Trying to keep up with Suede is somewhat like trying to keep up with the finger gymnastics that can be the piano accompaniment of a jazz song.
One day, she’s about to head out to sea to perform on an Alaskan cruise. From there, she’s going to Provincetown, Mass. for the 25th annual women’s conference that will attract 5,000 to 7,000 people.
Later this month, Sarasota gets her for one night only.
Jazz/pop/blues performer Suede will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 24, at Holley Hall at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center to benefit Diversity: The
Voices of Sarasota and Suncoast Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church. Tickets are on sale now—$50 for a limited number of VIP seats, $25 for general admission at Diversity Sarasota and Suncoast MCC. Tickets will be on sale at the door. Olivia Cruises has donated a one-week cruise for two, departing Feb. 28, 2010, to be auctioned at this event.
Though Suede’s stop will be brief, it’s not the first time the acclaimed musician has visited the city.
“It all started about five or six years ago when a fan met me on an Olivia Cruise and she asked me if I would come to Sarasota and I said, ‘Of course,’” said Suede from her home on Cape Cod. “I paired up with MCC church and I’ve been back about five or six times.”
Music was an early calling. She knew from childhood music was going to be her career—or professional tennis.
“It was so funny, because when I met Billy Jean King, who is one of my idols, I told her that I was either going to be a musician or a tennis player,” Suede said. “And she said, ‘I was either going to be a tennis player or a musician.’”
A native of New York, Suede began playing “bar gigs” as a teenager. Suede taught herself how to play guitar and piano, but began formal classical training in voice and trumpet, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree. She toured the Mid-Atlantic area of the country, playing clubs in the D.C. area, from Baltimore to Harrisburg, Pa. to Richmond, Va. and “everywhere in between” in her “trusty Toyota hatchback.”
“Twenty-six years ago, I took the leap and haven’t done anything else to pay the bills since,” Suede said. “Music is my passion, so I’m always working in some way.”
Suede will be performing songs from her latest album, Dangerous Mood. The album was recorded at Bennett Studios in New York City, owned by jazz legend Tony Bennett’s son, Dae. Suede personally picked the band members with whom she would record. Along with the new songs, Suede will perform favorites from her first three albums.
Suede’s work has been compared to a cross between Ella Fitzgerald, Bette Midler and Louis Armstrong. Suede said she grew up listening to Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday.
“Any artist is not wild about being compared to someone else,” Suede said, good-naturedly. “But it helps people to know what you’re like. If you like Diana Krall or Bette Midler, you might like what I do.”
Rev. Sherry Kennedy, pastor of Suncoast MCC, said Suede is one of her favorite performers to work with.
“She is very broadly community-minded,” Kennedy said. “She has a really big following here. I’ll be surprised if we don’t sell out the house.”
MCC will put its share of the money toward finishing a new church building. The prior church was lost to a tropical storm. In 2007, the congregation started fundraisers to erect a new building. The church is close to raising the $1.1 million it will take to finish its new digs.
“We lost about a year of what should have been building time because we were hitting snags around public water issues,” Kennedy said. “We’re on well water, and the county requires a fire-suppression system that has an independent tank. That’s $50,000 that wasn’t part of the original loan.”
Diversity: Voices of Sarasota will use its portion of the money for its general fund. The choir’s next performances are its holiday concerts, Dec. 5 and 6 at Holley Hall. The chorus started in 1997 as the Men’s Chorus, according to Philip Alexander, artistic director. In 2005, the women’s group was added. Last year, the two choirs were combined to form Diversity.
Suede, who is openly lesbian, is known to perform at fundraisers or political causes. Currently, she has focused on building a no-kill shelter on Cape Cod. Though she is “community minded” as Kennedy puts it, Suede said she tries not to be preachy.
“I was more political earlier in my career,” she said. “If there is something particular in the news, I may talk about it during my show. I do a lot of benefits for AIDS and women’s health. I did a lot of fundraisers for Obama in the LGBT community. But I usually don’t talk about politics in my show. Someone who bought a ticket to my show may not necessarily want to hear about it.”
