Perpetual Change — Jennifer Leitham

New music just in time for the holidays is always a welcome treat. Jennifer Leitham’s new project, Left Coast Story, managed to get a fall release so as to be available now for your gift giving needs. Jennifer will also be appearing at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center in New York City over Christmas week. This is one of the most prestigious gigs a jazz musician can ever get, and needless to say, Ms. Leitham shares her excitement about this opportunity (and the release of her new album) in our most extensive interview TGForum has ever done with her. (She’s been featured in this column back in November 2002 and March 2006, plus various updates.)

She has a lot to say about music as well as her transgender experience, so get comfortable and enjoy an enlightening conversation with an incredibly talented lady.

TGForum: You’re still working with your trio, correct? Josh Nelson, piano; Randy Drake, drums?

Jennifer: That’s been my regular trio for about the last four years. Randy, the drummer, has been playing with me since the late ‘80s. Josh came into the trio about 20 years.*

TGF: You worked with a guitarist on your album, Two For The Road.

Jennifer: That was with Jimmy Bruno. We go back to the ‘70s. I looked him up as soon as I moved here. We knew each other back in Philadelphia, we were about 19, 20 years old. We worked together with Tommy Tedesco.

TGF: You commented in another interview about not being able to work in orchestras because of being left handed…

Jennifer: I’m actually ambidextrous. If you look at orchestras, there’s a lot of synchronicity that goes on in orchestras. It’s partially visual. Also, if you’re not the leader in your section, you have to be able to follow the leader. So having someone going in the opposite direction all the time is very unsettling for people in the section who are trying to follow the leader. So much in music is tradition, and part of the tradition is that everyone plays from a certain side of the instrument.

Frankly, for a bass player, I think a little differently. Someone who is right handed has a better chance of progressing faster if they would play left handed. The right hand needs more strength, more agility, flexibility, and it does more physical work. If your right hand is developed, I think you progress faster if that hand is on the fingerboard. Most virtuosi on the string bass are left handed people playing right handed. So their strong hand is on the fingerboard. I’ve had to think a little outside the box. It’s not something I consciously thought off…it just felt good when I did it that way.

TGF: I saw on your web site that you teach. You’re the Faculty Studio Artist at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, California State University at Long Beach, correct?

Jennifer: Yes.

TGF: What exactly do you teach, and what level are your students, professionals? Non-professionals?

Jennifer: I teach the instrument first of all. I teach how to become proficient physically on the bass. At the same time, I teach improvisation , repertoire, general principles of how to be a jazz bass player. I’m thriving in my teaching practice. I also have a lot of private students. I take people of all levels, as long as they’re willing to do the work.

TGF: When did you start teaching?

Jennifer: Most self-employed, free-lance musicians teach. It’s just something that goes along with it. I studied privately with a teacher back in Philadelphia. I never got a degree…I just studied privately. But I’ve also taught. It’s all part of it. I like the idea that I’m conveying ideas that I learned one-on-one with someone who lived in a certain era. It’s just part of how music’s been taught for centuries.

TGF: Are your older solo albums (Leitham Up, 1989; The Southpaw, 1992; Lefty Leaps In, 1996; Live, 1997) still available?

Jennifer: They’re hard to find, but you can get them online. If the record company would work with me on issuing a compilation with new art work, I’d be happy to work with them. I’m proud of the music on all the CDs. (Note: These albums are under the name John Leitham)

TGF: Let’s talk a bit about the new release, Left Coast Story.

Jennifer: This was recorded with mostly the trio. I also do a lot of singing on this record. I’ve re-recorded one of my hit tunes, Studio City Stomp. I recorded it as a bluegrass, nugrass, jazz-meets-new age thing. It has a couple of guest musicians: John Chiodini plays dobro-mandolin, and Richard Greene, an amazing violinist, plays for me, and I sing on it.

Then I did a cover of an Indigo Girls tune, Ghost. I have those two guys playing on it as well as my trio, plus a couple of backing vocalists, Jane Brucker, and Ginger Berglund.

TGF: You’ve also recorded some of the tunes from West Side Story. You’d mentioned wanting to do something like this back in the interview we did in 2002.

Jennifer: I wrote the arrangements back in the ‘90s. I think it was ‘95 or ‘96. I was commissioned to do a small group treatment of West Side Story by the American Jazz Institute. I played concerts playing these arrangements way back then, and over the years people have asked, “When are you going to record the West Side Story stuff?”

Finances are always an issue for jazz musicians. I was more interested in putting my original music out there. It cost a lot of money to make a record and I didn’t want to use my own money to make that record. Left Coast Story came about because some one came forward and said you gotta record this stuff and they were willing to put their money where their mouth is. They paid for half the cost of making the record.

TGF: You’re billing the tunes on this record as your most requested live performances…

Jennifer: These are things that my trio has been playing for years. People always make requests. They request my tunes a lot, but they really love West Side Story. I’ve whittled it down to three tunes…when we play them live, we play them as a suite. When they’re live, they’re like one long performance piece.

TGF: Which songs?

Jennifer: Something’s Coming, which is like the overture. I turn it into a 16 bar blues. One Hand, One Heart, which is a real interesting tune that doesn’t get played a lot. It almost has a religious connotation to it. It takes place in the mock wedding scene, between Tony and Maria. We finish the medley with Somewhere, and I play it kind of as rock song. For a jazz trio, it’s as close to rock and roll as you’re gonna hear.

Originally, West Side Story was written about Jews and Catholics. (Editor’s Note: The 1961 film was about the feuding between an Anglo street gang and a Latino street gang.) In the modern day, I think it translates very well for the issues we face about marriage equality, and just the idea that there’s all this prejudice about two who love each other getting together, saying vows to each other, and making a lifetime commitment that’s somehow forbidden.

Some of this is played with almost anger. Somewhere, someday, we’re going to find equality. That’s kind of how I approach it. It’s like joyful anger. It’s like this is ineligible…get used to it.

TGF: You sing on this album. What’s your approach, as a transsexual, to singing in your female voice?

Jennifer: I don’t think about it at all. I sing in MY voice, whatever voice that is. I became a musician because I sing. I sang in my high school choir, and I had a very high voice when I was growing up. It never really changed all that much. I’ve always had a high singing voice.

TGF: Plan on doing more vocals in the future?

Jennifer: Oh yeah. I love singing. When you hear this record, you’ll hear that I’ve been working on it. I didn’t sing for close to 30 years. In the past, I went through the usual dysphoria that people go through. For a while when I was in rock and roll bands, back in the ‘70s, I was living a double life back then. It started to get out a little bit that I was displaying feminine mannerisms in my voice. Back in the ‘70s, that could be a death sentence if you were open about it. I stopped singing and bore down on my studies. I got out of rock and roll and started studying music in general. Eventually I fell into playing jazz. When I started singing again, I was worried that my voice might not be girly enough…

TGF: Would you ever do an entirely vocal record?

Jennifer: Sure, if we had the money. I’ve had a producer approach me about it, before I put out The Real Me, but I wanted it to be all my own music.

TGF: I found an interesting quote about you from the October 2006 Hollywood Reporter, in an article by Tony Gieske. “The music is sweeter now that Jennifer is not John. Surgery bring world of wonder.” Do you agree with this?

Jennifer: Oh yeah. The music certainly is. I feel much better, and I think I play better. I feel a need to express my own music a lot more.

TGF: Tell me about this upcoming gig in New York.

Jennifer: I’m playing at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in Lincoln Center. (December 22, 23, 24, 26, and 27). We’re playing the late set at 11 p.m. It’s an amazing booking for me. Dizzy’s club Coca Cola is probably the most prestigious jazz club in all of America. I’m just so excited about it. I’m sure I’m probably the first transgendered head liner.

TGF: How often does your status come up?

Jennifer: Quite often, actually. I wish it weren’t the case. I’m based in L.A. and I have a number of people who were familiar with me from my previous life. A lot of people have difficulty accepting me as I am. I hate to say that, but jazz is a very traditional art form. You would think it would be very creative and open minded…but I have a lot of fans. When we play, people really come out to hear us.

TGF: Any final thoughts?

Jennifer: Just a little note about decorum. I don’t mean to put people down, but I would appreciate it if people in the crossdressing community that want to come hear me play…the last thing I would ever do is for someone not to be brave and go out and be with people…but when you do, do the respect for me to dress for the occasion. Understand that if they’re coming to hear me in a jazz club, it’s gonna be a jazz club. It’s not a prom, it’s not going to be a dance club, it’s not going to be a bunch of open minded people who will accept you dressing like a man from the middle up and a woman from the bottom down. They’re not going to accept that. I don’t want to discourage people from coming to hear me play, but when you do, just remember the occasion, and remember that it reflects on me. Think about how you present yourself and how it affects my ability to work in the straight world.
It’s a monumental thing that I do get out to play these kind of gigs. I say this with love, because we all have to present ourselves as respectable.

I’m looking to expand outside of L.A., and I’ve ben recovering for a long time from my surgery, and I’m feeling great. I’m not as afraid as I was to put it out there. I’ve become a little more politically active. I want to be more open and reach a larger audience. I’m strong enough to do that now.

For more information on Jennifer Leitham, and to order CDs, please check out her website. Also, amazon.com has listings for available Leitham releases under both names. There is also information regarding Jennifer’s gig in New York at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola. Reminder—she is playing the LATE set.)

* Correction: Some of the information about Jennifer’s musicians was incorrect.  Josh Nelson, piano, has been playing with Jennifer for four years; drummer Randy Drake has worked with Jennifer on and off since the late ’80s.  Also, the composers of West Side Story are Leonard Beernstein and Jerome Robbins.

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment