QUEEN OF ARTS

Channeling Peggy Lee

ACCLAIMED CNY MUSICIAN TISH ONEY PENS TRIBUTE TO HER CHILDHOOD INSPIRATION By Jason Klaiber

Tish Oney had already In its 233 pages, Peggy Lee: As part of the “Peggy Lee who would continue to sing sung for years in A Century of Song takes a 100” global campaign, the book’s in the same style her entire life.” school and church magnifying glass to the titular release coincides with the In terms of the vocal stylings choirs, but it wasn’t until her vocalist’s recording processes centennial of the Grammy that became her signature, mother urged her to take at Capitol Records in addition Lifetime Achievement Award Lee was known as a “master sight of a televised Peggy Lee to her live performances, recipient’s year of birth. of subtlety,” Oney said. performance in the mid-1980s posthumous material and This past May, the month A passage in the recently that a dream emerged. contributions to the film that would have marked unveiled book mentions an

Oney, who was about 13 at industry. It also includes Lee’s hundredth birthday, early gig of Lee’s at The Doll the time, recalled the edited, interviews with Lee’s family Oney contributed to a panel House in Palm Springs, PBS-broadcasted concert members, friends and colleagues. discussion over Zoom California, where she managed being the first instance she had “I wanted to write a nonalongside singers Billie to quiet down a talkative witnessed of a woman fronting traditional nonfiction book Eilish, k.d. lang and the Black crowd by singing at a lower a jazz orchestra while calling that wasn’t really meant to Pumas’ Eric Burton as well and lower volume until they the tunes, introducing the band be a biography,” Oney said. as Lee’s granddaughter Holly started to lean in and listen. and addressing the audience. “It’s really much more about Foster Wells for the Grammy “She learned right then

“It was just kind of a new her music than it is about Museum’s At Home Series. that she had the power to experience for me to see that her as a person.” The Zoom chat found pull people in, but it wasn’t happening,” Oney said. the guests discussing by belting louder,” Oney said. “Peggy Lee provided one of Lee’s influence, “It was by getting softer my first pivotal memories of command of the stage and more intimate with a strong, capable woman. and sense of groove the audience.” She was captivating.” and swing. Amidst her research,

Now, after approximately According to Oney discovered Lee would a decade and a half of Oney, Lee set herself fill up notebooks with lists researching and writing, apart not only by of accessories she needed to Oney has released a book penning a slew of pack for tours, a record of the tracing Lee’s musical catalog hits but also by gowns she wore in various and development as a singer. co-writing her own cities and specificities like hand autobiographical gestures to employ onstage. Broadway show, Lee also planned out which spending time songs would sound best as a radio host, together in the form of medleys, supplying the used often to decrease the musical theme to amount of downtime and the Western drama applause breaks in her shows. Johnny Guitar John Chiodini, who wrote and lending her the book’s foreword, worked voice to characters as Peggy Lee’s guitarist and in the Disney film musical director throughout Lady and the Tramp. the 1980s. He recorded four The author also said that Lee albums with the departed adapted to the changing times songstress, the same number during her career, making sure Oney recorded with his trio’s to incorporate burgeoning help, all of them considered musical genres, recruit younger for Grammy Awards. musicians to fill out her band Oney’s 2019 album The Best as time went on and embrace Part contains three songs cothe work of contemporary written by Lee and Chiodini composers of the 1970s that were previously unheard: and later. “Most of All I Love You,” “She was a chameleon,” “I’ve Got a Brand New Baby” Oney said. “She wasn’t one and “I’ve Been Too Lonely for

Too Long.” Lee passed away in 2002, before she could record her own renditions.

Since starting her professional singing career in Syracuse at age 15, Oney has arranged 16 different touring shows for herself, including a tribute concert called the Peggy Lee Project.

From 1996 to 2004, she taught at Syracuse University as a vocal jazz director and voice professor.

A graduate of Jordan-Elbridge High School, she also headlined the Syracuse Jazz Fest and performed as a symphony soloist with Symphoria for the "2013 Holiday Pops" concerts on tour through Central New York, which culminated in a sold-out finale at the Oncenter's Crouse-Hinds Auditorium.

She has also instructed at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and at several universities in California and South Carolina, where she now resides.

“I’m very fortunate to be plugged into some great opportunities,” Oney said.

Peggy Lee: A Century of Song, published by Rowman & Littlefield, is available at rowman.com and anywhere that books are sold. SWM

Tish Oney received her bachelor of science from Cornell University and her master of music from Ithaca College before earning a doctor of musical arts from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She has written articles for All About Jazz, The Journal of Singing and other publications, and she is currently authoring another book for Rowman & Littlefield called “Jazz Voice: A Guide to Singing Pedagogy.”