CELEBRITIES OF THE YEAR: FROM THE MOST BORING TO THE MOST TALENTED
MOST TALENTED CELEBRITIES
NAME: Mary Foster Conklin.
BIRTH NAME: Mary Foster Conklin. HEIGHT: 5’.3”.
NATIONALITY: American. BIRTH DATE: December 29, 1957. BIRTH
PLACE: New York City, New York. OCCUPATION: Vocalist.
HUSBAND: Glenn Bowen (construction grip, currently working on “War of
the Worlds”). FATHER: Edward Foster Conklin (cardiovascular thoracic
surgeon, retired). MOTHER: Carol Francis Wedum. FACTS:
Praised by The New York Times as “a highly creative singer whose style
blends cabaret and jazz so thoroughly as to defy any easy categorization.”
Her most recent recording, You’d Be Paradise, was released in September 2001
to critical acclaim, worldwide airplay and remains a jazz bestseller on
www.CDBaby.com. She is currently at work on a recording of all Matt Dennis
(composer of “Angel Eyes”) music, having recently performed a duo evening
in New York City and later in Santa Monica with Los Angeles vocalist Mark
Winkler entitled “Songs of Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup” – a tribute to two
of the very best composers of the West Coast Cool Jazz Movement of the
1950s.”. EDUCATION: Connecticut College, New London, CT (majored in
Theatre, Circle in the Square Professional Workshop, New York City, NY
post-graduate acting program). AWARDS: 1999 Manhattan Association of
Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Award for Jazz Vocalist, Her debut CD, Crazy Eyes,
was listed as one of the ten best CDs of 1998 by In Theatre Magazine, and
won the 1999 Bistro Award presented by Backstage Magazine for Outstanding
Recording. QUOTES: "..What
can I say about this type of music I live to sing? It is a mix of styles, by
composers living and dead, best experienced in a live venue. Because so much
of a performance evolves beyond the set roadmap, good jazz musicians will
never deliver quite the same show every night. One dreams of witnessing such
spontaneous moments of well-ordered chaos. That's always what attracted me
to this music, even before I started to work within the realm. That and the
element of risk...I
remember one of the first singing jobs I had. Instead of a set program, the
musicians were just playing standards, which they all knew. Of course I
quickly fell behind because, back then, I still didn't know that many. The
guys all shrugged and said, "Well, you should." And they were right.
Standards act as the common language, a foundation to build on -although I
also remember a wisecrack about the standards from a friend who works in the
Film Business - not a bad guy, actually. "Nice music," he said, "but it's
kind of like Latin.
I mean, doctors use it to write prescriptions, but what else is it good for?" Oh, I don't know. Latin had its day as the universal voice that kept most of Europe from falling apart during the Dark Ages. It's the root of all of the romance languages and sings down pretty sweetly, too. But I digress. ...Recordings are pale substitutes for the real thing, but that's part of the challenge when one ventures into the studio - to capture a few of the flashes of inspiration that are the stuff live music is made of. I've been blessed to work with a great bunch of instrumentalists this time around - all composers as well as players who killed me with their music and kept me laughing when the sessions would degenerate into who knew the best dirty jokes. It's my favorite combination. Musicians love to complain about how under-appreciated they are, yet they make music anyway. They inspire me to hone my craft and then go out and hear someone else when I have a night free. Life is sweeter when the Muse wins out." Continues on P.108