The lady sings what’s new

Delivering a master class in showmanship, Keisha Patterson left the audience at last weekend’s Jazz in the Gardens show lustily applauding. Her velvety smooth vocals throughout a six-song set, which included such perennial gems as Nancy Wilson’s How Glad I Am and Antônio Carlos Jobim’s One Note Samba, so entranced the audience that Patterson was greeted with effusive praise and a series of handshakes in the lobby of The Jamaica Pegasus hotel from earnest admirers after putting down the microphone.

“You need to come to Florida to do a cabaret event of your own,” a newly converted Jamerican woman and fan who had struck up a post-performance convo was overheard saying.

“Absolutely fantastic,” lauded noted trade unionist Danny Roberts as he patiently waited to speak immediately after.

Chic in a scarlet, asymmetric sequin dress for her jazz show date, Patterson was greeted with the kind of enthusiastic feedback that has become familiar both to her and the audiences of the long-running show.

“Jazz in the Gardens holds a special place in my heart as it was my very first jazz booking when I was 19 years old,” she shared of her enduring association.

“I remember going to the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival with a friend of mine and seeing Myrna Hague and Sonny Bradshaw and being in awe as they were jazz in Jamaica,” Patterson said.

Flush with memories of what would amount to a life-changing encounter, she recalled, “I met both of them that day, and they remembered me in Jamaica Musical Theatre Company shows as they would come backstage to congratulate the cast. I told Ms Hague [that] I would love to perform on a show. She told me I could be on Jazz in the Gardens and gave me Marjorie Whylie’s number and that she would expect a call.”

The ingénue pinched herself at the sudden turn of events.

“I went up to The University of the West Indies for rehearsals and recalled doing Cry Me A River. I felt such an honour as I’m sitting there looking on in amazement and thinking, ‘This is the great Marjorie Whylie accompanying little old me,’” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

The Big Show came a week after Patterson’s bold proposal to Hague, and her jazz debut stirs fond reminisces.

“I remember getting a white tuxedo satin dress made, and the show was broadcast on KLAS radio. One of my friends had recorded it and gave it to me. I had gotten flowers at the end of my performance. It was such a beautiful start to my jazz path in Jamaica. It’s one of the reasons why Jazz in the Gardens remains so special to me.”

The recent staging also saw singers Alex Welcome, Ophilia Samuels and Gem Myers, along with saxophonist and singer Richie Sax, grace the stage, while Fab 5 served as the backing band.

A SACRED, JOYOUS MEDIUM

For Patterson, jazz is at once a sacred and joyous medium.

“Jazz speaks about life, heartbreak, love, and not caring what people say,” she assessed.

It was her late father, insurance executive John Patterson, who gave the future chanteuse an early education in the music genre.

“He had this compilation album, The Fabulous Ladies of Jazz, which had Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald on it, and I would listen to that album constantly. Those were the days you would write lyrics you heard and try to sing them back. I never knew when I would get the opportunity to sing them, so when jazz shows would happen, I ended up going to all of them, hoping that I could get a break someday,” she recounted.

With that aspiration long crossed off her wishlist – some two decades later – the songstress is treading new creative waters as a songwriter for an upcoming EP.

Anchor recording studio has been ground zero of late, where Patterson has been putting in time laying down tracks. While she concedes that there are “a few original jazz-inspired songs, it’s more ska and reggae that I am recording because I feel reggae is my culture, and I found it easier to write songs in the reggae vein”.

The songwriting process, according to the songstress, has presented particular pleasure.

Given her formerly frenetic schedule of starring in multiple local Jambiz productions and touring the world as a backup singer for the late Irish pop and reggae star Sinéad O’Connor and reggae icon Freddie McGregor, Patterson said writing narratives for recording was a unique challenge at the time.

“Now that life has slowed down a bit, I find things are coming to me, and my mind has the time and is open,” she countered.

Songcraft has become a serious passion. “When I go walking in the mornings, I am hearing lyrics in my head all the time. I have to take out my phone and record what’s emanating from within. I am writing a lot and getting melodies, too. Sometimes I am sleeping and even hearing melodies. It’s so crazy but absolutely amazing,” detailed the multihyphenate who has put her acting and dancing talents on pause.

While the work-in-progress will largely be a solo project and is the follow-up to her 2008 reggae-jazz debut, Patterson has collaborations she would love to manifest.

“Shirley Bassey, for sure!” she exclaimed. “She’s still there singing and is 89 now. She was one of my biggest international influences. For me to do something with her would be a dream come true.”

Then there’s Stevie Wonder and Marcia Griffiths.

“Stevie is so magical. The way he turns a phrase both musically and lyrically. I would love to work with him. Also our Queen of Reggae, Marcia Griffiths. She’s vocally impressive and on another level,” she said.

FRESH PHASE

As her career enters a fresh phase, Patterson is unbothered about ageism and sexism in a youth-obsessed culture. Asked her thoughts on pop royalty Madonna facing down critics debating her currency as a 67-year-old woman – against the backdrop of last month’s release of her 15th studio album – Patterson waves off negative connotations.

“I lift my hat to Madonna. She is a pure artist. As long as you feel you can still do it, throw caution to the wind, naysayers be damned,” said Patterson, who is a generation younger than the Queen of Pop. “Madonna is still doing it, and I love it. I hope that if my life is spared and I am at that age, I will have confidence and still put myself out there. That’s the thing – you might have the confidence but keep procrastinating and not do it.”

What Patterson is doing is diligent studio sessions, with a view to dropping her EP before year-end.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com