Paula West
Answers Phil’s questions

Oct 1 | archive | subscribe

Paula West to Headline Horizons Foundation Gala 2007 Celebrate! She has been thrilling national and international audiences with her heartfelt renditions of well-known standards and unique interpretations of dynamic jazz songs. With a particular dusky soulfulness, West has captured the hearts of critics and audiences alike from coast to coast - from festivals to cabaret clubs - with just the lilt of her voice.

What type of music do you sing?
I sing mostly standards, jazz and what some people would call cabaret, but mostly standards. I’ve been doing a lot of Bob Dylan recently. At first you think about standards, you think of 30’s, 40’s, and maybe a little bit of the 50’s, when you look at a Bob Dylan song now, they’re over 40 years old now, so that’s a standard.

What influenced you?
I’ve always loved music so at least I had that initial exposure to it as a kid, to be exposed to classical music or opera while I was growing up. And maybe you don’t listen to it all the time, but you’ll go back to it if you ever appreciated it, you’ll go back to it as an adult probably. If you’re not a performer, everybody can’t be a performer, but you need those [phone ringing]…I wouldn’t say I had a mentor.

When you’re doing a gig that is a fundraiser, is the experience different for you or for the audience than other jazz performances?
It can depend on the audience and what’s going on that night. If you do something with a bunch of different people, depending on who was on before you, you know there be certain people that I wouldn’t want to follow.

Do you have any causes you care about community issues in San Francisco?
I definitely have viewpoints about certain things, I’m definitely left wing politically, I always have been, but I don’t really do that in a show. If it is, it’s something very subtle. I can definitely get a ways with a lot more in San Francisco.

What’s a subtle example?
If I do a song, maybe the background of the song has a political context to it and I’ll mention something about the background of the song. But it’s the truth, the truth about the song, so I’m not putting my own little viewpoint in, it’s just how that song came to be written or how a performer came to perform the song. The song itself is not necessarily political.

How are you connected with the HIV/AIDS cause?
Well, I don’t know who hasn’t been affected by AIDS, you know, of course especially if you’re getting close to a certain age, even now, it’s still with us after all this time. Of course I’ve known people, friends that have died.

Does that spark your charitable giving?
I don’t think so. I fell that if I can help, I feel fortunate, you know, I can sing and that’s the best way that I can help because I’m not wealthy or anything, I can’t give money and stuff, but I can give them myself. This is the best way I can give up myself for something. And I do have a lot of… I have a large LGBT following. A lot of gay men like this kind of music and appreciate it more than other people.

What is your gift to your audiences?
When I’m singing I just…it’s about telling a story of whatever this song is and hopefully connecting with them, making a connection with the audience. They may have liked a certain number that I sang more so than others, some song really resonated with them. It can be a funny song they really liked or it can be some ballad…”oh “I cried all through that” or “I was just laughing,” cause I like to take people through different moods in a set.

Do you think you help raise public awareness around HIV/AIDS?
I don’t know about that. I don’t know if I make someone more aware...I think that would have to go to the people that actually organize different benefits. I think, you know, the credit has to be given to them for that.

Do you think other people in the SF music industry are doing enough?
I don’t think I do enough, so I don’t think I can tell anybody else that more people should get involved. I wish I made more money so that I could give money to art education. I’m really sickened by the fact that kids aren’t exposed to certain types of music or they don’t know anything about art, theatre, or dance.

What nonprofits are helping?
Music in Schools. [mustcreate.org] I did something a musician several years ago where they’d go around to elementary schools and expose people to jazz and sponsored by the San Francisco Symphony. Music in schools is considered an afterthought. I feel like the arts is the thing that keeps us civilized, and I feel fortunate that I was exposed to art, particularly music -everyone in my family grew up playing a musical instrument - and I think that this kind of thing, performance, be it music or painting or just even going to, if you’re not a doer, but at least going to a museum and being able to expose yourself to these types of things are important. When I was growing up, every school had a band, every kid could learn how to play an instrument, and I think those are almost non-existent today.

How does art education as a kid, why is that important, how does that change their lives?
It’s, well it’s great if you find something you’re passionate about, and I feel fortunate that I was able to find a passion in my life, and if you’re not going to at least be a performer or a painter or singer or something you can at least, you know, appreciate these things, because I feel like those are the things that, you know, keep us being a human being.

Who is left out?
It’s all a matter of socio-economic status, and that affects people of all colors. I have done some things in the past where you would go to elementary schools with some other jazz musicians and you perform like, twice a week and maybe go to two schools a day and expose jazz to kids. And you try to keep it simple, or maybe you take some tune that they’re really familiar with and make it into a jazz standard.

Do you have a shameless plug? Of course, buy your tickets and come see me at Celebrate! It’s the 2007 Horizons Foundation Gala.