Arts & Entertainment
ON THE COVER
Come Hear The Music!
The JCC's Stephen Gottlieb Jewish MusicFest features 10 concerts
of every shape and sound — including Grammy-winner Melissa Manchester.
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
I
t all started with the jazzy, breezy,
elegant voice of Ella Fitzgerald. On her
classic Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George
and Ira Gershwin Song Book, Fitzgerald
performs everything from a jaunty number
like "They All Laughed" to the tender Our
Love Is Here To Stay." Melissa Manchester
was 5 years old when she first listened to
the songs, and she was enchanted.
"I heard the music and that was it:' she
said. "It was like a clear light that followed
from her voice, leading me to life'
Manchester, the Grammy Award-win-
ning singer and songwriter, will be among
the performers at the JCC's Stephen
Gottlieb Jewish MusicFest, which begins
Sunday, Feb. 22, and continues through
Sunday, March 8.
"The Stephen Gottlieb Jewish MusicFest
has very quickly become one of the pre-
miere Jewish music events in the coun-
try, having starred the likes of Noa, the
Klezmatics, David Broza and so much
more,' said JCC Executive Director Mark A.
Lit. "We are very proud that the Detroit JCC
presents this spectacular annual festival."
The event, which is chaired by Martin
W. Hollander and Linda Lee, and under
the direction of Elaine Schonberger, will
include a patron dessert reception in honor
of Elaine and Michael Serling following the
concert with Melissa Manchester.
Manchester was born and grew up in
New York, where her father was a bassoon-
ist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Her mother was a clothing designer who
founded her own firm.
The future songstress showed an early
love for words, publishing her first book
of poetry when she was 15. She graduated
from the High School of the Performing
Arts, where she studied theater, then
enrolled at New York University, where she
studied songwriting with Paul Simon.
Manchester began her musical career
singing and playing piano in Greenwich
Village clubs, where she met Bette Midler
and Barry Manilow. She became a back-up
singer for Midler, and soon after had her
first recording contract.
Since then, Manchester, 58, has enjoyed
a career that includes theater, film, TV and
music. She starred in the Andrew Lloyd
Webber musicals Song and Dance and
Music of the Night, co-starred with Midler
Melissa Manchester: "Songs have a mind of their own."
in the movie For the Boys and has written
music for films including Lady and the
Tramp 2 and The Great Mouse Detective.
Manchester, who won a 1982 Grammy
Award for her performance of "You Should
Hear How She Talks About You:' recently
released her 16th CD, When I Look Down
That Road.
These days, the singer is performing in
concert around the country and writing
songs. She both composes alone and in
collaboration, with inspiration coming
from virtually anywhere.
"Sometimes you can walk into a room
and start a conversation and that becomes
the muse out of which comes the music:'
Manchester said. "Other times, it will sud-
denly come from an idea you've had for 15
years. Songs have a mind of their own:'
Finding a new way to speak about
love (inarguably the most popular song
topic) is one of the challenges of writing,
Manchester said. Love is "urgent, endur-
ing and eternal:' and the songwriter must
express feelings in a few moments, in a
way that will seem fresh and will tell a
story that anyone can understand.
With a song, Manchester said, "you are
creating a world." And how that world
comes together is a matter of control: hard
work, skill and dedication, and a matter of
the unknown.
"When you begin, you have nothing but
a blank piece of paper;' said Manchester,
who observed her bat mitzvah celebra-
tion five years ago at the Stephen S. Wise
Temple in Los Angeles. Then at some
point that paper is filled with words of
tenderness and fear, passion that spins
and leaves you dizzy, hope for a world, for
safety and children and dreams fulfilled.
"It's mysterious; a real alchemy:' she said.
Then it becomes a hit, as is the case
with one of Manchester's most famous
songs, "Midnight Blue which she both
wrote and sang. "Midnight Blue" topped
the Billboard charts and was followed by
"Through the Eyes of Love" and "Don't Cry
Out Loud:' both written for Manchester
by her friends Carole Bayer Sager, Marvin
Hamlisch and the late Peter Allen.
"There's such longing in that song;'
Manchester says of "Midnight Blue." Every
audience for whom she performs wants to
hear it; and for many, the lyrics — asking
for a second chance because so much had
been good and could be that way again
— are true.
"It's unbelievably touching" when people
tell Manchester how much they love her
music. "I never take it for granted;' she said.
The "power that a song can have is
beyond belief:' she added. Song lyrics
"can have such an acute focus for some-
body you've never even met:' creating
an extraordinary binding between two
strangers. "Someone will say, 'I didn't
know anyone else ever felt this way; or 'I
decided not to kill myself because of that
song; or 'That song made me decide to get
married and have a baby; or 'It helped me
get through a jail sentence.'"
Manchester's language about music is
like a song: She speaks lyrically, freely and
invitingly. She's almost equally passionate
about her first love: words.
When not performing, Manchester
is often reading. She enjoys poetry by
Rabindrath Tagore,"the Shakespeare of
India"; and recent favorite novels include
Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night-time and Barry
Unsworth's Sacred Hunger.
She loves cooking, as well, and being
with her husband, Kevin DeReimer, who
also is her manager and co-producer. The
couple live in California.
"He's a deeply good person, and I'm awed
by the ideas he has had:' she said. "He's
smart and creative and not boring, except
when it comes to trying new restaurants?'
Just as Manchester inherited her con-
nection to music from her father, her own
daughter is a jazz musician and singer
with an a cappella group. "She also could
be a music producer:' Manchester said
of her daughter. "In fact, she could run a
nation with no problem:'
Her son, meanwhile, is "a very good
hummer," but has no interest in making a
living through music. But he did manage to
bring Manchester back to her own career.
"I took off 10 years to take care of my
kids:' she said. "Then one day my son
turned 16 and told me,`OK, we're good. You
can go back to your work.' And I did." ❑
Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing
specialist at the Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit.
For a complete schedule of the JCC's
Stephen Gottlieb Jewish MusicFest,
see page C8.
February 19 • 2009
C7