CABARET: STARS AND LEGENDS
Wesla Whitfield, the American National Treasure
Photo:
Wesla Whitfield with First Lady Hillary Clinton at The White House.
Whitfield has long been a favorite with
cabaret audiences, and the imaginative, often swinging musical settings
provided by her pianist/musical director and husband, Mike Greensill, have
placed her in an attractive jazz context as well...What they are doing with
Rodgers and Hart is sheer magic, a definitive illustration of how to realize
the art music qualities in popular song...Working in combination as a
trio--voice, piano and bass--Whitfield, Greensill and Moore were brilliant,
an incomparable blending of musical intelligence and dramatic
sophistication." Terry Teachout from the New York Daily News
wrote: "Light up the skyrockets and put out more flags: Wesla Whitfield's
back in town. The best cabaret singer in the world has set up shop at
the Kaufman Theater with a one-woman show called "Life Upon the Wicked
Stage." There's not much to it — she sings 20 songs and chats about the ups
and downs of her career — but the talk is droll, the songs are wonderful and
the singing is so good that you'll hug yourself with delight."
Whitfield, the Phenomenon.
Photo: Wesla and husband Mike in the Blue Room at the White House after
performing for Hillary Clinton and all the Senators Spouses.
Why is she so unique? What so special about her style and talent?
Every talented singer has to a certain extent,
developed a very personal "song interpretation style" and a particular vocal
virtuosity delivery. And the dimension of creative delivery varies from one
artist to another, depending on the nature of selected repertoire and the
personality of the singer. In that sense, the nature, the taste and the
artistic capabilities determine and shape the artist's stage presence. A
certain conformity is required from performers who sing the songs of the
golden era of Hollywood and Broadway. Nevertheless, many entertainers and
singers took immense liberty in interpreting songs according to their state
of mind, personal feelings and life experiences and or for divergent and
convergent reasons. Some of those reasons are of a purely musical nature,
and some others come to life in virtue of artistic and vocal necessities.
Other performers extended their artistic singularity and freedom to meeting
the taste, the needs and music style preference (s) of their audience.
Probably, this is why some very clever artists easily and gracefully
transcended time and space and never fell pray to fashion, moda, trendy
appeal and the changes of time and styles in the music business. Artists
like Sinatra and Bennett knew this secret, thus, they were able to prolong
their careers for so many years, at a time, when so many equally talented
performers faded away. And this is how Wesla Whitfield's artistic
longevity reached audiences and people of all walks of like who either
never witnessed that vanished golden era, or were never brought up to
appreciate it. Thanks to Wesla's multi-dimensional and ever evolving talent,
she was able to transcend dogmatic rules and traditional performances
pre-requites, and reach for older, old, young and younger audiences by
incorporating in her repertoire the music of yesteryears nourished with a
modern flair and a tempo-ambiance, today's audience tend to prefer. In
addition, Wesla made her own rules and enlarged the perimeter of performance
excellence by sculpting an almost perfect sense of phrasing which magically
and very tenderly reached the hearts and souls of multi-varied and demanding
audiences. She brought to the traditional world of cabaret music, a very
intimate, warm, pensive and personal musical and vocal interpretation which
defied conventionalism. This delightful defying and charmingly innovative
creativity is illustrated in the way she looks at her audience, and in an
eloquent silence pauses for a moment or two, gazes into your soul, flirt
with your thoughts, pauses briefly for another uninvited seconds when you
don't expect her to do so, and with a soft elan, she recaptures the lyrics
with a gentle explosion of lyrical finesse, intimate musical tenderness, and
surrounding you with an unusual "feeling of hearing those old songs" for
the first time. And that is her alarming magic! In other words, she captures
the nostalgic moments of an era you learned about but never lived it, yet,
unconsciously you revisit those delightful passages of time, exactly the
way you want to feel them, sense them, metamorphose with them , grow with
them and takes them home with you. This is how exactly a brilliant and
clever singer vanquishes and overcomes the changes of time. Wesla mastered
that secret and throw it on stage in splashes of remembrance, nostalgia,
romanticism and living reality.
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