There’s not a lot of call for a torch singer nowadays. The buxom broad belting out a tear jerker with her hair askew and her eye make-up melting under her tears has gone out of style.
She wears a sparkly dress and enhances herself with scarves, fans, and feathers. She works her way through the hundreds of standard tunes available to her from so many years of practice. She has learned from them all: Julie, Ella, Bette, Barbra, Judy, Polly, Mel, Sarah, Frank, and Al… Names only a singer would know.
She keeps giving up show business, but the disease keeps reinfecting her. She craves the expression, the attention, the appreciation, of course. Who doesn’t love a full house? But she is content to entertain a handful of lingerers around the bar near closing time. She has a few fans who cluster around during her infrequent performances.
She has trouble remembering all the lyrics sometimes, but the melodies, the intonation, and rhythm are always pat. She has a fine ear and likes to dribble a scat phrase here and there. But the audiences go where the action is. They like to dance.
Early on in her career she was warned about this. “If you don’t play for dancers, you’ll never make a dime,” their music teacher told them in college.
He was right, she had never made a dime on her performances. Even if she was paid, which was never a given in the music business, she had to spend money on lessons, sessions, outfits, make-up, shoes, hair, accompanists, and promotion. She would be happy if she broke even, but art had its price.
She knew what her wheel house was. She was good at bringing up the emotion of a song and making the audience feel it, but people don’t like to be down in their cups drowning their sorrows all the time. They want to have fun. So, she scats an up tempo tune or sings the blues with the best of them. She has a fondness for the slow tunes, the ballads that tear your heart out.
Every time she sings a song she herself gets an emotional response. She feels the lyrics physically as she is singing them. She imagines the loneliness, the heartbreak, or the sorrow of the song, and interprets it. She can still put on a good show, but she doesn’t have the stamina to do a three hour gig anymore. Still, if you get the chance, you should check her out… before they’re all gone.
#TorchSinger
(First published 6/25/13)
