By Bruce Klauber
Vocal artist Paula Johns is one of the most versatile, popular, in-demand, and musical singers performing today. Johns, who will bring her considerable talents to Gregory’s in Somers Point 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, is often billed as a jazz singer, but she is at home in virtually every genre of song.
Johns can belt out a Broadway tune a la Streisand, perform a heartfelt and swinging celebration of Ella Fitzgerald, then turn around and celebrate the memorable but musically complex compositions made famous by Dionne Warwick.
Through the years she’s listened to legendary jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and especially Carmen McRae, but she names the late Philadelphia vocalist Evelyn Simms as her mentor.
“I looked up to her,” Johns says. “I would go and hang on her every note. I learned a lot. Whether the band knew the tune or not, she’d just start snapping her fingers and you’d jump in. If the band didn’t know the tune, they were going to learn it. She was a very confident singer.”
Simms, who died in 2018, was a one-of-a-kind. Of Simms, fellow jazz singer Suzanne Cloud wrote: “She didn’t necessarily create a mood when she opened her mouth to sing; in a way, she helped audience members find their mood, discover what this particular moment in time was going to be.”
The jazz musicians who have accompanied Paula Johns through the years are the finest in this area or any area. For this performance, the season opener of drummer Tom Angello’s All Star Jazz Series, presented by the South Jersey Jazz Society, Johns will be backed by pianist Aaron Graves, bassist Andy Lalasis and drummer Angello. These players are all superb accompanists as well as inventive, swinging soloists.
Accompanying a singer, jazz or otherwise, is something of a lost art, especially when it applies to American popular song. “I look for an accompanist who pushes me musically, who knows songs and can hear and feel what I’m trying to do,” Johns explains. “I need someone who’s not afraid. When it’s time for the pianist to solo, go ahead and do it. I encourage that. But when it’s time for me to sing, please back me. Let me lead you, but in turn, I also like to be led without being pushed over the edge. I need someone who listens to what I’m trying to say. Find me and feel me and listen to me.”
Despite her considerable jazz credentials, she doesn’t like to label herself as a pop singer, a jazz singer or a Broadway singer. “If the song requires a fuller voice or a Broadway sound, okay,” she says. “As long as I enjoy it and the audiences enjoy it.”
Her critically acclaimed celebration of the music of Dionne Warwick is the perfect example of Johns’ versatility and musically open mind.
“I’m always thinking of what I’m going to do next,” she says. “I like to incorporate some of the music I was raised on. I was raised on classical music, but what I liked to listen to when my parents weren’t around was Easy 101 music like Dionne Warwick and Eydie Gormé. So I talked to my pianist, Dave Hartl, who’s also a fine orchestrator, and told him I wanted to do something that no one else was doing. We said ‘Dionne Warwick’ at the same time.
“These were difficult songs with a lot of changes in meter, and not the kind of tunes you just call out on a gig. That’s how it started. We tried not to copy what Burt Bacharach did, and I think it took us about two years to finish.”
The result, on CD and on stage, is simply superb. Johns captures the spirit of Warwick, but makes each song her own. She negotiates every musical challenge, like the changes in time signatures, tempo and key, seamlessly and with ease. One of the musicians who played for this show showed me the music. It was, as I recall, about 16 pages long.
On the immediate horizon is a tribute to the legendary jazz singer Nancy Wilson. “We’ve done some mini-versions of it,” says Johns. “But I’m working on making it an entire show. We’ll probably do a lot of it at Gregory’s. I’ve just been getting back to the old school in terms of listening, like Eydie Gormé, and I want to do a tribute to Shirley Bassey. She’s a belter and I always thought she was fun. My other tribute that I’ve already finished is a Lena Horne tribute.”
She’s a particular favorite of Jersey Shore audiences and has worked here often at venues like the Ocean City Library, Council Oaks Steak & Seafood Restaurant within the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino, the fondly-remembered Merion Inn in Cape May, and of course, Gregory’s. The Jersey Shore is a special place for Johns to sing.
“When I worked at the Merion Inn in Cape May with the late and great pianist, George Mesterhazy,” Johns remembers, “the audiences just kept growing and growing. I always felt like they really appreciated me, and I think it’s translated to any other place I’ve worked at down here. The audiences at the Jersey Shore are easy to fall in love with. They appreciate the Great American Songbook, and they keep bringing in their friends. They’re keeping it going. Whenever I’m at Gregory’s, we turn people away.”
Duke Ellington was once asked to describe an artist whose talents transcended labels and genres. “Beyond category” was the description he used. Beyond category. That’s Paula Johns.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
