By Allison King
WINSTON-SALEM -
I was new in town, nearly fresh off the plane from Los
Angeles, and I knew nothing about the Triad or what it
had to offer musically.
One day, I drove over to Quaker
Village near Guilford
College and ventured into BB's Compact Discs to look around. On the counter, for
everyone to see, was a display of CDs from a woman named Melva
Houston, along with a big picture of her below the counter.
Soon afterward, I joined a band, and there was no place I
went that I didn't see her name.
Melva Houston, blues singer. Melva Houston, jazz diva. Melva
Houston, Melva Houston, Melva
Houston.
Jazz singer Melva Houston performs
a jazzy rendition of holiday music last week at The Speakeasy Jazz Club in Winston-Salem.
Who the heck was this woman? I found out six months later.
I slipped into the now-defunct Rayne Cellar, the hub of a
once-thriving jazz scene in Winston-Salem,
and there she was: Melva Houston. The place was
standing-room only, packed with people clearly there for a great time. I stood
in a dark corner and watched and listened.
Houston was
electric. She commanded her trio with a look or a wave, telling stories before
her songs, and enveloping the crowd in a familial, easy vibe. She sang smoky
jazz standards such as "Softly, As A Morning
Sunrise," and ripped into blues classics such as "Meet Me With Your
Black Drawers On."
I was floored. As a singer myself, I am, admittedly, really
critical. But that night, I sat there with my mouth hanging open. It wasn't any
one thing. It was the total package: her sultry voice, her ease and comfort on
stage, the way she completely engaged the audience.
People clearly loved the woman. They still do. So, it's no
wonder she draws crowds wherever she goes, whether it's a gig in Europe
or the New Year's Eve celebration this weekend at Speakeasy Jazz.
She has a commanding stage presence that's a mix of
inviting, down-home warmth laced with an unwavering authority. And that voice.
Her mellow alto is a God-given talent that helped her record
with Isaac Hayes and Wilson Pickett, tour with The Platters and make her
a celebrity in and around her adopted hometown of Mount
Airy.
"My style is variation of all of the jazz singers that
I've ever heard in my life, and because I've heard so many great vocalists, it
wasn't ever a matter of imitation but hearing the soulfulness and holding on to
that soul," she says. "I'm very much a deep soul-to-the-heart
singer."
And if people persist for more detail?
"Then I say, 'Shut up and listen.' "
• • •
One night, I was singing jazz standards at JP's, Janice
Price's old jazz club in downtown Winston-Salem,
with a jazz trio, and I saw Melva at the bar nursing
a cocktail. I could barely continue singing.
During the next break, I mustered the courage to say
"Hi," and 10 minutes later, we were chattin' it up like old
girlfriends. We talked about the local scene, how we employed the same
musicians — and did we ever gossip about folks!
Melva is a hoot to hang with —
funny, warm and a bit wicked, too.
As the years passed, I shared a bunch of gigs with her,
including jazz sets at local clubs, Earth Day festivals and fund-raisers for
the Women's Resource Center.
We even sang backup vocals for '80s pop diva Deniece
Williams at Raleigh's Alltell Pavilion on a very stormy night.
I'm not tooting my horn here. We've created a lot of musical
magic together, but my vocal style and approach is very different from hers.
Yet we mesh so well together, and to this day, I tell people that together
we're the sun (me) and the moon (her) on one stage.
I'm a little Streisand, Bonnie Raitt,
Aretha Franklin and Broadway; Melva is Sara Vaughan,
Billie Holiday and Mahalia Jackson.
Maybe it's because we come from two very different places.
I'm from New York and Los
Angeles; she hails from Memphis,
Tenn. But we agree that we're the sum of
our musical influences and experiences.
Melva grew up steeped in gospel,
blues, and jazz music. When she was 12, she started singing on WDIA, a local Memphis
radio station, and opened a show every Saturday morning with a group called the
Teen Towne Singers.
"That's where I learned all the jazz stuff I do
now," she says.
She later became a backup singer with the famed Stax Record label, where she recorded with luminary soul
and blues artists such as Isaac Hayes, Wilson Pickett, and Sam and Dave.
In 1988, she toured Spain
with The Platters, the group with the big doo-wop hits "Only You" and
"The Great Pretender" in the 1950s. After that introduction with The
Platters, Houston kept going back
across the Big Pond as a solo artist.
She performed in Germany,
The Netherlands and Switzerland,
and now she spends about a third of her year performing jazz, blues and gospel
concerts to sell-out crowds.
"I don't think of myself as a big star, but when I do
concerts (in Europe) they sell out," she says.
"Even the gospel concerts are sold out at 11 in the morning. I've been
blessed. It just has to be the music, the jazz. They support and uphold the
music so royally."
But not here in the United States?
"We are so complacent," she says. "We don't
support music here. The music they (European audiences) love there is the music
that we've always had and forgotten about. They do Negro spirituals in Germany,
and I can't find it in my own church. And jazz, blues, country. It means
something there. The past doesn't mean much here anymore."
Still, that hasn't stopped her from performing in the Triad.
And when she does, the people come. Why? It's something I realized 12 years ago
when I first saw her at Rayne Cellar: People can't get enough of her.
But I should tell you: It would do you good to catch her
before she returns to Europe in the spring. She's
thinking of taking time off next year to regroup. So, let that put a fire under
your feet to track her down.
That goes for me, too. Even though our musical lives have
diverged over the years and we don't see much of each other, maybe, just maybe
I'll get the opportunity to share the stage with her next year.
Just think. The sun and the moon — a musical eclipse. Right
here in the Triad.
Allison King is a freelance writer and award-winning singer
who has performed in and around the Triad for the past
12 years. Contact her at gigscene@triad.rr.com.
Melva Houston
Age: 56
Hometown: Memphis, Tenn.
Web site: www.melvahouston.com
Family: Husband, Thaxton; sister,
Lucille Williams
Why she moved to Mount
Airy: "In 1979, I'd started
working as a nursing/home assistant and in the meantime met my husband Thaxton. I moved to Mount
Airy to take care of his aunt and
never left."
Why she stays there: "I truly love to be able to come
away from the big city. And I really like to live in the country."
Her favorite song to sing: "I have no favorite songs.
Everything I sing is my favorite song."
Her desert island artists: Al Jarreau,
Stevie Wonder, Diane Krall,
Diane Reeves
Her favorite song: "So What The
Fuss" by Stevie Wonder, a tune with the line
"If we live in a democracy and you don't use your power to vote/Knowin' some would like to turn back the hands of
time/Shame on us"
What's in her CD player: "Jazz on the Road," a
two-CD compilation of jazz tunes that includes music by Duke Ellington, Fats
Waller, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie.
Music is … : "My life."
Posted: 12/30/05
Source: Go Triad
Return to: Black Music Archives