TERRY BLAINE Singer of jazz swings into town

Terry Blaine is often compared to Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Terry Blaine studied classical flute in college, sang backing vocals with pop act Frankie Valli & amp; the Four Seasons after graduation and moved from the Big Apple to Woodstock, N.Y., home to the rock concert festival that defined a generation.
None of it seems to add up to a career as a jazz and swing singer, but that's how it happened for Blaine.
"I just love doing this particular style of stuff," says Blaine, who will perform in a supper club-style show next month in the Grand Ballroom at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown.
Joining Blaine in Youngstown will be her longtime accompanist, pianist Mark Shane, and clarinetist Allan Vach & eacute;. The trio also will perform Sept. 7 at Nighttown, a jazz club in Cleveland Heights.
While some of her peers in the same genre prefer the music of the 1940s and beyond -- think Frank Sinatra and Charlie Parker -- Blaine's focus is on the classic jazz and swing period, from the late 1920s to 1940s. She made the transition from pop to swing about 20 years ago, when she met Shane and they discovered their mutual interest in this music.
Influences
Blaine understands when people compare her voice to Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Connie Boswell, because "those are certainly the people whose work I've been very influenced by," she said.
"These women were the ones who wrote the book on this style. It's hard not to appreciate them."
Asked what it means to swing as a vocalist, Blaine referred to the late Holiday's remarks about how the voice is another instrument in the band. "Swing has a certain balance, certain lightness to it," Blaine said. "It's very much being a part of what's going on behind you. ... For me, it's been a process of trusting more and learning to do less to get to that fundamental feeling, just letting it out."
Blaine and company also enjoy the freedom to sing the music in a way that's both reverent and personal.
"With the guys I work with, we love and appreciate the old stuff, but nobody's trying to re-create it exactly," she said.
"Somehow, we've been able to get a unique sound. It's true to the old but kind of brings it into the new, more modern setting."
Five CDs
Blaine and Shane have recorded five CDs. The first, "Whose Honey Are You?," was named one of the International Top 10 Recordings of 1995 by Jazz Journal magazine. The latest, "Lonesome Swallow," is getting air play on WSOM-AM 600 in Salem.
For the remainder of the year, Blaine will perform in everything from duos to septets. That keeps Blaine on her toes.
"The less people, in a way it's more intense," she said. When she's with Shane, who's also a Steinway artist, "we really have to listen to each other ... we're like a team. ... The bigger the band gets, the more I have to consider where I am placing myself."
She likes performing in a trio because Vach & eacute; is "an exciting soloist" and a "very intuitive player," she said.
Yes, this is music that people of a certain age know and love, but younger listeners are catching on, too.
"There's a certain freshness and aliveness to it now," Blaine said. "There's so much joy to this music. Your feet will tap, the corners of your mouth will turn up. ... A lot of what makes it attractive is that it's so upbeat."
shaulis@vindy.com