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MP3 Suzie Grey - No Rockin' Chair
16 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, EASY LISTENING: Crooners/Vocals
Details:
A third generation, lifetime musician - her first performance was standing on a chair,
singing with her parents'' dance orchestra.
Suzie was all of two years old!
She had learned the words to their songs by then.
Before that she had made up her own words.
She still does!!
She learned the ukelele at six years, followed by violin, mandolin, zither, sax, piano lessons, dance lessons, with much input from her father and mother.
Her piano lessons came from several teachers.
Her father frequently brought home various instruments for
Suzie and her sister to experiment with.
Their dad had been a song and dance man in vaudeville,
played violin, taught, composed and played other instruments and had numerous other skills.
He was the leader of the dance orchestra
He Taught Suzie various whistling techniques as well.
Suzie''s mother was a singer, pianist and a dancer.
She was also an actress, poet, writer, fashion designer, school teacher and seamstress- to name a few more skills.
The family made music as a group almost daily.
Throughout her school years Suzie participated in
school and community music, vocal groups, concerts, other entertainments.
By junior high she formed a song & dance duo with one partner, then a vocal duo with another.
In high school she developed a girls'' trio,
writing the arrangements (Boswell Sisters style),
playing accompaniment & singing second soprano, (the difficult middle part).
She trained the girls and got the gigs.
They worked the radio stations, clubs, theaters, conventions
--- anyplace music was wanted.
From junior high on, she earned her spending money
singing, dancing and playing ukelele.
The "Great Depression" was in full force so
Suzie made a wise decision and majored in business in high school.
She minored in music & art and graduated at 17 with honors.
All during school Suzie had participated in
practically every play and musical event that happened,
including the high school elite "a cappela choir"
that took first place in the state.
She turned down a music scholarship to Drake University (Des Moines, IA) and another scholarship at the city''s leading business college. The next morning after graduation she secured a good job with one of the city''s best employers.
For eight years Suzie worked there in a number of different positions during the day and pursued a music career in the evenings and on weekends. She took additional classes & private lessons in voice, dance, music business & promotion.
When her older sister, her accompanist, graduated ahead of her, Suzie had great difficulty finding a pianist
as skillful at accompanying (an art in itself)
so she transferred her chord structures from ukelele & mandolin to the piano and developed a chord method of playing piano, singing melody and playing backup
-- and it worked!
At 25 she married her high school sweetheart,
who had gone on to college and earned an R.O.T.C. 2nd Lieutenancy, gone on active duty and was promoted to 1st lieutenant. In 4 months our country was at war.
A gypsy life ensued, having a daughter in KY, a son in
Iowa waiting out the war while her husband was overseas;
a daughter in Heidelberg, Germany,
with many posts and adventures in between.
Today Suzie is living in what she believes to be her 40th place, if she hasn''t overlooked any.
During the "Army Years," Suzie often entertained at the many parties; participated in Officers'' Wives Club activities & performances, sang & soloed in the Post Chapel Choirs and civilian churches when off post -
entertained at parties played at the officers clubs --- wherever.
One time at a private party she was met at the door with an accordian.
"All right, Suzie, we want to hear Tennesse Waltz.
Here''s an accordian, there''s a bedroom where you can practice --- and we''ll give you 20 minutes."
GULP!!
Suzie quickly determined the chords were in groups in the left hand; "Tennessee Waltz" is rather simple,
with not many chord changes, so she worked out the buttons,
had to remember to "push" & "pull" to get the thing to play, & when she heard "20 minutes are up,"
she went out & sang the melody & words,
played the accompaniment & GOT BY - Whew!!
But it was fun. An accordian takes concentration!
Shortly after her husband retired with 20 years in the army, Suzie went back to office work to help their children through college. Divorce followed. A better job came next & Suzie began developing her second music career.
After early retirement from business, she began playing clubs, piano bars, community outreach & singing in churches as she had during her lifetime.
She started her first job playing piano for church services at age 69.
Two more churches followed, until Suzie could no longer see the music, so she resigned, but returned occasionally, playing without music. Suzie had become legally blind.
At 83 she played her first gig with a big band.
She sang with the big bands during that era but did not play. As Suzie approached 85, she decided to give herself a gift & hired a producer to issue her first CD (all in four months time).
This CD is her first album. It is in celebration of her 85th birthday and presents a few excerpts from her journal of the human condition.
At 88 she''s working on her next album.
Suzie hopes you enjoy her whimsical, thoughtful, upbeat songs about laughter, hugs, climbing your own mountain and much more.
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