Alex Coolman
When Leslie Uggams was an 8-year-old girl shuffling through a tap routine
at The Apollo Theater in Harlem, her fellow performers were like family
to her.
They were older musicians, professionals who taught Uggams a great deal
about show biz. They also happened to be some of the biggest artists in
the industry: Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Louis Armstrong.
Uggams, who performs Thursday through Nov. 14 to open the Orange County
Performing Arts Center's Cabaret Club Series, says she was unaware that
she was associating with such musical heavyweights; she was too busy
worrying about the famously irascible Apollo crowd.
"My parents knew who they were, but I didn't have a clue," Uggams said.
If Uggams failed to realize she was rubbing elbows with celebrities, she
knew she was in the company of consummate professionals, and she payed
close attention to the lessons they taught on the stage.
"I watched from the wings," Uggams said. "I watched every show. You
absorb all of that when you watch somebody."
Acts at the the Apollo had to put on four shows a day, with an extra show
Sunday. If the quality of performances slipped, the audience erupted in
catcalls.
"They took no prisoners. You had to do your thing, otherwise you got
booed off the stage," Uggams recalled.
But the grueling pace of work at the Apollo had its advantages. It forced
the performers to learn to pace themselves, Uggams said, and it forced
them to develop a quality that is increasingly scarce in today's singers:
a distinct voice.
"Nowadays, everybody's trying to sound like somebody else," Uggams said.
"But there was only one Dionne Warwick, one Diana Ross, one Aretha
Franklin."
Uggams' current show pays tribute to her musical roots, revisiting works
like "A Tisket A Tasket" -- a nod to Fitzgerald, who recorded a famous
version of the tune -- and "Sunny Side of the Street," a song that
immediately evokes Armstrong.
"I just want [the audience] to know that I have this background, so I
talk about it a musical kind of way," Uggams said.
Uggams' delivery is typically spirited; critics rarely fail to comment on
the energy and professionalism she brings to her crooning. Its a sound
and an image that reflects her long years of musical education.
In Uggams' view, this education is something the music business today
fails to give young artists. Though it's less brutal than it was in the
heyday of the Apollo, it's also less nurturing to the voices and
personalities of performers.
