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Wesla Whitfield's artistic longevity reached audiences and people of all walks of life
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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