Disciple of Ella on Willie Akins’ bandstand
By Roscoe Crenshaw
For the St. Louis American
For more than a decade, saxophonist Willie Akins’ quartets have packed crowds into Spruill’s Saturday Matinee. Though the members, including featured vocalists, have changed throughout the years, one constant – fueled by the master reedman – has been sterling, straight-ahead jazz.
In 2006, Chicago-born songstress Gloria Brand appeared on the bandstand and soon raised the already lofty set to new heights.
With impish smiles, a fine brown frame and a magnificent voice, the tall, provocative chanteuse entered, showcasing her love for the First Lady of Song. As she relates, “Most of all, I’m inspired by Ella Fitzgerald. She is by far the greatest singer that I have ever heard, because she has so many dimensions to her voice and her vocal capabilities.” Gloria adroitly delivered vehicle made famous by Ms. Fitzgerald, like “Shiny Stockings,” “How High the Moon” and “Mr. Paganini,” to the delight of the largely knowledgeable crowd.
After a few weeks of her seemingly inescapable Ella persona, Brand’s own brand began to slowly emerge, as evidenced by her rendering of the Etta James favorite “At Last” and the Jill Scott medium “Long Walk,” but the imprint of her late muse remains.
After visiting St. Louis and sitting in on her matinee a few times early last year, Brand relocated here in February. In November, her job as health program representative moved her again, this time to Jefferson City. Her fascination, presumably, for the entire musical experience – great players, adoring listeners and a tremendous learning opportunity – compels her to travel the 120 or so miles every weekend (weather permitting) to perform here.
Backtracking, Gloria recalls singing “secretly, in my closet” at about 7 or 8 years old. “I was always so afraid that what I heard, other people wouldn’t hear it.”
She remembered, “My father used to make me sing whenever he would go preach and I hated it,” because she was very shy. To hear this daughter of a strict Pentecostal minister singing with total command now, one would never suspect this.
At Chicago’s Lincoln Park High, an arts school, she began studying voice, both classical and jazz. She had to audition to attend the school for vocal music theory. When asked about any keyboard skills, she said with a smile, “I peck at the piano,” which is useful in her compositions.
She studied voice at Dorolyn Academy of Music in Oak Park, IL, from ages 14 to 18; though her family could not afford to pay, Dr. Dorothy Bounds allowed her to attend anyway. “She was very adamant about it,” Brand said. “She believed in me. She thought that I had an exquisite talent at a very young age.”
Brand earned a bachelor’s in communications from Columbia College in Chicago and an MS in Public Administration from De Paul University. She was already a public health buff and found her niche in that field through public administration and working in Chicago’s grass-roots community organizations. “In addition to singing,” she said, “public health is also becoming a passion of mine.”
A natural crowd pleaser, she inhabits each note and celebrates every phrase with lush tones and lucid diction, coloring her efforts with a genuine affection for songs and her audience. Along with the initial impetus of her father and Dr. Bounds, she said she was inspired by gospel greats from the ‘80s, such as Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Daryl Coley and the Clark Sisters.
Her extensive resume includes backing BeBe Winans, Yolanda Adams (DVD in 2005), Destiny’s Child’s Michelle Williams (CD in 2005), Hezekiah Walker (latest recording) and Smokey Norful (recording and year-long tour). Brand also shared the stage with hip-hop soul diva Mary J. Blige in 2004.
This gifted songstress is clearly not bound to one musical gene, yet decided in 2006 to sing jazz “just because I found that, based on other people’s observations, my voice had a distinct jazz component. No matter what type of music I sing, the jazz in me always bleeds through.”
Gloria Brand performs with the Willie Akins Quartet most Saturdays at Spruill’s International Catering, 2625 Stoddard at Jefferson from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Call (314)533-8050 for more information.