definitely before the end of this year. I'm going into the studio with the next bunch of songs on

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the 23rd of this month (February) and then from there we're going to set time aside and just stayin the studio until it's finished. I don't think it will take me more than two or three months ofsteady work to finish actually recording it and then, of course, mix it.

Going back right beginning, at what age did you first show an interest in music?

Probably when I was too young to know! I probably knew I had a normal singing voice far as Ican tell at about five or six years old. My mother was a single parent. She was a professionalsinger. She married my stepdad, who is still living. He's 95, but he's still a working musician. Hemade us - all of us, me and my sisters - take piano. I was nine at the time so I really gotimmersed in music from there on in to elementary school and junior high school. I was verysolidly musically inclined because music was the centre of our family because our mother anddaddy rehearsed with their live band in the house and we became very acquainted with some ofthe great artists during that time, like Sarah Vaughan and a lot of people that lived in NewJersey, which is a spawning ground for great musicians still. Then I went to art music highschool and majored in vocal music and then I majored in music in college. So I think musicreally knocked me over the head around the time I got to go to high school because I had todecide what I was really going to focus on and that's when I decided I would like to - even if Ireally didn't have the talent to be a star - be in the arts.

So how did you get into the record industry?

I taught music education in public schools for about a year and a half. I was very good at it but Iworked on trying to be a performer. My dad took me around to some of his agents in New Yorkand one of them took me on and I met Valerie Simpson, and she was there in some musicpublisher's office trying to get signed for songwriting. But she was also a great jingle singer, awriter and a backup singer. She brought me into the industry. She was just another singer then.That's how I got into recording music. I started as a backup singer. But my first Broadway showcame from that too. My first Broadway show was 'Hair.'

How did that come about?

It was a recording session. We were invited to do backups on Galt McDermott's performance ofthe music from 'Hair,' because he wrote the music for it. It primarily featured backup vocals and

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I was part of a bunch of people that were hired for that and when we finished the date, theyinvited everybody who was on the recording session to go audition for them for the play thatwas coming to Broadway. I auditioned for it and got into it. I didn't know anything aboutBroadway or theatre.

I read somewhere that you replaced Diane Keaton in 'Hair'. Is that right?

Yes, she was the original Sheila, but when she left I replaced her. So I wound up with thefemale lead actually and was the first black actress to replace a white actress in a lead rolewhen Diane left.

You won a Tony award for your role in the musical 'Purlie.' How did it feel winning anaward so early on in your career?

Kind of numb. I have tapes of the Tony award performance because I don't really remember it. Iwas too scared. It was, to say the least, exciting, and I really have no idea what I said. Iremember certain parts of it like looking down into the audience and seeing people like LaurenBacall and Pearl Bailey. I have flashes of those but I can't remember most of the programme. Itwas too numbing and I was too excited.

Did your deal with Mercury Records come from your success on stage?

Yes, actually Mercury Records came to me while I was still in 'Purlie.'

What are your memories of those Mercury days?

I just remember there was so much going on because I rehearsed and recorded the musicduring the break between the matinee and the evening show. There was so much going on. Idon't know how I did it all. It's like everything just exploded all at once and you have to say, yes,'cos that's when it happens; I knew that from my parents being in the industry, that when it

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comes just brace yourself, try to calm down and do as much as you can.

So your parents didn't mind you being in the music business?

Both of them warned me and my sisters and brothers not to go into the industry and to get areal job although they were in it. I guess they were so concerned about the insecurity of it andthe things that could happen to you. So they warned us, but I said, well, if I fail at it, I can alwayscome back and be an educator. So that was my attitude. And they were behind me but thenthey were really kind of disappointed in the beginning because first of all, I was really shy and itdidn't seem like I had the personality of a person who could stomach the music business. I wasvery shy. So they said: "oh no, get yourself to the post office or somewhere else: don't go intothat, it's too difficult." But when they saw me in 'Hair' they were amazed and shocked and thenwhen they saw me in 'Purlie,' we were all shocked at that because I never had any experiencewith theatre or the spoken word. That was just a shock. I think we were all shocked that I had somuch courage.

Eventually you joined Buddah Records in 1975. How did that come about?

By that time I had my manager/husband, Charles Huggins, so I had some help, somebodyleading and guiding my career. He went out and really got Buddah Records and then handledmy going with Epic Records and then later on with Capitol Records. He's the reason why I hada good recording career.

At Buddah you worked with Van McCoy. What was he like to work with?

My husband found Van McCoy, we stalked him! I loved working with him. First of all, 'Lean OnMe' was something that I brought to Van - but I discovered it on the Queen's, Aretha Franklin'srecord, before that (it was the non-album flipside to Aretha's1971 single 'Spanish Harlem'). Ofcourse, I, like everybody else, was a diehard fan of Aretha's. I love everything that she has everdone; I don't care what it is or what it was. And that was one song that I took my heart: I adoredit and started to perform it live. My very first live concert was at Lincoln Centre, because it allcame out of the Broadway situation. I had my own arrangement of 'Lean On Me,' so I had beenperforming it by the time I had got to Buddah and got with Van. I brought my arrangement of itand of course he added his strings. And he was just an incredible arranger, everybody knows

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that. But I brought that to him because I just loved the song.

Then you had a hit with a version of the Bee Gees' 'You Stepped into My Life.'

I credit that again to my ex-husband Charles Huggins putting me with Gene McFadden andJohn Whitehead, songwriters and producers at that time. They did the arrangement on it so itwas a combination of finding out okay what's going to be a hit record and you're a Broadwaystar so what kind of a music bandwagon can you kind of jump on and make it your own? 'YouStepped Into My Life' came from that Bee Gee's album ('Children Of The World') where everysingle in that record was a smash hit, but that was the only one that I think hadn't beenreleased. So we could take our pick of anything that was on that album. It probably would havebeen a hit because they were on such a roll with good, solid, hit music. I'm saying that becausesometimes great music is not hit music. The combination of Gene McFadden and JohnWhitehead - their Philly sound and its masculine funk rhythms - with my little Betty Boop voice,was a good combination.

What were McFadden & Whitehead like to work with as writers and producers?

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Like Martin Lawrence and Will Smith! It was hilarious. Both of them should have beencomedians. So it was a lot of fun and they were very prolific and they never stopped makingmusic: it just flowed out of them and whenever they were around, it was a party. It's justlaughing all the time. So it really was a joy. They were always joking.

But they were very serious in regard to what they did in the studio I suppose?

No - they're never serious!

How did they manage to get work done then?

Well, because all they ever did was write songs. That wasn't work to them.

Around the same time you performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Howwas that then as an experience?

Once again, my ex-husband, Charles Huggins, was a genius at coming up with these ideas andthen getting the people to financially support it and back it and market it. He was really a geniusas a business person and it was his idea and at the time I was already pregnant with mydaughter. It was very wonderful and exciting and just a time of blossoming. I don't have thewords to say to you what a wonderful experience that and that whole time in my life was.

You moved to Capitol Records in 1982. That was a time when you were also part ofOrpheus and Hush production teams.

Right, that was myself and my ex-husband. At the beginning it was just him and me and then wedeveloped it into Hush productions and later Orpheus.

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Were you involved in the management side as well as performing?

Yes, because when we came together, neither one of us had ever done this before in anybodyelse's life but we said well, let's try this, let's try that. We took meetings and we brainstormed allday because my ex-husband is a great, great business person so he was the type of person towork and be creative; ideas always coming into his mind. We would sit around and talk andthat's when I realised, well you know, that's a great idea - let's try that. It's not that I had thatinkling to do that before but we were in love and we were a great combination. I was the artistand he was the businessman.

Well, you created some great work around that time and worked with some amazingpeople. You had Kashif and Paul Laurence producing you on some tracks. What werethey like to work with in the studio?

Paul Laurence is the absolute most serious person ever on the planet of the Earth and he'll takeone little phrase and do it 25,000 times until he feels it's right. I don't know if it's my personalitybut I love that. I'm one who loves to sing so much but my natural voice is a classical lyricsoprano so I've always had to work at developing and pushing and honing my voice and make itdo what it wants to so we were a perfect combination. I loved working with him because wewould just take our time and do it until we were both satisfied with it. Kashif was the same way.Kashif really brought Paul Laurence along and (singers) Lillo Thomas and Freddie Jackson.They were part of a stable that we inherited once my ex-husband Charles Huggins wanted tofind producers for this stage of my career.

You were instrumental in getting Freddie Jackson's career off the ground.

Yes, once we started to work together and it was known to me that Freddie had the talent thathe did and he wanted to be a solo artist, I took him out on the road with me as my backupsinger and then I began to feature him in the middle of my show with just one song. He wouldsing 'Good Morning Heartache' and by the time he was halfway through the song the audiencewas screaming so much I said 'you've all got to shut up so I can tell you what his name is!' Hewas just amazing. And then we became very good, close, friends and of course I was just anatural mentor for him.

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You had a number one duet together in the States together, didn't you?

Yes, 'A Little Bit More.'

And the second US number one you had was 'Falling.' What can you recall about thesession for that record?

What I recall is by the time we got to 'Falling,' Gene McFadden had really developed anunderstanding of my personality and my voice - and also knew how to create a song in anarrangement that would be a hit record that was really suitable for me. He wrote 'Falling' for me.That was later on in our relationship when we had been working together for several years.

The song features an amazing high note by you at the end.

Right, he didn't tell me to do that; it just came naturally. After a while working with each other,they stopped telling me not to hit my high note: "Don't nobody hit the note!" I said "but if I don't,then they won't know it's me!"

What do you find most fulfilling artistically: is it making records or singing andperforming on stage?

I would say live performances because there's a circulation or flow between you and theaudience and you look at them and they automatically tell you what to do and then you observeyourself doing it. It's a life force, the interaction, and you get a chance to observe I think.

What's been the highlight of your musical career to date?

I would definitely say 'Purlie,' the Tony awards and a song that I've loved so much and that has

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become my signature song, 'Lean On Me.' I never thought that that would happen. I was justsinging my heart out.

MELBA MOORE has a new single out, 'Love Is,' available from iTunes or her website http://www.melbamoore.comShe performs at London's Jazz Café on Sunday April 29th 2012.

For more information and to book tickets go to:

http://venues.meanfiddler.com/jazz-cafe/home

Email enquiries: [email protected]

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http://www.melbamoore.com

http://www.melbamoore.com

http://venues.meanfiddler.com/jazz-cafe/home

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STILL PEACHY – Veteran soul diva Melba Moore talks to SJF. · PDF fileSTILL PEACHY – Veteran soul diva Melba Moore talks to SJF. ... 'I Got Love.' It was at Buddah ... STILL PEACHY