Cécile McLorin Salvant
speaker
63 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Cécile McLorin Salvant’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I always studied music alongside my other school activities.
Piano.
I guess I was playing classical, but I was not really playing much. I was not practicing. I had to be bribed every week with donuts to go to class, to go to piano class. I just didn't like it. But I did it for 15 years.
Singing... I... It's funny. I think singing for me is so social. I don't sing when I'm alone or I sing very rarely when I'm alone.
Not so much. Walking down the street? No, no, no. It's very social. It's very communicative. It's about being with other people and telling them a story or telling them a secret.
It was really my teacher at the music school, Jean-François Bonnel. I had sung for him a Sarah Vaughan song. He loved it. was adamant that I join the jazz class. I was probably the only native English speaker there. So maybe it gave me a little bit of an edge with singing these standards. And he was just like, I got us a gig. We're doing a show within like two months of me starting in his class.
And it was in a small jazz club. It was a tiny jazz club in Aix-en-Provence with like five people in the audience. But it was horrifying.
I sang It's Only a Paper Moon. I sang Body and Soul. I sang Lover Man. I sang You're Just Too Marvelous for Words. In my best and most intense Ella Fitzgerald impression mixed with some Sarah Vaughan.
I think as I go through the phase with whoever it is, I am trying to sing as best I can like them. I think that's what was happening. But I was failing. You can never really sing like someone.
The failing is becoming yourself, yeah. And it's interesting, like the singers that he had me listen to, Yes, there were those big ones, the famous ones. But what was more interesting was all of the music by people that are completely unknown or not celebrated enough. People like Lil Heart and Armstrong.
If you're doing a Lil Heart and Armstrong imitation, no one's going to really know because they don't know who she is, unfortunately. Right.
Oh, I would love to talk about this.
The lyric is attributed to this man named Robert Devereaux. The music is John Dowland. Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, who was Queen Elizabeth's, Elizabeth I's favorite or one of her favorites. And it's an interesting lyric because he talks about his desire and the desire can be read two ways as a desire for her or a desire for power.
And what happened to the Earl of Essex is that he was found out in a plot against her and was then killed. I mean, like executed by the queen for plotting against her. And the song basically, it's just everything is there.
Car radio, what? I was taking lute lessons years ago. I thought that I would maybe learn a little bit of lute just for fun. And this is like a very, this is like a classic. This is a standard classic. This is Don't Rain on My Parade.
He says, better a thousand times to die. Then for to live thus still tormented. Dear, but remember it was I who for thy sake did die contented. And he does die. It's crazy. Well, let's give it a go. Okay. Let's see if I remember.
Can she excuse my wrongs with virtue's cloak? Shall I call her good when she proves unkind? Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke? Must I praise the leaves when no fruit I find? No, nowhere shadows do for bodies stand. Thou mayst be abused if thy sight be dim. Cold love is like two words written on sand. or to bubbles which on the water swim?
Will thou be thus abused still, seeing that she will right thee never? If thou canst not overcome her will, thy love will be thus fruitless ever. Will thou be thus abused still, knowing that she will right thee never? No, but remember it was I who for thy sake did thy contented. Was I so base that I might not aspire unto those high joys which she holds from me?
As they are high, so high is my desire. If she this deny, what can granted be? If she will yield to that which reason is, It is reason's will that love should be just. Dear, make me happy still by granting this. Or cut off delays that if I die must. Better a thousand times to die than for to live the still tormented. Dear, but remember it was I who for thy sake did die.
did I contented better a thousand times to die than for to leave the still tormented dear but remember it was I who for thy sake did I contented
Showing 21–40 of 63 · page 2 of 4
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