It was such a privilege to be a part of a jazz workshop a number of years ago, working with musicians who were willing to share years of honed experience. While most of us were amateurs, all of the teachers were currently making commercial CDs or performing live all over the world. One man had played with such greats as Billie Holiday and Quincy Jones.
Each of us had worked for a week and was preparing to perform our song with skilled backup musicians. While enjoying myself immensely, it was slowly sinking in that I was about to sing alone in front of at least 250 people—something I had never done before.
When the concert night arrived, I was terrified, to put it mildly. I remember standing behind the stage with a few others thinking that I really couldn’t do this. One young man, who was going to sing after me, told me how nervous I looked. I thought, “You got that right.”
