I fell in love with Phyllis Hyman when I was 16.” I had never sung in a choir or studied anything about music. I knew I could sing, but I didn’t know my voice so I struggled, and up to that point, all the singers I liked and attempted to emulate were sopranos like Olivia Newton John, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole and of course Miss Barbra Streisand. Then one day I heard Karen Carpenter and recognized a comfortability in singing songs in a lower register. I studied on my own, learning about singing, practicing harmony with my singer-friends Debra and Frances at school. I’d always get the bottom note or at best, the middle, and I didn’t feel like I could sing as well as the girls who sang the top. You were thought of as “less-than” as a singer if you couldn’t sing the higher notes. But one day I heard “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” by Phyllis Hyman and I was convinced, that wasn’t the case at all! And I immediately spent the rest of my allowance on her album!
I was elated. Here was an entire album of songs in my alto register, performed by this magnificently beautiful woman. I wore that thing out, and nearly drove my parents crazy! At such an impressionable age, Phyllis Hyman instantly became my idol, my role model of stage presence and poise. And then there was that beautiful, sultry, rich, alto voice, with perfect tone and depth. She sang with such emotion and I wanted to sound like her. I wanted to look and be like her.
And so… I knew when I recorded my second cd, “Back 2 Classic”, a compilation of jazz standards, that it would include a tribute to her. “Here’s That Rainy Day”, is one of my all-time favorite songs by her. Many singers have covered this song, but none compare to the extraordinary vocal resonance of Miss Phyllis Hyman.
