MUSIC The ladies who sing from the back

By DEITRA FARR

The 2013 film 20 Feet From Stardom tells the stories of background singers who’ve supported stars such as the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Ray Charles, and Donna Summer. The movie, which won the best documentary Oscar the following year, focuses mostly on singers based in Los Angeles and to a lesser degree New York, among them Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, and Mable John.

The movie couldn’t include every backup singer, of course, but it leaves out Detroit’s legendary Andantes, who appeared on an estimated 20,000 recordings. Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps sang background on countless Motown sessions throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Sometimes Diana Ross would go into the studio with the Andantes instead of the Supremes: when you listen to the 1968 single “Love

Child” (and four other songs on the album of the same name), you’re listening to Diana Ross and the Andantes. And in Philadelphia in the 1970s, the Sweethearts of Sigma—Carla Benson, Evette Benton, and Barbara Ingram— sang background vocals for the likes of the Spinners, the O’Jays, Billy Paul, the Stylistics, and Patti LaBelle.

Chicago background singers didn’t make it into 20 Feet From Stardom either. I talked to five of them for this piece, all of whom work mostly in soul, blues, R&B, jazz, and gospel.

I’ll let them speak for themselves about their careers and describe their own experiences with the stars they’ve supported, but I do want to introduce them first.

Mae Koen feels most at home singing background vocals, but in recent years she’s also been hired as a soloist. She’s a member of such groups as Nadima (with Nanette Frank and Diane Madison) and VocalPoynt, and in her day job she works for the American Medical Association as a researcher and data processor.

Koen’s Nadima bandmate Nanette Frank has been called “one of Chicago’s jazz greats” by WGN Morning News . She’s well-known as a jazz vocalist, songwriter, vocal arranger, and producer. Her five-octave voice has been heard in advertising jingles for Coca-Cola and Crest, and she’s performed around the world, including gigs as far afield as Russia and Singapore.

Diane Madison, the third member of Nadima, is an in-demand background singer and soloist. She’s worked as a vocal coach, and she’s an adjunct faculty member at Harry S Truman College, where she teaches speech communications.

Whenever you mention Theresa Davis’s name, someone is bound to mention her most famous credit: “She used to sing with the Emotions.” Though she has a quiet demeanor, her soprano voice is amazing—it’s made her one of the most sought-after background singers alive.

Joan Collaso is an Emmy award winner with an international career—she won in 1988 as part of the cast for Precious Memories: Strolling 47th Street . As a soloist, her voice embraces jazz, R&B, blues, and gospel. She appears singing in the 1997 movie Soul Food , and she’s also a featured vocalist on Ramsey Lewis’s 1989 album Urban Renewal . In 2011, Collaso founded the nonprofit Timeless Gifts, which runs a mentoring program for youth in the performing arts.

Meet the Chicago ladies who sing from the back.

Mae Koen

I’ve been in a whole lot of vocal groups through the years. I used to sing with this group called Reality. It was a five-piece, and we all got our roots in the Breadbasket/ Operation PUSH choir. We were mentored by Wanda Hutchinson of the Emotions. We met Leroy Hutson through Wanda. That’s how every thing evolved, because Leroy was looking for female background singers. He got me and Chavunduka Sevanhu. This was after he left the Impressions. He had a hit record called “So in Love With You.” So we toured the States with Leroy.

This was my first professional background job. He was with Curtom Records at the time, and Linda Cli ord was also at Curtom. When disco was real popular, I got a job singing with Linda. She had two real popular hits out, “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and “Runaway Love.” I did all of her live shows. Ellen Samuels and I did a lot of session work at Curtom Records.

Diane Madison, Theresa Davis, and I were some of the main background singers at Paul Serrano Studios. We did a lot of sessions there. We were real quick studies. I would always take the bottom. Theresa would take the top, and Diane would take the middle. When we’d sing with Nanette Frank, Nanette would take the top, Diane would take the middle, and I would take the bottom. Sometimes we would switch up, but most of the time we would stay with those parts in the section.

I got a job singing with Willie Dixon. I did a