Melba
Moore… Still Standing
By Vin Taylor
Melba Moore, Icon, Diva, Actress, Songstress, Talent.
All of these don’t even come close to describing this Living Legend. Melba
Moore, as she has become know to us, was born Beatrice Melba Hill, to a then
single mom Gertrude Melba Smith, known to the R&B world as singer Bonnie
Davis.
Ms. Moore has had over seventy singles, nineteen albums,
made over fourteen compilations, appeared in numerous TV shows, movies, Broadway
shows, even voiced animated characters, and Ms. Moore isn’t stopping there. She
has a new Cd coming out in 2015 called,"Forever Moore", Check out her new single "Just Dance"
which is her first in more than twenty years. So where did we start the interview? At the beginning of course.
which is her first in more than twenty years. So where did we start the interview? At the beginning of course.
WTLE: “Your mother was a singer, your father a
saxophonist, your step father a pianist. What was it like growing up around so
much music?”
MM: “My natural father never married my mother, so I
didn’t really have a relationship with him. I found out that he was a very
famous musician… When my mother married my stepfather who is also a musician…
who still plays at ninety eight… they pay him to still play… he’s amazing… that’s
when the real songs, passion and influence of music came into my life. I was
about nine years old at that time. My
stepfather had been married before, so he had a son and a daughter… He was a
piano player so he made us all take piano lessons… and that was the beginning
of really starting to get enmeshed in music and having it be the center of our
lives.”
WTLE: “You were born in New York. Grew up in Harlem,
and then at age 9 or 10 moved to Newark New Jersey. Later you went to The High
School for Performing Arts in Newark where you studied piano and voice, and
then you went on to Montclair State College in New Jersey, and received a bachelor's
degree in music education. For a while you became a music teacher, but you
really wanted to perform, is that true?”
MM: “That’s true, yes… It was in my blood by then, of
course… I just seemed to really focus… on voice. I played piano, but I was
really better at singing.”
WTLE: “You sang with Ashford & Simpson, Dionne
Warwick and Aretha Franklin. What was that experience like?”
MM: “We were colleagues and when I stopped teaching
school, my stepdad tried to get me into the industry. I just inadvertently met
Valerie Simpson. At the time she was singing back up… She ushered me into the
industry as a back up singer with her… We did all the top dates, so we sang
behind Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, we sang behind everybody.”
WTLE: “During a recording session back in 1967 you
met Galt McDermott, composer of the musical Hair
and he asked you to join the cast?”
MM: “He’s a keyboardist. So he was doing his album of
the music of Hair that he had
composed and we were hired as back up singers on the date. When the date
finished, Galt, Jim Rado and Jerry Ragni who of course wrote the lyrics for all
the music and the book for Hair and he (Galt)… invited Valerie, myself and all
the rest of the singers to come down and audition for the director and the
producer, who was Tom O'Horgan at the time, if we wanted to be in the Broadway production
of Hair.”
WTLE: “…And then you replaced Diane Keaton?”
MM: “Eventually… I wound up auditioning for the part
and getting the lead, replacing Diane Keaton… To have been in the same shoes
with her is a great, great, great honor.”
WTLE: “You were the first African-American actress to
replace a white actress in a lead role on Broadway?”
MM: “That was an important thing to have happened,
period. Even if Diane hadn’t been who she became.”
WTLE: “A short time later in 1970, you were cast as
Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, opposite Cleavon Little, in my favorite musical Purlie, written by the late great Ossie
Davis. You had no acting training at the time. How did you get through that?”
MM: ”It was very… scary. It wasn’t too difficult
because the part seemed to be natural for me, but being on the stage, in front
of people, not really knowing… having no technical background… you always feel
like your not going to make it… You don’t think anybody wants you to be
yourself… You’re supposed to be acting.”
WTLE: “In 1981, you did the TV Movie Purlie, starring Robert Guillaume,
Sherman Hemsley, Linda Hopkins, Clarice Taylor, Suzzanne Douglas, Ted Ross.
Pauletta Pearson now Pauletta Washington (Denzel’s wife) and my friend Brenda
Braxton (Smokey Joe’s Café). What was that like reliving it all over again?”
MM: “I was just at Ruby Dee’s memorial service… she
was the original Lutiebelle (in Purlie Victorious)… My now ex husband… and I
were kind of forced to fill rolls to put it on tape… It was a video production…
I realized that we were ahead of our time… putting theatre pieces on tape… It
was just Déjà vu baby, but this time it wasn’t scary, it was just fun.”
WTLE: “You sang ‘Purlie”, “The Harder They Fall”, “I
Got Love”, my favorite “He Can Do It” with Novella Nelson. What was your
favorite song?”
MM: “I think my favorite song is Purlie… Because its hokey,
it kind of tells the story, it gives me a chance to hit the high notes… and
play the joyful, country, silly character. I still enjoy singing that. (starts
singing) ‘I love to sit and hear him
dream…’ It is so cute.” (we laughed).
WTLE: “In 1970 you received a Tony Award for Best
Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, a Theatre World Award, and a
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, but you really just wanted to be
a singer?”
MM: ”I wanted to be anything! I didn’t know that there
was any future or any thought about theatre or anything else for me. I mean
music was all we knew or cared about and it wasn’t musical! (deep laugh). I was
just really, really happy with being in music, and then having the extended aspect
of having theatre added to it… it was surprising… I didn’t know that it would
be part of my future ”
WTLE: “Wow. Then you received a Grammy nomination as
Best New Artist in 1971 for your debut album with Mercury Records I Got Love. Then you did Look What You're Doing To The Man 1971,
you did Melba Moore Live! in 1972. You became an ever present guest on
television, The Ed Sullivan Show, David Frost, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, The Carol
Burnett Show, my favorite The Flip Wilson Show, and thirteen appearances on
Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show and
then in the summer of 1972, you and actor Clifton Davis co-starred in your own
television series. What was that experience like?”
MM: “Once again, breaking new territory, developing
as an actress in a persona in the TV industry… with comedy that’s about our
afro centric culture as well as showbiz and contemporary life… there were no
guidelines… it was very difficult… we had to help come up with concepts…
especially comedy ideas and guests and stuff… we weren’t writers… it was very
strenuous and stressful. Plus, Clifton and I were a couple, we were trying to
have a love affair at the same time, (laugh) so it was very difficult, but I
gotta say very exciting. You don’t come into this industry to sit home and
watch TV! We had a very exciting time.”
WTLE: “Did he write Never Can Say Goodbye about you?”
MM: “I’m not sure if he wrote it for me or Michael
Jackson. He probably told me it was for me. (big laugh).
WTLE: “I want to get to your present day career, but
first, I want to ask you about a couple of things. So I want you to say the
first thing that comes to your mind. In 1974 you performed at The Apollo
Theatre…”
MM: “I’m not sure I remember Vinny. I have been there
so many times… I can remember thinking… please
don’t let it close before I can get on the stage!... Every time I’ve been
there it’s always been an honor… something special to me… I was there maybe
about a year ago and it was still very special to me… we had a special theme of
contemporary African American women… I think it was called the Sisterhood Experience. So now I… could be an example for younger
singers that we sang with… like Allison Williams, Monifah, Miki Howard, Melissa
Morgan… Many times I’ve been there it was a special theme… I probably remember
those better than the first time I performed there.”
WTLE: “OK. Now, Lost
in the Stars, opposite Brock Peters and Raymond St. Jacques. How was that?”
MM: “Once again, it was an extension of acting. It
was… classic… I was pleased to do that… a very sad movie… a quality piece.”
WTLE: “Timbuktu, with Eartha Kitt.”
MM: “Now that was a unique experience for a couple of
reasons. I had never worked with Geoffrey Holder before… He was a wonderful
dancer, choreographer. He designed the costumes and the sets. He was always like
a genie that popped out of the bottle honey. Which was bigger than life!... And
working opposite Eartha Kitt was like working opposite the Iconic Diva of the
age. She came back there with the tough girls like Pearl Bailey… They were very
strong, well skilled… and they made their own deals, they were good business women!
They were something to be around… they were a force!”
WTLE: “Appearing on The Love Boat.”
MM: “I’m just gonna chuckle right now, because they
were always enjoyable, fun, funny. The cast and directors and the people were
always sweet… I was just laughing till I laughed myself silly… I loved doing
it… Nothing scary about that… I had a good manager by that time, I had a good
structure in my life.”
WTLE: “Just A
Little Bit More with Freddie Jackson.”
MM: “Very exiting… It was my first duet… It was
interesting working on stage… coordinating costumes… you’re used to working as
a solo artist, he’s a solo artist and getting to know each other, doing
interviews together, it was a whole new learning experience, but the great
thing about myself and Freddie, I think that we are both just naturally joyful
types of people… We loved each other. It was always enjoyable though it might
have been a little awkward sometimes.”
WTLE: “You did what I would call the first We Are The World, when you performed on "Lift Every Voice and
Sing," which featured many well known artists such as Freddie Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha
Franklin, Jeffrey Osborne, Anita Baker, and Stephanie Mills among others. The
song was entered into the Congressional Record as the African American National Anthem. Was this a great moment for you?”
MM: “ABSOLUTLY! Yes, because it’s part of our African
American history, and one of the things that is unique and important about us
is we have had a very oppressive… depressive… suppressive existence. Trying to
be first class citizens. Trying to get our education. Trying not to be profiled;
trying not to be racially prejudice against… that struggle has made us a nation
within a nation, because we came here as slaves and everybody else came here a
immigrants... Every nation has a song that identifies them. We have the Star
Spangled Banner, but we had another struggle, and out of that struggle came Lift Every Voice And Sing, and what was
important to me was that many of us were not aware of that and so for me it was
a great moment to bring it to everybody’s attention.”
WTLE: “You toured in Michael
Matthews’s Gospel Play Mama I'm Sorry
and began to perform your one-woman musical autobiography, that went through a
few title changes that became Sweet Songs
of the Soul. Why did you settle on that title?
MM: “It’s now called Still Standing, The Melba Moore Story… it’s been evolving, I
haven’t really settled on anything, it may change again (we laugh). It’s a work
in progress.”
WTLE: “You have done so much in your life. TV, plays,
musicals, albums, the list goes on. I just heard Just Dance as well as What
Can I Do To Survive. What is the inspiration behind those songs?”
MM: “Well, they’re contemporary music, and I’m a
singer, so I have to have something out now, and I think it kind of represents
a good message for somebody in my stage of life and in the industry… the song
writer and the producer are the ones who came up with the inspiration… I just
said, Yeah that’s great, I think I could
sing that… Not too much techno… sounds natural… That’s important to me now
because it’s time to have something fresh out… you want to compete with the
market, but you don’t wanna jump on the band wagon… have your own identity… I
like to present something that makes you feel good and it’s happy... has a good
strong positive message… I think both of them do that.”
WTLE: “ You’re here, you’re still standing and I know
you will be standing for a long time, but how do you want people to remember
you?”
You can visit Melba Moore website http://www.melbamoore.com/ and follow her on twitter https://twitter.com/MelbaMoore1 for her latest music, videos and updates
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