Posted by Drew Kann | May 23, 2013 9:00 am

A highly successful TV journalist changed careers and is now making a name for herself in music. We meet Rondi Charleston on Chicago Tonight at 7:00 pm.

We spoke with Andrew Patner – a long-time friend of Charleston’s – and the classical music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and critic-at-large for 98.7 WFMT Radio Chicago, to learn more about her musical career.

How long have you known Rondi and followed her career?

I have known Rondi for probably about 52 years, because I’m 53 and she’s 55 I think. Our mothers knew each other when we were babies and her younger brother, Erik, who’s a professional percussionist, singer and pianist in New York City, was born two days before me. He and I were in the Chicago Children’s Choir together.

Their mom is a retired classical musician and soprano, and their dad was a teacher, but definitely a talented musician in his own right. They were from East Hyde Park, and went to Bret Harte Elementary and we went to the William H. Ray School in Hyde Park. We all went to Kenwood High School, and then Rondi transferred to Metro High School.

They were definitely a talented family, but there was nothing show-offish about them. There are birthday party pictures of us at ages 3, 4 and 5 as pirates and bunny rabbits, but as a girl, Rondi was the princess or ballet dancer.

Her career path is an interesting one: she was a student at Juilliard, seemingly on the fast track to a career in music, but then went on to enjoy a highly successful career as a journalist. Now, it’s all appears to have come full circle, with her more recent success as recording artist. Are there similarities between the careers?

I would say three careers, because popular singing and the opera singing that she was trained in at Juilliard are very different. The similarity in her approach to all of them is that she’s a very questing person – she wants to learn new things. We all know journalism is a place for people with curiosity. But now, she’s writing music and writing songs, a number of which are quite good. This is a woman who has always challenged herself. Her songs are about growth and change. To be writing songs is very different for someone trained in classical music, where you’re singing songs that have been handed down over the centuries. It’s very unique how she has taken something from one area of music and brought it over to another area.

How do you think her journalism background shapes her music?

I think it has added curiosity. I think if you asked her years ago, if she would be playing jazz or Latin music like she is today, I don’t think she would have said that was in the future. It’s just about learning new things. It’s the same thing with writing a story – you find the find the sources that really know a topic, and sometimes those are people you need to pry things out of. In that way, looking at things you didn’t know about before is all connected.

How would you describe her musical style and in particular, her voice?

Her voice is very rich, which I think is a legacy of her opera training. She’s very flexible too though. She can sing at all levels of volume and she’s very malleable. I think her voice is very attractive and inviting. She’s very, very strong with lyrics without sounding pedantic. The style, I would say a lot of it is a sort of mainstream jazz.

How has her music evolved in the years that you’ve followed her?

I think it’s less evolution and more shifting. I wouldn’t be surprised if she explores two or three other different styles in the coming years. I think she’s changed fields because of the curiosity that she has. I don’t want to say restlessness, because she goes deep into things. There’s always been a sort of formality with her in clarity and presentation, and I think that has to do with the intense training she received as a professional musician as a child.

Rondi has been quoted as saying, “I somehow see myself as an archaeologist, always digging for the truth behind the story, and it’s all about storytelling.” How is her knack for storytelling evidenced in her music?

That’s definitely a big drive for her. She made her first trip to Norway a few years ago and I think that was a major influence for her. On her newest album, she’s definitely looking back at her heritage and her life.

Please go to http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2013/05/23/rondi-charleston to see the original piece.

In as short a time as forty years it has become impossible to peg Patti Smith with a label. After writing several books, lecturing on Blake and Rimbaud, making love and art with legends (Sam Shepard, Bruce Springsteen, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Michael Stipe, Robert Mapplethorpe), hosting innumerable gallery openings of her paintings and photography, raising a family, collecting a long list of international honors, and recording some of the most timely and distinctive rock music in history the point is pretty mute. Now we have a new album, Banga (CBS/Sony Records) and a sold out two night stand at The Vic as this year’s offerings.

Those looking for Smith as a “punk goddess” may be put off by Banga’s maturity (Smith is sixty six), but the album focuses on her observations of our current times and her recent world travels and communicates them with quiet, articulation, and (gasp!!!) wistfulness. “Banga” and “Fuji-san” bring the noise but the meditative “Maria,” “April Fool,” and especially “This Is the Girl (a rumination on Amy Winehouse)” and “Amerigo” steal the album with lyricism and subtlety.
Naturally “This Is the Girl” is steeped in irony with one icon acknowledging someone who was destined to be viewed in the same light had she stuck around long enough. “This is the girl who crossed the line/this is the blood that turned into wine…,” Smith sings without a hint of melancholy, remorse, or anger. If that song is the closest to pop that Smith has ever recorded, “Ameriga” is far trickier, more obtuse, and takes some effort to get into. Starting as a spoken word piece the song quietly and adroitly blooms unexpectedly into a melodious current that literally pulls you out of your socks and into it’s universe.
If Banga has an abundance of lyricism and may feel like heady art, Smith’s blow out last week was full of joy, comedy, blunt fury, and outrage. On the first night the audience was well over forty and had obviously been with her since her debut in 1975. When Smith greeted them with, “Hello Chicago…the city of my birth!!!,” it was a clear indication that this was not just any show.

She was playful on the openers “Ain’t It Strange” and “Redondo Beach” but on “April Fool” and “Dancing Barefoot” Smith literally drugged the audience with her disarming allure. Pop historians and music critics may cherish her as a punk bard but the reality is that Smith can conjure an aural spell every bit as overpowering and karmic as anything Billie Holiday ever recorded.

Neil Young’s “It’s A Dream” was a lovely set up for “Pissing in a River” but “Because the Night,” one of the most compelling recordings ever had an unexpected measured softness to it. If that classic disappointed it hardly mattered; “Gloria”—all eight minutes of it—was where the lid came off and Smith and her band exploded with savage fury.

At the close of the song Smith launched into a fiery declaration of solidarity for Pussy Riot, the female punk collective that was arrested for subversion and hooliganism by the Soviets. For her encore she made subversion the holy word. “Rock and Roll Nigger” came charging out like the white heat of Hiroshima and Smith took the ugly ‘n’ word, owned it, and turned it into a badge of honor. “Outside of Society—that’s where I wanna be!!!,” she raged with spit spraying in all directions and guitarist Lenny Kaye ripping through the riff as if the fate of the western hemisphere depended on it. The irony of hearing the song now when we have an African American president in office is a little hard to miss. The inclusion of “Rock and Roll Nigger” was hardly a slice of punk rage or merely confrontational, this was political reality writ large.

If Smith’s observations on Banga seem to be occupied with the state of the here and now, Rondi Charleston’s perspective has often been toward the past. To be sure this is a woman who always seemed to know exactly where she was going and what she wanted (full disclosure; Charleston’s younger brother was my best friend in elementary school). After studying at Julliard for drama then switching to voice and collecting her BM and MM, Charleston switched her focus to journalism and nabbed a position with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Primetime Live. After snatching a couple of Emmys for her investigative work she married, started a family, and went back to one of her first loves, jazz. Now we have a new album, Signs of Life (Motema Records) and a recent homecoming at the Mayne Stage that felt like a slice of heaven.

If the company that Charleston surrounds herself on Signs of Life and onstage seemed almost overpowering in there talent (her band members have played with Celia Cruz, Wynton Marsalis, Shirley Horn, Tito Puente, and Pat Metheny at one time or another) the real head scratcher is the focus of some of her music. Rather than sing about some man that got away or the lush life, Charleston keeps coming back to the unknowable; the mechanics of time, history, memory, space, and destiny. I can’t think of another musician who could make these concepts the thread of four albums without sounding flaky but Charleston is hardly a flaky woman. Through her writing and vocals and the compelling craft of her band she takes what could be construed as abstract and makes it concrete, engaging, and playful.

“DNA” the album opener is the kind of tricky wordy delight that is so much fun to listen and sing to that you forget what its really about (think of “Beyond Belief” by Elvis Costello and you get the picture). The music swings with a rollicking and swank rhythm then Charleston opens her mouth and throws a loop by singing, “Sink my feet into the soil/Soak my skin in ancient oil…” and you get caught trying to figure out just where she is headed. “DNA” is like tumbling gently into an endless canyon of billowing silk and it’s so good that you have to go back and listen to it three or four times to appreciate the concepts and images behind the words. And that’s only the beginning for Signs of Life.

Charleston mentioned in her show that she is at heart an investigative journalist who not only wants the answers but to fully understand them. Of course she won’t get the answers to the questions that she asks on Signs of Life or even it’s predecessor Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Motema Records) but the real joy is in hearing her ask (sing). At the Mayne Stage, “Telescope” pirouetted between cold hard science and fluid mythology with Charleston wondering where exactly she fit in the universe. If HAL 2000 or Steve Jobs could not answer her question her rationale is that Copernicus or The Lady in the Lake very well could.
Her rip through Charlie Parker’s “Anthropology” gave her the opportunity to burn through the authors’ trademark bebop and chord changes with a chiffon draped elegance; in short she made it look easy. It was not only her finest moment onstage but her band’s as well with them stacking up a pile of breathtaking solos that were precise and economical. Her closer for the show, a cover of Bobby McFerrin’s “Freedom Is A Voice” translated from Zulu nearly upended the show. Charleston just couldn’t do a nice, tidy, polite version—that seems beyond her—instead turning it into an elegant rhythmic, chanting jam session.

Please visit http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Patti-Smith-Band-Rondi-Charleston/42882.html for the original piece.

But regarding her latest album Signs Of Life, acclaimed jazz chanteuse Rondi Charleston speaks like a geneticist. In fact, the centerpiece track of the album, which was released in March, is titled “DNA.”

“It’s one of the songs that’s particularly resonant, from having been an investigative reporter,” says Charleston, a Chicago native and Juilliard music grad, who also studied journalism at New York University, then worked as a producer with Diane Sawyer at ABC’s PrimeTime Live and contributed to stories that won Emmy and Peabody Awards.

“I’ve gone from an investigative reporter to investigative lyricist,” Charleston continues. “I’m exploring now through my lyrics, asking questions of myself and our collective existence, and trying to grapple with issues of who we are, and in the case of ‘DNA,’ investigating which part of us is predetermined by our genetic makeup and which is influenced by environment.”

“What’s fascinating,” she adds, “is that it’s both, of course, but if you really pay attention to what science is saying these days, you can have not only physical characteristics passed down but also character and personality traits. It’s almost as if DNA is the screenplay of our lives, and the more we understand about it, the more able we’ll be to handle the surprises and challenges that life throws our way.”

The song “DNA” also stands out in that besides writing the lyrics, Charleston co-wrote the music.

“It was very clear that it needed to be very primal blues-based,” she says of “DNA”’s music. “It was so organic to come at it from the blues perspective for so many reasons: Blues is connected to our roots, and our roots are connected to our DNA. No matter what nationality you are—African, Swedish, Italian, Chinese–it’s universal.”

Charleston, who, incidentally, is Scandinavian, also singles out the new album’s “The Wind Speaks,” for which she also wrote lyrics and music.

“It’s based on an experience I had in the Napa Valley with my husband,” she relates. “We took a magical hot air balloon ride one morning, and floating in the air and looking down at the spectacular countryside, I had an epiphany about climate change: I appreciated and evaluated the beauty of the earth, not from an airplane speeding by, but in slow motion from a balloon. The song evolved into addressing the issue of climate change.”

Both “DNA” and “The Wind Speaks” are part of Signs Of Life’s showcasing of Charleston’s growth as a songwriter.

“The exciting thing for me is that the original songs are based on personal life experiences,” she says, “and that they’re sparking a response from both critics and audiences. It’s a turning point for me, and very reassuring to know that the time and energy and devotion I’ve put into writing music and lyrics are actually resonating with people.”

She jokes: “Something’s really opened up in me in my old age, and I have a lot to say!”

Charleston’s past life in broadcast journalism also came into play in Signs Of Life’s closing cut “The Cave Knows,” the music for which runs over the closing credits of No Place On Earth, the award-winning documentary/reenactment of the 17-month survival of 38 Jews who were hiding out from the Nazis in a cave in the Ukraine.

“My former colleagues at ABC News are now brilliant documentarians,” says Charleston, referring to the film’s director Janet Tobias and producer Susan Barnett. “No Place On Earth tells the remarkable story of the will to survive, and the unbreakable human spirit that triumphs over such incredible evil.”

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch composed the music for “The Cave Knows.”

“He’s one of my musical heroes,” says Charleston. “I wasn’t born when the events took place, and couldn’t figure out how to approach the song when they asked me to write it. So I asked Fred, and he was thrilled. Working with him was a dream come true, and we figured out the perspective of personifying the cave and having it bear witness to what happened there.”

Charleston has been performing “The Cave Knows” at various holocaust museums, including the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, and No Place On Earth screenings—some with some of the survivors in attendance. At her album launch in New York at Joe’s Pub, she performed the song to the screening of the film’s trailer.

But she’s already at work on her next album.

“I’m writing songs,” she says, adding, “When you’re ready, you’re ready. My label, Motema Records, is extremely supportive and looking forward to it.”

Please click HERE to read the original piece.
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Andrew Patner of WFMU (Critical Thinking) talks with Chicago-native jazz vocalist Rondi Charleston about her new record Signs of Life (out now on Motéma), childhood and more.
Read the article here /  Listen here

Stunning cover art welcomes you to an equally stellar release from Rondi Charleston. Signs of Life is a marvelous look at the musical make up of one of the finest female vocalists across any genre of music. Honesty, passion and a genuine sense of musical integrity run through what is arguably Rondi Charleston’s most successful release to date. Intimate in presentation yet with a depth that goes past the heart and examines the human condition from the soul of a dynamic artist whose exponential growth since Who Knows Where The Time Goes is nothing short of amazing.

The A list ensemble cast includes guitarist and musical director Dave Stryker. Along with Stryker we find Brandon McCune ( Abbey Lincoln, Nnenna Freelon ) on piano, Ed Howard ( Shirley Horn, Pat Metheny ) on bass, Clarence Penn (Michael Brecker, Christian McBride ) on drums and Myra Casales ( Tito Puente, Celia Cruz ) on percussion. An added bonus includes featured soloists Gregoire Maret on harmonica and Ted Nash on tenor saxophone. “The Cave Knows” is a bonus track co-written with the brilliant Fred Hersch and composed for the closing credits of the soon to be release film No Place On Earth which has garnered numerous accolades from critics and contemporaries alike. The genesis of this composition is the true story of 38 Jews that survived living in a cave system that stretched 77 miles deep in the heart of the Ukraine and it is from deep inside the earth these brave souls survived for 17 months until the close of World War II. In a brief but enchanting conversation with Charleston at the JEN Convention held here in Louisville two years ago, Rondi Charleston reminded me of the importance of a critic to always address the “why” question be it good news or bad. Keeping this lesson in mind a key to the heartfelt presentation with Signs Of Life is the ease and natural ability that Charleston is able to harness whether she is delivering an original composition or reworking a classic such as “Footprints” from Wayne Shorter. There are similar artists in the tightly clustered pack of female vocalists that are as passionate about the world they live in and their responsibilities both as an individual and as an artist but most of these artists tend to venture into the abyss of the self indulgent when singing about politics, religion or their riff on the human condition. Signs Of Life is an open self portrait where Charleston avoids the self indulgent but manages to open her heart to reveal a wonderfully organic buffet of stories where the listener can pick and choose to their liking.

Other gems from Signs Of Life include “Spirit Voices” from Paul Simon and “Reflections” from Thelonious Monk. One particularly compelling Charleston original is “How The River Flows” which chronicles a near death experience while rafting with her family in Costa Rica and a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley which resulted in an eye opening experience of a world coming to grips with climate change. Rondi Charleston is emotionally invested in her craft as well as the world she lives in but presents her own life experience without the slightest bit of pretentiousness that trips up so many vocalists when attempting to tackle the hot topics of the day. While I personally try and keep my music and politics in separate compartments with my politics labeled “break glass in a case of emergency” there is that musical middle ground and innate gift that Charleston has to not only make the listener feel but to think.

All the stars were in perfect alignment for Signs Of Life. Rondi Charleston is a critically acclaimed and wildly successful artist and here she raises the bar for her contemporaries to follow.

Rondi Charleston is an expert at switching gears. At Juilliard she spent two years in the Drama Division (Group 9) before reaudtioning and enrolling in Vocal Arts, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1982 and 1983, respectively. After working as an opera singer for a few years, she decided to change course again and focus on jazz, but along the way she ended up becoming an award-winning television writer and producer. Journal editor-in-chief Susan Jackson squeezed in a phone interview with her during the week that her fifth solo CD, Signs of Life (Motema), was hitting the jazz radio charts and No Place on Earth, a documentary for which she performed on the soundtrack, was opening nationwide. Charleston talked about the artistic environment in which she grew up, with her father, a jazz-loving English professor who taught his kids to be passionate about language; her mother, a singer and teacher who specialized in contemporary music; her brother, Erik Charleston (M.S. ’85, percussionist); and later her stepfather, the esteemed 20th-century composer Ralph Shapey. She also talked about how her circuitous route to acclaim had ended up making a lot of sense.

Why did you make the switch at Juilliard from Drama to Vocal Arts?
I was in the Drama Division for two years, under Alan Schneider. I learned how to create an emotional connection to language, how to do Ibsen and Chekov, and how to become a storyteller, all of which has served me incredibly well. In Vocal Arts, I learned how to use the body, the breath, how to create resonance, and all sorts of essential technical things I still use today. So I have this very rich background. Juilliard has helped to create who I am today—I’m inventing new ways to use all these things I learned.

How did your move to journalism come about?
I sang professionally for a few years [after Juilliard] in bread-and-butter opera roles, but I was feeling a little hemmed in by the repertoire. I’d always wanted to be Aida, but I’m petite, and that wasn’t going to happen; it was clear that I was always going to be the maid, not the countess. I realized I needed to broaden my horizons artistically. I adored Charles Kuralt, and I started investigating the possibility of becoming a cultural reporter. I went to N.Y.U.’s journalism school, and while I was there, I won an award for a story unrelated to the arts, about Metro-North covering up the cause of a train crash. On the basis of that, Diane Sawyer hired me to work for her at ABC, and over the next few years we won an Emmy and a Peabody.

And then you went back to singing?
While I was working for Diane, I’d study jazz during my lunch breaks, and at night I started singing in small clubs in the Village. One night, Diane came to hear me and she said, ‘You know Rondi, I love working with you, but you’re really good at this.’ And that kind of gave me a green light to pursue singing.

Do you ever have regrets about your excursion into journalism?
I don’t. My worldview broadened considerably, and that has led me to writing some pretty interesting songs I might not have had I not had this experience of covering world events. I learned how to write and stick to a story line and not get distracted by unnecessary details. And journalism also made me a more well-rounded performer. Sometimes at Juilliard, your focus can get so narrow that you lose the big picture of why we need music in this world and that the point of making music is to create harmony between different cultures and religions and warring factions. The thing that holds music and journalism together for me is the constant search for the truth of things. I’m sort of like an archaeologist—no matter what the subject, whether it’s something being covered up in an investigative story or some secret meaning hidden in a song, I believe that if you dig deep and ask enough questions, you’ll discover one little kernel of truth. And that’s what excites me, sharing the excavation process with my listeners.

Do you think Juilliard has changed much since you were here?
If there had been a Jazz department when I was at Juilliard, I would’ve been in heaven! And the Vocal Arts department is more vibrant today than ever. I saw the production of Così fan tutte that Juilliard did with the Met last fall, and I was blown away by how these artists are synthesizing text and music—that’s what it’s all about. I think the level of training has really evolved and kept up with the times so that what you’re seeing now are singers who can not only act in a natural and believable way but are also truly invested in the text, not just the music.

Do you have any words of wisdom for today’s students?
Think in terms of creating your own career. Think like an entrepreneur—you can’t sit around waiting for the phone to ring. You’ve got to think in terms of collaboration and creating opportunities.

Do you think being an entrepreneur and an artist are compatible?
When I say entrepreneur, I really mean in terms of thinking—you have to be constantly thinking of new ways to expand artistic horizons in terms of collaborating with other artists, creating projects that are fresh and relevant, daring to draw outside the lines, and daring to think outside the box. When I was singing opera, all I could do was audition for certain roles, and I didn’t have much freedom to express myself artistically. So I had to find a way to make that happen. You have to take charge of your own career, not wait for other people to do it for you. Keep your curiosity alive and experience life—and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

You can also check it out here!

With Signs Of Life, singer Rondi Charleston breathes new life into jazz classics and shares highly personal yet universal reflections on life. During Women’s History Month we are focusing on women of jazz and blues past and present. Rondi Charleston’s Signs Of Life is one of the most powerful and personal discs to be premiered this March.

In her notes, Rondi Charleston credits two important mentors: Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter. Following in their footsteps, Charleston writes songs that inspire us to consider the beauty and fragile nature of our world and songs that question our very genesis and future. Rondi also displays significant musical courage by covering Thelonious Monk’s “Reflections” with the John Hendricks lyrics first interpreted by Abbey Lincoln and Carmen McRae as well as a touching new lyric to Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints”. Abbey Lincoln was often quoted saying “unrequited love is a bore”.

There is nothing boring about Rondi Charleston’s Signs Of Life. It’s nothing new for us to premiere a singer-songwriter session on 89.1 Jazz, but Signs Of Life brings new energy, passion and deep thought to questions and concerns of life couched in flowing melodies. It was a very memorable premiere today.

To read the full story, click here or the link below.
http://wemu.org/post/rondi-charleston-shows-some-promising-signs-life