PORT TOWNSEND — Music streams through her veins.
Her father’s blues records, her mother’s gospel choir, the upright piano that followed the family from house to house: All of it set Dee Daniels to singing. She started out in the Sunshine Choir, a children’s group at her church, and went on to play piano and B-3 organ at the New Hope Baptist Church in Seattle’s Central District.
Daniels’ family moved to Seattle when she was 17, and she still considers the city home. Since living there, however, she spent years in Europe, then moved to Vancouver, B.C., her husband’s home.
Tonight, Daniels is back in Washington state and joining fellow jazz vocalist Charenée Wade for the opening concert in Jazz Port Townsend, the weekend full of performances at McCurdy Pavilion in Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way. The women will take the stage for the vocal showcase at
7:30 p.m.
Daniels revels in teaching as well as performing in Port Townsend’s jazz conference. This is her fourth time in the festival. Leading workshops “keeps me a well-rounded person,” Daniels says. “I’m always gathering information . . . always discovering new ways.”
She’s looking with great anticipation toward tonight. Daniels and Wade, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., making her first trip to Port Townsend, are just now meeting each other.
“I’ll do some songs, she’ll do some songs, and then we’ll do some together,” Daniels predicts, adding that in addition to a variety of jazz standards, she’ll offer songs written by herself.
Daniels also looks forward to meeting Sunny Wilkinson, another veteran jazz vocalist who’ll give a concert at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at McCurdy Pavilion. “Can’t get enough girl power,” Daniels adds.
When asked what she wants to give her audience, the singer doesn’t hesitate.
“There’s only one thing to give people. And that is L-O-V-E. I don’t have to think about anything; I just open myself and let it flow,” Daniels answers.
When teaching, she asks student vocalists: Why are you singing? Why do you put yourself in such a vulnerable position?
Each has his or her own reason. For Daniels, the most important one is “to be a catalyst, for love.”
Wade, too, uses the music to commune with her audience.
“I try to be focused on what I’m singing about, and staying in the moment,” she says.
Wade, who’s just 29, has been performing since she was a girl of 12 in New York City. She took formal lessons, but also “listened, and listened, and listened . . . to Sarah Vaughan, Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson and Dee Dee Bridgewater.”
Tonight, Wade will draw on her songbook of favorites such as Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” Thelonious Monk’s “Ruby, My Dear,” and her own arrangements of other standards.
“I love to swing. There’s really no getting around it,” Wade adds. “When somebody is really swinging, it just makes me happy.”
Wade is also a passionate teacher, a guide who hopes to help her students stay true to themselves.
“Whatever you love doing, do it,” she says. “Try not to bend to what others want you to be . . . and remember, you’re always learning something new.”
Wade then voiced her gratitude for this first visit to Jazz Port Townsend.
“I feel honored to be asked,” she says, “and to be passing on the music to the next generation.”
Tonight, Wade and Daniels will be joined on stage by pianist Benny Green, Christoph Luty on bass, Clarence Acox on drums and alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton.
Tickets to the “Vocal Mastery” concert are priced at $18, $28 and $35 depending on seat location. For details and reservations, phone 800-746-1982 or visit www.Centrum.org.
