THE QUEEN FROM QUEENS

by Stephen Harrison Images: Supplied

Sari Beth Schorr was born in Queens, New York, and now resides in Brooklyn New York. She has one of the finest blues voices that I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to, both live and in the studio. A voice that grabs you and pins you to the wall, as well as being silky smooth with the deliverance of an angel. I recently caught up with her at her home in Brooklyn via zoom to chat about touring, recording and everything in between.

Touring Complications

The world of touring has changed significantly over the last eighteen months or so, for obvious reasons, affecting all live performances and performers. Sari herself had to cancel her upcoming British tour at virtually the last moment, “We were kind of put in a corner for two months beforehand, it was looking pretty dismal, jumping over hurdles from one country to another, all of who had differing covid restrictions. We couldn’t take the chance of us getting grounded in any one country if god forbid, one of us got covid, it would have bankrupted the whole tour. I have to say that my record label did a magnificent job trying to make all the pieces fit, but there was differing information on the US website about what was happening in different European countries and I wasn’t prepared to put my band or the audience at risk for something that was beyond my control, it just would not have been fair to anyone’’.

New Music

Sari has almost completed her new album which will be available in the early part of next year, which will hopefully coincide with the UK tour dates that have been rearranged. “March,

I think will be here before we know it, so that seems like the perfect time to plan to be back in the UK with a whole arsenal of new music. I’ve given the record label (Manhattan Records) enough material to sift through. I don’t want to release an album of really dark songs, so I’ve been writing slightly differently than I usually do. The piano was my first instrument, so I’m a lot more comfortable writing on the piano, but switching to guitar steers me away from complicated chords and I’m much more simplistic, it gives me so much more inspiration. When I run out of ideas on the piano, then switch to the guitar it takes me somewhere else. My creativity finds a new direction. During lockdown I’ve not been as relaxed when I’m writing as I usually am, I’m used to having a room full of people to share ideas with’’.

We continued discussing the varying modes and platforms that music gets distributed on and by, coming to the same conclusion that a copy of an album on CD or a vinyl record is far superior in quality to listening to an album via a download. As an artist growing up in Queens, New York, Sari has been exposed to such a massive array of venues and bands of almost every genre known to man. Knowing from a personal point of view just how diverse and eclectic the New York music scene can be, we chatted about early influences and that light bulb moment of realizing what she wanted to do with her life. ‘’The first time I was able to buy my own records, I didn’t buy just one, I bought a stack, I saved up and bought a record player, I’m the oldest in my family so I didn’t have an older sibling to pass records down to me. I went to my local record store and instead of me buying a record here and there, the shop owner let me set up an account at the store. I bought everything from Led Zeppelin to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. I always wanted to be like Ella Fitzgerald, to sing like her. I used to practice her scat singing. My voice was always a little overpowering for the acoustic jazz bands that I wanted to join. When I started doing shows in New York, my family would come to watch me and say stuff like, ‘open up more, show them what you can do’, and I was like ‘yeah, maybe I should’, but you can’t do that in jazz bands. The power side of my voice, and the vast range of it, I didn’t perceive it in the same way as fine craftsmanship and intricate ways of projecting it. Then I started looking back at the people who influenced Sarah and Ella, and how they projected their voices differently, people like, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith. I realized that this was a home for my voice, that I didn’t have to hold back all the time. It was so much harder for them with all the racial and political crap that they had to go through, they were such tough women, Ma Rainey developed such inner strength, to be able to stick up for herself and fight against so much injustice in her life. They could connect with a higher calling and share their talent in such a way that they didn’t seem bitter’’.

Black Betty And The Dark Story

“The first blues artists that I gravitated towards were, Son House and Leadbelly, I’m a bit obsessive when I first get into something, I’m very focused, there are times when it feels a bit debilitating and myopic because I get so deep into something and so focused. In the beginning, I was trying to learn so much about Son House and Leadbelly all of their material and their context, where they were coming from. Black Betty and Where Did You Sleep Last Night were two of Leadbelly’s signature songs, people associate Black Betty with Leadbelly but it pre-dates Leadbelly as an ancient American folk song, sung by a variety of different artists. I’d started doing some of these songs at live shows, then I got asked to perform at The Leadbelly Festival

at Carnegie Hall’’.

Live shows, Eric Burdon and Buddy Guy

Performing songs such as Black Betty which has such a dark undertone, and understanding what the song is all about would be hard enough for any performer, but doing it live before a big audience at one of the world’s most iconic venues, Carnegie Hall, is another kettle of fish. Add to that, being on the same bill as blues stalwarts as Eric Burdon and Buddy Guy just adds to the pressure of singing a song as divisive as Black Betty. Sari takes up the story…

“I was really fortunate to be asked to perform at the Leadbelly Festival at Carnegie Hall right here in New York, I had a lot of songs on my mind, I was thinking seriously about doing Black Betty, but the performance for me almost never happened. The show was running way over and I was backstage, the union guys were telling the producers of the show, the show has to end now at exactly 11.00 pm. It didn’t look like I was going to get on until 11.10 pm, before me was Eric Burdon, and scheduled after me was Buddy Guy. It looked like the three of us were going to be wiped off the show, producers and the backstage guys were arguing, the Carnegie Hall staff eventually said, if you want to run it until midnight then that’s fine go ahead, but it’ll cost another $ 100,000 extra for the overtime… I couldn’t believe it when both sets of producers said, ok we’re running the show. So we all got on. A pivotal moment in my life. To interpret someone else’s song I wanted to do it justice, get it right because it’s such an important song (Black Betty)’’.

Iconic Venues

Having talked quite extensively about Carnegie Hall, I was interested to know, as I am with whomever I chat to, about where would they like to play live if given the opportunity. Having played the Leadbelly Festival, where else would be an iconic venue to play for Sari? “The Royal Albert Hall. I was lucky enough to see Diana Krall perform there a few years ago. It’s the reward for all of your efforts from the very beginning, from writing songs, putting them into a little book, saving them for a future opportunity to showcase them on an album or on at such an iconic venue as The Royal Albert Hall. These venues have a life of their own, from the artists that have played there. It’s the same for me having played the legendary CBGBs in New York where The Ramones played and Blondie played, it had such an energy about it and now it’s a goddamn clothing store, I cringe every time I walk past it. Sadly there are too many of these small clubs that gave bands a start on their journey that no longer exist’’.

With that, we said our goodbyes, with both of us looking forward to the release of the new album and the rescheduled tour dates for 2022. Sari can be assured of a great welcome back to the UK, proving to us all that she can always be referred to as ‘The Queen of the blues from Queens’.

www.sarischorr.com