MUSIC

As a solo singer, I do have two CDs to my credit. Nostalgia , a jazz album that did very well on the charts. My There’s Room for One More CD did very well too. I’ve been blessed to also have an international career as a jazz vocalist.

Diane Madison

Icome from a musical family. My mother sang, and my dad played piano. My brothers and sisters sang. My father was a huge jazz collector, so I came up in jazz. I started singing in grammar school. I was in the “Junior Supremes.” We were a singing group modeled after the Supremes. We had these outfits that were a pretty powder blue. They were suits with a jacket and a skirt to match, and we had powder-blue long-length gloves. There was three of us. We sang at school functions. It was so much fun.

When I started at Malcolm X College, I was in another group, and I started singing professionally. I sang lead and background in the groups I was in. I’ve been blessed to do both. Just working with people, working with other vocalists and musicians, people begin to know of your work. Then you find yourself working with a lot of major artists and being hired to perform on a lot of studio recordings.

I’ve recorded with Otis Clay, Tyrone Davis, Billy Branch, Big Time Sarah, Angela Bofill, Syl Johnson, Phil Perry, Terisa Gri n, the Dells, Billy Price, Stan Mosley, Malachi Thompson, Candi Staton, Eric Clapton, Mississippi Heat, Artie “Blues Boy” White, Willie Clayton, and more. It’s so many.

It was a blessing and an honor to work with Aretha Franklin. She was just a fantastic person. Working with her and talking with her was a phenomenal experience. I think I worked with her o and on for about 20 years. Her Chicago singers were Mae Koen, Billy Always, and myself. Many thanks to Billy Always for thinking of us to join him in singing with the Queen of Soul. I’m very very thankful to the Lord for blessing me to work with such an icon.

Otis Clay, I would call him my brother. We would have great conversations. A great artist and humanitarian. He really cared about people. Theresa Davis and I worked with Otis for many years. I worked with him like 17 years. I did a lot of Europe with him. Poland, Zurich, Lucerne, Cognac, Paris—France all over. We did Shanghai, China, and we did Japan. Of course we did the United States. I miss him so much.

It was wonderful working with Vesta [Williams]. She would always request me, Nanette Frank, and Mae Koen whenever she came to Chicago. It was wonderful working with Miki Howard.

We would work with Billy Price and recorded on several of his CDs. I think it was the guitar player on one of those sessions who got Theresa Davis and I to do the PBS rhythm and blues special. [Editor’s note: This refers to a 2002 episode of the WQED series American Soundtrack called “Rhythm, Love & Soul (My Music).” ] We sang background for Thelma Houston, Billy Paul, the Three Degrees, Carl Carlton, Lou Rawls, Jerry Butler, and Freda Payne. It was Theresa and I and the singer from the Andantes, Louvain Demps. You know the Andantes did all the background vocals for Motown.

Myself, Mae, Nanette, and Theresa have done studio work as a foursome with Tom Tom Washington. Theresa, Mae, and I have done lots of section work together. Now we have Nadima, which is Nanette, myself, and Mae. We’ve done a lot of section work together.

Lead vocal is great, but ensemble singing is a little more challenging. You have to concentrate. You have to remain within the structure. You have to listen. You have to listen to yourself, listen to the other person, and listen to the group as a whole. All of that works in concert as an ensemble singer. You have to blend. You have to have a great ear. It’s almost like a dinner table. You have di erent dishes. Everyone brings a di erent dish to the table. That’s my analogy.

Theresa Davis

My career officially started around 1968. I sang with a group called Our Ladies of Soul. We put out a song called “Let’s Groove Together.” It was a local hit, and we did some of the nightclubs around Chicago. I actually came out as a singer in church. I joined the choir, but I was painfully shy. But I had the opportunity to stretch out, and I was the choir’s lead singer. I was 15 and in high school.

I sang with the Emotions from 1970 to 1974. We went to Parker High School together. In fact, Sheila [Hutchinson] and I used to sing in the a cappella choir, right next to each other. Our voices were very similar, only mine was a little higher. At that time they were the Hutchinson Sunbeams gospel group. And because I sang in a church choir, we would bump into each other at di erent programs. So they