Singers Night Preview (Showcase)

By Bob PROTZMAN

For its popular annual Singers Night this year, JazzErie has looked westward to Cleveland and found two distinctly different female vocalists, one making her Erie debut.

Chilean-born, Brazilian-reared Luca Mundaca is a 36-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist who is poised to move her career into high gear, and 51-year-old Ki Allen a Cleveland native who has sung professionally for some 30 years with just about everyone and everywhere in her hometown, and at Scotty's Jazz and Cigar Bar in 2005.

For the 8 p.m. Saturday performance at the East Erie Turners, the lineup will be: Pianist Howard Hamme and quartet for two numbers; a set by Ms. Mundaca with her guitar; intermission; the quartet for one number; Ms. Allen in a set backed by Hamme's group, and a one-song encore by both vocalists.

Mundaca, as one can hear on her recent CD "Day By Day" (Lumeni), is Brazilian through and through, although she has been in the U.S. since 1999. Her voice is delicate, her original songs (she estimates that she has written some 200) alternately lovely and infectiously rhythmic.

She sings almost exclusively in Portuguese, the major language of her homeland, and accompanies herself on guitar. She will remind listeners of other Brazilian singers, songwriters and musicians whose music has been popular in America since the 1960s bossa nova/samba craze, from Astrud Gilberto ("Girl From Ipanema").

Ms. Allen might be considered a quintessential jazz singer by many on all sides of the perpetual debate about who is or isn't a jazz singer.

On her self-produced and self-titled CD, she demonstrates impressive improvisational chops, scatting and using other forms of wordless vocalizing in adventurous, personal interpretations of a wide range of material.

She puts her stamp on pop and jazz tunes from the Beatles to Rodgers and Hart, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. For instance, on Charles Warfield's "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home," she turns the tables to a defiant "Baby, Please Don't Come Home."

In addition, Allen's vocal range and flexibility are remindful of some of her idols; in her lower register, for instance, she is a near sound a like to Sarah Vaughan.

Allen learned about singing at an early age at church and at home from her mom and other family members.

"Mostly, my mom taught me," said Allen in a phone interview. "Spirituals, Christmas carols, and popular songs. And from her record collection, I heard all the greats and was inspired by them."

In her early 20s, Allen entered a talent contest, and the pianist on the gig told her she should concentrate on singing jazz.

"I took his advice," said Allen, adding, "But I didn't study singing or music; I taught myself."

Allen says she loves singing any tune "that commands a challenge," no matter the genre or style.

Allen and Mundaca haven't met, but Allen did listen to Mundaca's CD and was wowed. "What a beautiful voice and singer," she said.

Her fans, Allen says, say they like her originality and "especially the risks I take with my voice."

Mundaca was on the verge of "breaking out" with a CD for Atlantic Records until 9/11. "They were mixing my album in New York at the time. After the tragedy, Atlantic closed its entire jazz division," she says.

She continued to perform in New York, staying afloat doing odd jobs, until Clevelander Beth Clapper heard her in the Living Room in New York.

"I thought she was fantastic," says Ms. Clapper. After several more shows, Beth and Luca began working together, and then Beth talked to her family about the singer. "She did a show for my parents in our living room, and that was enough for the family. We decided to form a record company and help her with her career.

The Clappers also offered Luca a home and a trip to Brazil to make "Day By Day" with a superb Brazilian band comprising musicians who had played with some of Brazil's biggest stars.

Beth became Luca's manager and landed a Mundaca song on the internationally distributed, New York-based Putumayo label's compilation, "Brazilian Lounge."

Luca will have another song on Putamayo's "Women of the World Acoustic" CD scheduled for February release, and will go on a four to six week Putumayo national tour in March-April with other label artists.

Though hardly anyone in U.S. audiences understand Portuguese, Mundaca says many somehow understand what she is singing about.

"I'm sure it's because they feel the music," she says. "I think the melody carries the message, because people will tell me what they believe the music is saying and get it exactly right."

Though she knows some would like to hear her with a band, Luca feels more comfortable with just her guitar. "I feel that it's part of my body and soul, and it makes me feel closer to the audience. They, in turn, I think, are mesmerized by the combination of voice and guitar."

As a teen, once Luca learned three chords, she quickly wrote a song. "I became addicted and began writing and writing. Then I wanted to hear what I had written, so I started singing."

Though she loves singing, she loves writing even more. "My dream is I would love to have people sing my songs. Eventually, I would like to be more of a producer than singer, although people tell me I should never give up singing."

Though she does not regard herself as a jazz singer, Mundaca is very much at ease singing at a jazz event. "Brazilian music has all kinds of colors, including those of jazz. Jazz fans are attracted to Brazilian music and vice versa. That's why Brazilian music is featured so often at so many jazz festivals."

For further information:
www.LucaMundaca.com
www.sonicbids.com/LucaMundaca
www.kiallen.net

Singers Night
8 p.m. Saturday
East Erie Turners, 829 Parade St.
With Luca Mundaca and Ki Allen, pianist Howard Hamme, bassist Harry Jacobson, drummer Carl Alanakian and saxophonist Stan Bialomizy

Tickets: $10, students; $15, JazzErie members; $20, non-members
Reservations: (814)-452-2546

Ticket Outlets: East Erie Turners, Romolo Chocolates, Lynch Music, Fairview; World of Music, Glass Growers Gallery, Erie Book Store, Mercyhurst College Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center boxoffice.

Bob PROTZMAN is a freelance jazz writer and hosts "Everything Jazz," 9 to midnight Sundays on WQLN-FM 91.3. You can reach Bob at protz@verizon.net or jazzhosts@wqln.org.

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