On November 13, The New York Pops will celebrate the groundbreaking work of great ladies of song ranging from Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald. Maestro Steven Reineke has once again convoked some of the greatest stars of stage and music, and will be joined onstage by Montego Glover, Sy Smith and the astonishing Capathia Jenkins. We had the opportunity to speak to Ms. Jenkins in the weeks leading to the performance. She was kind enough to explain how she perceives and deconstructs music, and spoke about her endless passion for creation.
I can not tell you how excited I am about Sophisticated Ladies with The New York Pops. Would it be possible for you to pick a song you love from each of the women you’ll be celebrating?
The Billie Holiday song in my wheelhouse is “God Bless the Child”, but I have to say one of my favorite of her songs which I’ve never sang is “Strange Fruit”, just because the subject matter is so dark and a part of our history, but what I love about that song is how she crafted something so beautiful and unusual, even in the way the song is structured, to talk about that subject matter. It’s always been one of those things that even when I saw Audra Mcdonald do it in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, as soon as it starts you go “ooh, here comes ‘Strange Fruit’”. It’s such an amazing song. I have more Billie favorites, but one of the things I love about her is not so much her voice necessarily, but her phrasing, and the honesty and soulfulness of her.
With Dinah, I’d pick “What a Difference a Day Makes”, but that’s probably everyone’s favorite. Ella, oh my god, almost anything! She has a great “Something’s Gotta Give”, I just love how she used her voice as an instrument in the band, she’d scat and sometimes I listen to those recordings and ask myself “how could she do that?”. I consider myself a pretty good singer with a pretty good ear, but scatting has never been my thing, so I’m just fascinated by scatting, and Ella is the queen. Sarah Vaughn, again, almost anything, but have you ever hear her version of “Lush Life”?
I have not.
Oh my god! You must. The thing about Sarah I love the most, is that in my career, whenever I’ve had to learn a standard, there’s always a Sarah recording that’s going to be my greatest resource because what she does typically is she sings the ink off the page. It’s what I love, it’s part of my DNA to learn a song note for note, and then you sorta make it your own. She’s been one of my teachers in that, I listen to her, figure out the melody and then she tries something different. She’s a master at that.
I love the fact that this show is celebrating women, both the legendary artists and the new generation of women keeping the flame alive. We need more shows like this!
Yeah, I’m with you on that. I have to really credit Steven Reineke and The New York Pops, I’ve worked with him before, and he really has his finger on the pulse of what’s a good program for the orchestra. The fact that he reached out to me and asked me to be a part of this, I was so appreciative and grateful, also just what you said, we three black women get to celebrate these icons that came before us and we stand on their shoulders.
I want to go back a decade and talk about Caroline, or Change, a show you were involved in from its inception, all the way to Broadway. What was that experience like?
It was extraordinary, we started at the Public Theatre, and when we first got together I think Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner had just done the first act, and I was taken by it immediately. When I auditioned, my agent told me I was auditioning for the radio, I asked what that meant and he said he had no idea but that I needed to go. So I auditioned, and I heard from Jeanine afterward that after I left George C. Wolf said “that’s your washing machine”. The first act was really interesting and I mean Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori are amazing, and just to have them with us all the time was great. By the time we came back for the second workshop, Jeanine had begun to write with our voices in her head for the second act, so that was like this real gift. She would ask me how things felt, and it was just an extraordinary process getting to put it all together. George C. Wolf is such a great leader, we’d sit around, do table reads, talk about these characters. It was so interesting to play an inanimate object who had a point of view, and trying to imbue these things with life and human emotion. It’s still the one thing young people ask me the most about, and then to get to take it to Broadway, and then to L.A. and San Francisco after it closed in NY. I think we all loved the show so much we just wanted to stay together a little bit longer.
Going through all your theatre credits, you’ve done The Civil War, Newsies and obviously Caroline, or Change, so would you say that shows with a social message are what interest you the most?
Huh, that’s interesting. You know, I would say that, it hasn’t necessarily been part of the reason why I chose to do those particular pieces. For me, from the very beginning of my career it’s been about creating roles, not wanting to cover or understudy, although I do have great respect for people who do that because I feel it requires a lot of discipline, it works a different muscle, but it wasn’t something I was interested in. So these parts came to me, I auditioned, got them, and once I was in them, I did my research and tried to help tell the story. If it’s a story about social commentary, like in Newsies for instance, I love my character was a shop owner, because African Americans we did that! I love Caroline in Caroline, or Change because she’s a character you peel like an onion and that’s how we are in real life. We are more than what you see walking down the street. It’s important to have social commentary be a part of the arts, art imitates life and life imitates art. But you know, I also love playing with Martin Short and his crazy stuff, and doing comedic turns is something I love as well.
Speaking of social issues, would you mind telling our readers how can they help Covenant House?
Sure, Covenant House is a shelter for young homeless people, in NY in particular what I’m excited about is we started a Broadway Sleepout, an annual event where Broadway performers, musicians and writers, for one night sleep out in the street in solidarity for our kids, to help raise money and awareness aroud this social problem. I am on the board of directors of Covenant House International, we have houses all over the country, as well as Canada and Central America. I would suggest your readers checked out CovenantHouse.org and just click around and see how you can get involved. There are so many opportunities to volunteer, and particularly with the holidays around the corner there are many things we need volunteers for, whether it’s gift-wrapping or Christmas tree trimming, or serving a meal to the youth. Also check out BroadwaySleepover.org and see if some of your favorite people are participating, maybe they can get involved and donate through them.
One last thing, what’s your favorite Sondheim song to perform and a Sondheim role you’d love to play.
Well here’s the thing, we just talked about that, I only want to create roles, so that’s a tricky question, so in this instance I hope Sondheim is writing something right now for a big black lady (laughs). I hope he’s writing it right now and he’s thinking about Capathia Jenkins...but oh my god, Sondheim music, Jesus...I have to say “Loving You”, “Losing My Mind”...and really I have to say I’d just do a greatest hits (laughs).
Join The New York Pops for Sophisticated Ladies on November 13. For tickets click here.
