I first went to Faith Winthrop for a voice lesson several years ago when Jacqui Naylor tipped me off to the great jazz singer who calls San Francisco home. Faith has performed around the globe, taught a whose-who of accomplished singers and actors, directed Glide Memorial Church’schoir, and is on the faculty at Mills and the Jazz School. Having sung professionally since 1953, Faith is truly a master at both singing and teaching singers. I tend to feel like a baby bird whose just learning to peep when I see her. And I only appreciate her prowess more the longer I know her. As she prepares for another round of performances and to launch a new website, Faith talked a bit about how it is to sing now and her approach to teaching.
Q You returned to performing 2009 after five years away from the stage. What’s changed for you?
FW: I wanted to feel more comfortable in my skin and enjoy the process of being onstage. I needed to do some more work on the interior. And being a new grandma helped as well.
FW: A lot of my choice has to do with what my intention is for the set in terms of taking people on a journey. I love finding songs I’ve never sung, but it’s also very inspiring to look back and find a song that I may have sang 40 years ago which has a totally different meaning to me now. Currently, I’m working on the Johnny Mercer Song “When the World Was Young (Ah, the Apple Trees)” which I sang 35 years ago. The meaning is far more poignant. Having lived through so much of my life, I can see the lyric with even more expressive intention and it comes from a more honest place.
FW: My songs come to me whole. I’m more of a lyricist than a composer but I’m working on that as well. I enjoy finding collaborators who can wed my lyric to a good melody. Barrett Lindsay Steiner has done some wonderful work with my songs. He’s also a great lyricist.
FW: I became the teacher I wish I’d had. When I was very young I studied with lots of charlatans. One had me put a pencil between my upper and lower jaw, gripping it as I sang. Another spoke on the phone for at least half of my lesson. And there was always the discrepancy about how a singer should breathe. I’ve always wanted to have all voice teachers meet at the Grand Canyon and have an understanding as to what the process really is.
Faith next performs at The Bliss Bar in San Francisco, September 19, 2010 at 4:30pm. Photo by Pat Johnson.
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
