[Dixielandjazz] Rebecca Kilgore interviewed -- Victoria Times Colonist, January 7, 2015

[Robert Ringwald]

Portland Jazz Singer Has a Taste for Musical Rarities
by Adrian Chamberlain
Victoria Times Colonist, January 7, 2015
Surely you remember the song Because We’re Kids? It’s from the 1953 musical film
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
Doesn’t ring a bell? Don’t worry. In fact, it’s a pretty obscure number co-written
by none other than Dr. Seuss.
Portland jazz singer Rebecca Kilgore will serve up Because We’re Kids along with
other rarities at Hermann’s Jazz Club on Saturday.
Kilgore was quick to point out her gig here won’t be solely a promenade through musical
esoterica (“I don’t want to scare people away!”). She’ll also sing American songbook
standards. But expect some unexpected musical nuggets.
Kilgore is not a household name, but she is a highly respected vocalist. Michael
Feinstein, the noted American singer and pianist, deems Kilgore “one of the great
contemporary interpreters of American popular songs.” Her longtime musical partner,
pianist David Frishberg, says she’s his favourite collaborator, a “technically marvellous
singer.” The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and JazzTimes have also sung her
praises.
Like Feinstein, Kilgore is a revivalist. Because We’re Kids was composed by Frederick
Hollander with lyrics by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel also wrote the fantastical
screenplay for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, about a piano so large it takes 5,000
fingers to play it).
“It’s a really trippy movie,” Kilgore, 65, said from Portland this week. “It looks
like whoever designed the set was on acid.”
The audience at Hermann’s Jazz Club can look forward to other rarities, such as Control
Yourself by Andre Previn and It’s Nice Weather for Ducks from the 1959 Beat musical
The Nervous Set. Kilgore will be joined by pianist Randy Porter, bassist Tom Wakeling
and drummer Kelby MacNayr.
The singer, who has made more than 40 recordings and knows 1,000 tunes, says when
she unearths a great song she has never heard before, it’s a little bit like falling
in love.
“I have a stack that’s four inches high that I want to learn. These are all interesting,
obscure songs that I want to hold up to the light of day. I don’t want them to die
for lack of exposure.”
She has done her share of interesting projects. These include a 2011 collaboration
with tenor saxophonist Harry Allen titled Some Like It Hot: The Music of Marilyn
Monroe. When it comes to singers, Monroe isn’t the first name that pops to mind.
Yet Kilgore insists that the movie star, who died at age 36, inhabited her songs
in a special way.
“The more I listened to her, she really had swinging phrasing and she was really
into it, you could tell,” she said.
Originally from Massachusetts, Kilgore was a late bloomer, making her professional
debut as a singer at age 30. Her first musical love was folk music of the 1960s --
she adored Judy Collins and Joan Baez.
One day, she discovered a radio station that played oldies. For the first time, Kilgore
was exposed to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. “I just took a left turn,” she
said. “I thought, this is what I love.”
Kilgore taught herself jazz chords on the guitar and began singing standards in the
privacy of her living room. She moved to Portland and made friends with a woman who
sang in a jazz combo called Wholly Cats.
When the friend decided to quit, she encouraged Kilgore to audition. Despite misgivings
(“At first I was aghast because I wasn’t a professional”), Kilgore scored the gig,
a “big watershed moment in my life”.
She plans to continue her journey into vocal jazz -- and mining the genre for its
lost treasures.
“Absolutely,” Kilgore said with a chuckle. “I’ll never stop.”
-30-

-Bob Ringwald
Bob Ringwald Solo Piano, duo, Trio, Quartet
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/ 806-9551
Amateur (ham) Radio station K 6 Y B V

Why do I have to press one for English when you're just gonna transfer me to someone
I can't understand anyway?