[Dixielandjazz] Molly Ringwald Comes Full Circle with New Jazz Album - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 9, 2013

[Robert Ringwald]

Molly Ringwald Comes Full Circle with New Jazz Album

by Kevin C. Johnson

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 9, 2013



Actress Molly Ringwald made her name in the 1980s as the centerpiece of classic teen

movies "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Sixteen Candles," but these days

she's making a name in the music world.

Introducing Molly Ringwald: jazz singer. It's not as strange as you may think.

Ringwald says singing jazz has interested her since she was a child.

"It's something I did before I even acted," she says. "I started singing as a little

girl with my father. It's sort of what I always thought I would be doing when I grew

up."

Her father, jazz artist Bob Ringwald, instilled a love of the music in her, she says.

"For me, it was like background music -- what I grew up with."

After Ringwald appeared in her first movie, "Tempest" in 1982, she felt as if she

had to choose between acting and singing. She chose acting. Her father wanted her

to do both, but she didn't see that as an option.

"At the time I felt there weren't a lot of actor-singers other than Barbra Streisand,"

she says. "It's different now. It has come back to where everyone can sing and dance

and act."

Ringwald has done some musical theater; she appeared as Sally Bowles in "Cabaret"

a decade ago on Broadway.

"It has all come full circle," she says.

Her new album, "Except Sometimes," shot to the top of Billboard's jazz albums chart.

"It has been amazing," Ringwald says. "People have low expectations of my music as

an actress, but they don't know my jazz background. They go in skeptical and they've

been pleasantly surprised."

She names singers Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Anita O'Day, Carmen

McRae and Frank Sinatra as key influences.

"I heard someone on Twitter say my voice sounded like a dessert," she says, "but

it's very hard for me to describe myself."

"Except Sometimes" is something that happened organically for Ringwald. She met with

her pianist-producer Peter Smith in New York in 2004, and they started playing around

with music a few years later.

They formed a band with Clayton Cameron on drums, Allen Mezquida on alto saxophone,

Smith on piano and Trevor Ware on bass. Together, they felt they had a good rapport

and wanted a record of it.

"That was my initial desire," she says. "I didn't know what would become of it. But

one thing led to another and Concord Records wanted to release it."

On "Except Sometimes," Ringwald pays homage to the Great American Songbook and more,

performing songs such as "The Very Thought of You," "I'll Take Romance" and "I Get

Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)."

"These are just songs that I really loved to listen to -- adored for years," she

says. "But I also tried to pick songs that were more obscure. Whenever somebody does

an album of standards, it's always 'My Funny Valentine' or 'Embraceable You' or 'Skylark.'

I decided on songs not recorded so often. And with every song I sing, I have a personal

connection to it or really love the lyrics."

The album also includes her take on "Don't You (Forget About Me)," from "The Breakfast

Club," which she dedicates to the film's director, John Hughes. She says the song

is a metaphor for "who I was and who I am now."

-30-





-Bob Ringwald

www.ringwald.com

Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV

916/ 806-9551

"When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife."

-Prince Philip