Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Jonny Martin swings through a tune during a visit to Longview Last week. He'll be back in town Saturday, along with Valerie Day and Tom Grant. |
Swinging into Summer
Thursday, June 10, 2004 8:17 AM PDT
By Tom Paulu
Printable version
E-mail this articleA couple of former rock singers who found their calling crooning big-band numbers and a pioneer of the "smooth jazz" sound will perform here Saturday.
The "Swing into Summer" fund-raiser at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts will also involve an 18-piece big band and optional gourmet feast on the plaza outside the theater.
The featured performers are Valerie Day, who fronted the '80s pop band Nu Shooz; Johnny Martin, who switched from Mick Jagger to Frank Sinatra songs; and versatile singer/pianist Tom Grant. All are from Portland.
The Knights of Swing -- also known as the Woody Hite Big Band -- will back each of the featured performers in different segments, with a finale featuring all three.
Johnny Martin
Johnny Martin used to sing rock songs by groups like Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Rolling Stones.
Then, in 1996, he heard a Johnny Mercer tune, "Summer Wind." Hearing "The world was new beneath a blue umbrella sky" changed Martin's life forever.
Martin fell in love with Cole Porter. "Nat King Cole --- he's the man. Nat King Cole is one of my heroes," Martin said during a visit to Longview last week.
"They're simple songs and they can be done quietly, but the energy level is high," Martin said. "These songs can't get old -- they're already 60 years old."
After his musical epiphany, Martin quit his rock band, the Dumbwaiters, and began crooning in coffee houses. "I started with nothing," said Martin, now 44.
For one thing, he didn't know much about reading music. "If you're doing (the Rolling Stones song) 'Start Me Up,' it doesn't matter."
One night, somebody put a postage stamp in the tip jar rather than cash, and Martin questioned his direction in life.
But he gradually built up a following, with regular gigs at the Tillicum in Beaverton, Heathman Hotel in Portland and the Bacchus in Vancouver.
Martin was born in Longview but moved as an infant to Portland, where he's lived every since. He visited his birthplace last week to front a trio promoting the upcoming show.
During a gig at the Canterbury Park seniors' residence, Martin announced, "This is 'Mack the Knife.' You've got to snap your fingers."
"Mine don't snap," a white-haired woman replied.
Martin, who played guitar in his rock band days, now sometimes caresses a drum as he sings.
"I think the message of the music I'm doing is so important, with rap and all that," Martin said. "Plus, it's made in America.
"I'm basically going, 'love, love, love' for three hours" during full-length shows. Here, he'll do five songs. Not just any songs, but tunes by all-American jazz lyricists.
"People will say 'You sound great.' I'll say, "They're great songs."
Valerie Day
Like Martin, Valerie Day had her days in rock. In the mid-1980s, she fronted the Portland pop group Nu Shooz.
But even before that, Day was a jazz fan, she said in a phone interview. "I really started out listening to jazz in the '70s, when everyone was listening to the Grateful Dead."
These days, Day likes listening to "Sarah Vaughan, Ella, Peggy Lee -- the usual."
Last year, Day and the Woody Hite Big Band, which will play here Saturday, released an album of jazz standards called "Beginning to See the Light."
After several years of playing together in clubs, she and Grant are currently working on an album, which will range from old standards to Sting.
Day said she likes playing with Grant "because he never repeats himself."
Playing with a big band isn't all that different from "standing in front of a stack of Marshall amplifiers," Day said. "You're surfing in front of a big sound, a joyful sound. We need to hear a joyful sound in these times."
Tom Grant
Tom Grant was one of the originators of the smooth jazz genre of the 1980s.
Those mellow sounds aren't as much in demand these days, Grant said in a phone interview. "I'm playing more gigs of standard jazz with singers like Valerie," he said.
Grant's latest album, "Nice Work If You Can Get It," is the first straight jazz collection he's recorded. It's his 20th release.
Grant plays regularly around the Northwest, and came to the CTPA in 1999 for an event that heralded the theater's then-new 9-foot concert grand.
He's identified with the piano, but Grant is also a singer and will croon a few numbers Saturday, backed by the big band.
What: "Swing into Summer," a fund-raiser featuring pianist Tom Grant, singers Johnny Martin and Valerie Day and an 18-piece swing band.
When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Columbia Theatre.
Tickets: $20, $25 and $30 for the show only. Available at theater box office, 575-8499 or (888) 575-8499.
Tent party: At 6 p.m., a dinner of grilled steak and salmon and assorted other dishes, with a silent auction of donated items and other live entertainment, will be held on the plaza in front of the theater. The dinner and show cost $65.
Web site: www.columbiatheatre.com.
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