there was a lot of disco going on
at that time when I was that age,
like Donna Summer — so that kind
of stuff, I listened to, as well. I
liked all of it.
What gave you the idea of be-
coming a professional singer?
It wasn’t until I was in my early
twenties. I moved to New York
City to study filmmaking at New
York University. I thought I was
going to become a documen-
don’t you come back?” So I start-
ed going to this open mic night.
And since this was a blues bar,
I would get up and sing an Etta
James song or a Muddy Waters
song, but I very soon exhausted
my limited knowledge of those
songs and I had to go out and
buy more records and learn more
about the music.
And I also started going out
and hearing other bands and
going to other places that had
I went out to a blues bar with a guy from my building, and
he encouraged me to go up and sing at this bar, and I did.
tary filmmaker. But I accidentally
stumbled upon this amazing mu-
sic scene that was happening in
the downtown area. I went out to
a blues bar with a guy from my
building, and he encouraged me
to go up and sing at this bar, and
I did. And this guy who was work-
ing there said, “We have an open
mic night here once a week. Why
NJ STAGE 2017 - Issue 40
open mic nights. I was sort of
doing it for fun, but also becom-
ing immersed in this amazing
scene and meeting all these oth-
er musicians. I was checking out
what they were doing and being
inspired by it and just being up
late in these bars and dancing
and having a great time. I found
it was a real community to be-
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