Installment #3 - "Get Off the Bandstand"

CHAPTER ONE
Who Do You Think You Are, Anyway?

If you wish to be viewed as a serious artist, or even at the very least, a singer who obviously loves the music you are freely sharing in the world, it becomes necessary to put away your ego and realize what it is you really have here. What exactly is it, this talent of yours??

Did you invent it? When? How old were you? What was the original idea for this brilliance of yours? Is there a blueprint around we can examine?

Hardly, right? Obviously, if you look closely, you can see that you DID NOT create your talent. It’s a gift, pure and simple.

It’s a talent that was given to you, most likely at birth, for which, in a perfect world, you in turn, say “thanks” to your Creator by offering it to others with the same intensity and profound love with which it was given to you.

Do You Get That?? Does it make sense to you?

It’s a talent that was GIVEN to you, most likely at birth, for which you are more or less encouraged by your Creator to SHARE it with others with the same intensity and profound love with which it was given to you.

You do NOT use it to glorify yourself in arrogance, and self-promotion, although it’s certainly not a giant leap for the EGO to deduce that you must be special indeed to have been given a gift of this magnitude! And of course…you ARE…as are all of God’s children, including your audiences, your fellow musicians, your housekeeper, your mechanic, your enemies…(see where I’m going with this?)

Now, I can hear you, singers! I hear you yelling back at me, “But , what are you saying, Chrys? That the only way to demonstrate how grateful we are for our talent is to humble ourselves when we perform? Shouldn’t we be strutting our stuff instead? What’s with all this humility…we’re not monks!!”

Well, yes…and no! It would depend on what your definition of strutting is.
If you mean showing off in a manner that suggests a message of
“Look at me, you losers! I’m special, and you are NOT!”.
Then, I would think that THAT was an ungrateful demonstration of your talent.

But if you mean by strutting that you sing with zeal and passion, and celebrate your talent AND your ability to use it to turn people on with the joy you feel in your heart, then, okay! Strut away!!

I sorta prefer the term “gravitas” to more clearly describe the quality I am talking about. It’s more of a dignity than a swagger. There is a certain substance or weightiness, or even a lordliness in the kind of person who walks in a glow of self-confidence and gratitude for what he has.

In a performer, it’s magical, and majestic! It’s the power to look into your eyes and go all the way to your soul…”Killing You Softly with His Song”.

You can’t strut that kind of a gift. You really cannot!! It is this humble author’s view that this gift has to constantly be treated with honor, adoration and reverence. Come on! You DID NOT CREATE IT! It was GIVEN, and you DISCOVERED it inside of you! Bravo for THAT! Wow!! And THAT is why you share it, right? It truly IS! Look!

It’s like when you were a kid and you happened upon a shiny marble on the sidewalk. You couldn’t wait to find your friends and say, “Look at this! Look what I found! Isn’t it fabulous? Let’s play with this for a while!” That’s not swaggering or bragging, it sharing what you found with people that matter to you. And when you perform from this perspective, you are sending vibrations of love all over the place, and you are showered with the stuff in return.

Performing from this space in consciousness cannot be faked, singers! You have to mean it. That’s what I’m talking about when I tell you singers to establish a relationship with your audience, and to find something special about them and to love them.

And you also have to love your musicians.

The feelings that travel among each of you on stage becomes PART of the songs you are singing so you HAVE to love and respect and admire your musicians.

Let me tell you a little story to more correctly make my point on this particular issue about loving your musicians.

I was traveling around the country several years ago with a big band, and when I say “big band”, I am talking about a particular genre of music called “Big Band”. It refers to the 18-piece bands of the 40’s and 50’s like Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, the Dorsey Brothers and people like that.

I traveled with the Les and Larry Elgart big band back in the early 60’s and also with Si Zentner’s Band, and The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Sam Donahue for several years.

There were occasions when the band was backing up a big name singer in Vegas or Reno, or somewhere, and on those occasions I would get the night off. I never stopped being totally star struck by some of the big stars that were backed up by the bands I was on…singers I grew up adoring, like Mel Torme, Johnny Ray, Nancy Wilson, Connie Francis, and people like that.

So, even if I had the night off, there was no way I wasn’t going to stand in the wings and watch these people I loved perform, and dream about reaching the heights that they already had attained.

99% of the time, my “idols” did not disappoint…except for this one time…

TO BE CONTINUED