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Chicago-born, Juilliard-trained Rondi Charleston jettisoned a rising career in TV journalism for the even more peripatetic life of a jazz singer. Though I never witnessed Charleston's newsgathering abilities, I suspect she chose wisely. Hers is an immense gift, and she has surrounded herself with equally astute craftsmen, including pianist Bruce Barth (who worked with Charleston on the majority of In My Life's arrangements and serves as her musical director), saxophonist Joel Frahm, bassist Sean Smith, drummer Clarence Penn and guitarist Adam Rogers. As demonstrated throughout this short (just seven tracks totaling 30 minutes) but immensely sweet album (Charleston's third), she is the jazz equivalent of a gin and tonic: tart, cool, clear and effervescent, with a deliciously subtle kick. Exhibiting superior judgment in song selection, she handles everything from Carole King's feel-good anthem "Beautiful" and Sting's hypnotic "Until" to Antonio Carlos Jobim and Gene Lees' cashmere-soft "Someone to Light Up My Life" and the evocative Johnny Mercer-Jimmy Rowles rarity "Baby Don't Quit Now" with unfailing taste and intelligence. And not since Cassandra Wilson included it on her Sings Standards album back in 2002 have I heard as enchanting a rendition of "I'm Old Fashioned." Her flawless enunciation recalls Lena Horne, and there's an elegant depth to her phrasing that mirrors Ann Hampton Callaway. Making up for the disc's brevity, there is an accompanying DVD that captures Charleston live at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. In addition to four songs repeated from the CD, it provides stellar renditions of "Bewitched," "No More Blues" and "Waltz for Debbie." But the greatest highlight is the original "Telescope" (lyrics by Charleston, music by Charleston and Barth), inspired by her 8-year-old daughter Emma (who joins her on stage to provide backing vocals), a velvety elucidation of the fact that the enormous complexity of the universe is matched only by the magnitude of a child's curiosity.
NOW SHE'S MAKING THE NEWSRondi Charleston has reinvented herself from award-winning TV journalist to acclaimed Jazz singer.By JON BREAMNew York jazz singer Rondi Charleston has deeper Minnesota roots than the Honeycrisp Apple. Her parents met in the choir at St. Olaf College. She has vacationed nearly every summer at the Otter Tail Lake home that her great-grandfather Johnson built nearly 100 years ago. She has relatives from Fergus Falls to Minneapolis. She used to be an award-winning reporter. In fact, after studying for a master's degree in journalism, she spent six years as a producer with Diane Sawyer for ABC's "Primetime Live." She sees a connection between journalism and jazz.
Her road to the jazz world has had many detours. The daughter of an English professor and a soprano-turned-voice teacher, she grew up in Chicago singing folk and jazz and making the 13-hour drive to the lake home every summer. (She now takes her own daughter, 9, for a couple of weeks every year.) At age 16, after auditioning for John Houseman, she enrolled at Juilliard to study drama and music. After earning a master's in music, she spent six years singing with opera companies and symphonies. After hearing Rondi Charleston sing, ABC's Diane Sawyer encouraged her to pursue a career in music.
From reporting to making the news All along, Charleston was singing jazz for fun. When Sawyer saw her at a New York club, the boss encouraged her to go for the music. Charleston became serious about a jazz career four years ago, after taking time off to be with her daughter. "It's never too late to reinvent yourself," she said. "It's never too late to live your dreams."
Classical family Charleston has earned rave reviews on the East Coast for her elegant approach to standards, show tunes and pop hits. She relies on her background in drama and classical music to inform her jazz. "Being in the drama department, I learned to dive into the emotional depth of my material- whether it's a play, an opera or a song," she said. "The classical training has been useful because in jazz, it's great to have a fundamental understanding of harmony. All those notes are available to me because I understand what's going on harmonically." Next year, Charleston will launch an aggressive campaign for her forthcoming third recording, a studio CD and live DVD package called "In My Life," which will be carried exclusively at Virgin Megastores worldwide. The Dakota debut in her favorite summer state is just a start for her. "I'm booked through 2009," she said.
"Charleston has the chops that can leave us in awe, but always makes it about the song, which in the end is the greatest compliment that one can pay a singer." - Bob Blumenthal (liner notes, In My Life) Few musicians of any genre can count Emmy and Peabody Awards in their resumes, but Rondi Charleston's path to the stages of top jazz clubs was hardly the norm. The multi-talented Chicago native "heard Miles Davis records in utero, met Duke Ellington when I was six, and would find classic novels next to my cereal bowl," she recalls via Bob Blumenthal's liner notes for her latest CD/DVD release, In My Life. In support of the new release, Charleston and her stellar band will perform at the Iridium in Manhattan on November 6th, then head west to the Dakota in Minneapolis, November 12-13. Inspired by a family of musicians as well as the great Carmen McRae, young Rondi sang professionally from age 15, but turned to theater after wowing the late John Houseman with her Juilliard audition at 16. Adding studies in the Voice Department two years later to pursue a career in opera, she earned her BM and MM degrees in music. But even international performance as a lyric soprano didn't seem to be her life dream. "The classical years were tough because the spontaneity of creating something in the moment was missing for me," she explains. Seeking more fulfillment, Rondi returned to school, earning another master's - this time in journalism - from New York University. Over the next six years, she worked as an investigative reporter for ABC's Prime Time Live, earning Emmy and Peabody Awards. Yet she never stopped singing, finding gigs in her "spare time" and studying jazz voice with the great Peter Eldridge. Now, fully concentrating on music, Rondi Charleston is proving that her voice in song is at least as compelling as her voice on prime time news! This fall, she celebrates the release of a double-disc package, her third studio recording, In My Life, and a DVD, Live at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola. Finding a story as a reporter or finding the story within a lyric have much in common for Rondi, who notes that it is much like "deep sea diving. My job is to dive down deep and bring back the shining pearl to share with everyone. What drives me is my passion to live and breathe my honesty, truth and integrity into every song and story." And her classical training, she believes, helps her to do just that: "We can sing beautiful words, but the tone of our voice expresses everything about the intent and true meaning of what we are saying." Her talent in this regard was already evident at 23, at which time Will Crutchfield wrote in the New York Times, "Rondi Charleston is in tune with herself and her material, and is a joy to hear. She works her way into her listener's hearts and her emotional range is wide." Crutchfield was responding to Rondi's classical voice recital at Weill Recital Hall (as winner of the American Art Song Vocal Competition), yet the same comment would equally apply to Rondi's current performance as a jazz artist. And her recent efforts in studio and on stage have benefited from the very fine cast of jazz artists who serve as her "musical family" - Bruce Barth (piano, arrangements), Joel Frahm (tenor sax), Adam Rogers (guitar), Sean Smith (bass), and Clarence Penn (drums) on the studio recording, with Alvester Garnett taking over drum duties on the live DVD (and on her current tour). Rondi notes that the interaction among musicians is much like that among actors: "The interplay between actors is very much like the interplay between jazz musicians - spontaneous and immediate." Such interplay is apparent from the first track of In My Life. Both discs (with four tracks overlapping) serve up a tasteful menu of mostly familiar tunes from diverse sources ("the most personal collection of music I have ever recorded," Rondi notes), from Johnny Mercer ("Baby Don't Quit Now," "I'm Old Fashioned") and Rogers and Hart ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered") to Carole King ("Beautiful") and Lennon and McCartney ("In My Life") to Sting ("Until"); jazz standards from Bill Evans ("Waltz for Debbie") and Jobim ("No More Blues") appear on the live program, along with the Charleston/Barth original, "Telescope." Notes Rondi, "My thirst for the modern economy of line and space is rooted in a deep love of rich, traditional music and literature." The CD takes off immediately on a high and bright note with Rondi's personal take on Carole King's "Beautiful." The rhythm section - Barth, Rogers, Smith and Penn - guarantees a translation of the rock classic into a swinging, modern jaunt while Frahm blows warm riffs across the pulsating, samba-touched beat. Adam Rogers particularly glows in a brief solo. You know that Rondi got up with a "smile on her face," her phrasing transcending the song's origins. The Johnny Mercer/Jimmy Rowles jewel, "Baby Don't Quit Now" starts as a piano/voice duet, slow and sultry. Rondi pulls out her vowels like soft taffy, while Frahm places his phrases in the key crevices and takes a lovely midtempo solo. As if connected by a lifeline, Penn syncs his percussion pulse to her lines, but it's Rondi whose timing and phrasing sells each word without any negotiation. A love of Jobim is evident, as Rondi covers "Someone to Light Up My Life" on the CD and adds "No More Blues" on the live DVD. With strings arranged by Barth and Hadar Noiberg on flute, "Someone..." reflects the best melding of classical and Brazilian jazz. Rondi's classical training is most transparent here, but unlike many singers emerging from this background, Rondi learned to swing and phrase like a consummate jazz singer. The pitch and intonation are perfect but without the excessive vibrato that dooms many classical singers who cross over. And Barth's supportive arrangement keeps the strings from creating the saccharine backdrop that too often interferes with such efforts. Frahm takes a gaily swinging solo and Rondi engages the saxophonist in a brief exchange in closing the track. The contributions of Sean Smith, Adam Rogers and Joel Frahm to the title track are significant in giving it a slight R&B edge, this soulful rendition of the Lennon/McCartney classic moving along more slowly than the usual. Rondi notes the tune has special meaning as a song from her first public gig at 15, "the movie of my life flashes through my mind, peppered with some wisdom, perspective and gratitude for the rich life experiences I've had." Again, Frahm stars on the solo interlude. Sting's "Until" is a beautiful song that has been interpreted many times, but perhaps seldom with such grace and warmth. Again the strings are artfully and simply arranged by Barth to support rather than compete with the voice. I think this is the first time I really noticed the lyrics, as Rondi truly makes "time stand still." Barth is in particularly fine form at the piano on the second Mercer tune, "I'm Old Fashioned," his comping chords and fills keeping the pulse centered on a fractured swing. Penn adds colorful splashes that lift the mood even higher and we are quickly reminded that the accompanying musicians here are among the best in the business. The studio set closes with the Brighetti/Martino standard, "Estate," featuring beautiful flute from Hadar Noiberg. Here Rondi takes some liberties with the melody and shows her improvisation talents as she fits her phrases into Noiberg's cadence.
The DVD brings the band's performance at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca Cola to life, and in doing so provides a more intimate view of the interaction among the musicians, particularly the frequent exchanges between Rondi and Joel Frahm, as well as reinforcing the adage that jazz is a living, ever-evolving art form. The title track loses its R&B edge with guitar either downplayed or simply not on stage at all, while there's a more assertive swing feel. The energy between voice and sax is driven even higher on "Beautiful," while on "Someone to Light Up My Life" - here with no strings attached - Rondi ventures much further into the vocalese ending only hinted at on the studio CD. Her interaction with Frahm on "Baby Don't Quit Now" similarly becomes a more dramatic conversation before the live audience. Tunes not represented on the studio recording include the original "Telescope," which Rondi explains was inspired by her 8-year-old daughter Emma's piercing questions following a trip to the Hayden Planetarium. "I had no answers, none," she explains, and invites Emma to provide the "background vocals" on Dizzy's stage. The ensuing vocalese duet by mother and daughter is followed by Smith's bouncing bass pulse that generates the feel of an African tribal chant, and overall the driving rhythms of flute, bass and percussion generate an Afro-Cuban vibe. Barth takes his most adventurous solo of the two sets, and mom and daughter scat through the final bars. There's a similar, maternal glow to Bill Evans' "Waltz For Debbie," with Noibergs' flute a prominent partner. Rogers' solo demonstrates why he is one of the top guitarists of his generation, and the arrangement keeps this one upbeat at a luxurious tempo. Rondi sings Jobim's "No More Blues" with alternating English and Portugeuse lyrics, Rogers providing a playful acoustic solo as well as rhythmic support throughout. Nimble flute lines and Frahm's intricate weaving complement the vocalist perfectly, and applause seems appropriate, DVD or not. However, the CD/DVD package reviewed here is only half the story. Fourteen tracks for a CD and 15 for the DVD were mastered and the full recordings will be released sometime in 2008. Additional material not available on the current release includes "Shall We Dance," Tony Levin's "Fragile as a Song," and another Charleston/Barth collaboration, "Ancient Steps," which features Rondi's brother Erik on vibes. Normally this sort of marketing would not bother me, but, frankly, knowing it's "out there," I want more. The fact that In My Life is Rondi Charleston's third CD, and that many of us never were aware of her before the new release, is one of the unfortunate crimes of modern, underappreciated and underfunded music, which too often is the fate of jazz. Hopefully the strategy of Virgin Megastores to release and distribute the CD/DVD package will lead to wider recognition for an undeniably important talent. With the Emmy and Peabody already on her shelf, is there a Grammy in sight? Only if talent correlates with recognition. "It's never too late to reinvent yourself. It's never too late to live your dreams." - Rondi Charleston
This CD, In My Life, and the accompanying DVD, Lincoln Center Presents Rondi Charleston Live! , should help this talented vocalist achieve the recognition she deserves. Two fine earlier recordings on LML Music (2001's Love Letters and 2004's Love Is The Thing) did not receive wide notice or distribution. This release, accompanied by a Virgin Megastores national in-store performance tour, should change that. Charleston and pianist/musical director Bruce Barth have chosen an eclectic collection of material. It ranges from well-known Great American Songbook tunes, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" and "I'm Old Fashioned" to the lesser-known, "Baby Don't Quit Now," by Johnny Mercer and Jimmy Rowles. It includes two Tom Jobim songs, a Bill Evans gem, the Lennon and McCartney title track and Charleston's own composition, "Telescope." Sting and Carole King are also both represented. Only four selections overlap between the two discs. Charleston proves equally adept at all of it, weaving the disparate material into a memorable performance. Charleston's voice is both polished and powerful. She is equally capable of caressing the lyrics as she does on "Waltz for Debbie" and "Estate," or swinging authoritatively as she does on the Jobim songs. "I love the tradition of jazz," says Charleston, "and how it encourages artists to creatively move the music forward, beyond the genre, expanding one's own musical vocabulary." Her performance of "Beautiful," from King's classic Tapestry (Ode, 1971), offers an excellent example of Charleston's rapport with tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, lifting the song to another level, with guitarist Adam Rogers contributing one of several outstanding solos. That rapport between Charleston and Frahm puts its stamp on much of the music. Frahm's solo on The Beatles' tune is one of many fine contributions. Barth, whose work with vocalists includes, notably, a recent stint with Tony Bennett and who shares credit for these arrangements with Charleston, also stands out. Their collaboration on "Bewitched" is truly lovely. Frahm again solos impressively. The musicians include Sean Smith on bass and Hadar Noiberg on flute, as well as Clarence Penn on drums (Alvester Garnett replaces Penn on the DVD). Some CD tracks include very tasteful and subtle strings arranged by Barth. The inclusion of the DVD adds something substantial. The CD recording stands on its own as a fine piece of work, however watching Charleston live with her talented band reinforces the impression that she is a special talent. The jazz world should take notice.
RONDI CHARLESTON Author: Elizabeth Ahlfors Cabaret Scenes Cover - "Music serves this wonderful function of allowing us to believe that things could be better. It's that belief that sometimes gets us through the day."
Music -- fun and serious -- is central in Rondi Charleston's life. Growing up in Chicago, "We had music going in every room, all the time. My brother, Erik, was practicing his drums and marimba. My mother was teaching voice in the living room. When I had the chance to get in the living room, I would play piano and later I picked up the guitar. After school, Erik and I just practiced music instead of playing outside with the other kids. We weren't antisocial; we were just very into the music." Erik Charleston is now a percussionist with the New York Philharmonic. Rondi's mother, Elsa, a soprano, has soloed with major symphony orchestras; she also teaches voice. Rolf Charleston was an English profession at the University of Chicago and is a jazz aficionado. Today he hosts Philadelphia's classical music station, WRTI Public Radio. "Everybody in my family sings. It's genetic; it would have been freakish if I couldn't sing." While Charleston ventured into diverse venues, she always returned to her musical core, refining and re-directing her talents until today she states confidently, "I am so in a place where I belong." This place is jazz singing. "My dad introduced Erik and me to jazz at a very young age. Once, when my mother was singing in a chorus backup for one of Duke Ellington's sacred oratorios, my dad took us to meet the Duke. We were in awe. It was very rainy and when the whole band emerged from this tour bus, they were all wearing shower caps on their heads. Erik and I just started laughing. My Dad said, 'Quiet! This is Duke Ellington you're meeting!'" By age six, Rondi was playing the Bach Inventions by ear. She began daily piano lessons; vocally, she learned the classical technique from her mother -- "which has stood me in good grace for all these years." When she entered her teens, Charleston decided to take her guitar talents to the downtown Chicago clubs, including The Earl of Old Town, an esteemed focus for folk and jazz artists. "I snuck in and told them I was 18. I opened for Bonnie Raitt there and played some jazz tunes, a lot of Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan." When Charleston left for Juilliard at age 16, however, it was to study drama, another interest. "I auditioned almost as a lark. I didn't really care if I got in or not. I didn't even know who John Houseman was. Six months later I announced that I would change to the music department when I was 18." She is one of the few students enrolled in both the drama and music departments. After graduating Juilliard, Charleston spent the next six years singing with opera companies and symphonies around the country, but, "I was stifled by singing the maid roles all the time: I didn't want to be doing them for the rest of my life and decided I wanted to do cultural reporting on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt. So I went to NYU at night to study journalism." Before graduating, she was detoured by an award. "I had been given a class assignment to do a story on drugs in the workplace at Metro North at Grand Central. There had been a train crash, and Metro North blamed the conductor saying he had been on drugs. I uncovered the autopsy report and a grand cover-up: Turns out, that Metro North's fancy, faulty new computer system told this engineer to go fast forward around a bend. Another train was coming. There was a crash and he died, but he was not to blame. My story was picked up in The NY Times, The Daily News, and I got hired by ABC News as a result." "I started out as a researcher for Diane Sawyer on Primetime Live, was promoted to associate producer, then producer. I won an Emmy Award and Peabody Award for a story I co-produced about medical laboratories misreading PAP smears. We uncovered all kinds of laboratory mismanagement, abuse, and helped create some federal changes in the law." She laughed. "I don't mess around. When I do something, I do it intensely." She worked at ABC for five years, and after the first two years, she began edging her way back to singing, this time American standards in cabaret clubs, including Eighty-Eights. "Diane (Sawyer) came to all my shows. Once she told me, 'You're really good at singing. You could make a career at this.'" Leaving Primetime Live, Charleston decided to concentrate on her family in Westport, Connecticut, including her husband, Steve, a lawyer and financial adviser, and their daughter, Emma, now seven. But like a running theme -- "The music thing was strong, and the jazz thing was starting to emerge." She met and began working with Peter Eldridge, a member of New York Voices, the Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble renowned for jazz and group singing excellence. She and Eldridge have worked together for three years. "Peter discovered this vocal ability that I have. He nurtures it and challenges me, makes me go places I didn't think I could go. He taught me how to sing in a way that's very natural. I've let go of almost all of my classical training, almost all of my vibrato, and any kind of pretense that I might have had. It took me two and a half years of really hard work to let go of that classical technique. This music has got sound and be completely natural." She also credits her Juilliard training. "You cannot sing jazz without some basis in harmony and theory. I've been able to absorb the language of jazz so quickly because I had all the basics, the structure, the chord changes and progression possibilities, and you have to be able to do that in order to improvise. Improvising is the most fun and freeing thing in the world! There's a deep joy in playing with my band. We play off one another and we just don't know what's going to happen next." "I always come back to music. When I was in the drama department, I came back to music. When I was in journalism, I came home to music. And now with jazz, I feel I am in the right spot, absolutely where I belong in life. In all the (other jobs), it never felt completely right." "When I was doing classical music, I always felt I had to honor the composer above all else. After awhile, I learned that it's your own personal take that's interesting, bringing different colors and life to a piece. What appeals to me so much about jazz is that you have the freedom to take a song and reinvent it. I feel that life and music have endless possibilities. Continuing to find new things is what's stimulating about jazz. I never ever stop exploring and taking chances. In all the songs I recorded, I explore what more I can do with them, find new meanings… I'm working on Brazilian music now. It's a whole new exciting frontier, not just the rhythm, but the sensuality and pure emotion it elicits." Charleston adds, "Lyrics and music go hand in hand, but the weight, for me, would be shifted more toward the lyrics. If your intention is strong with the lyrics, you will find the music that follows it and then it will be organic. I wander around my house and speak the lyrics, hum the lyrics, in rhythm and out of rhythm. I live to be as real as possible. I don't try to be anything that I'm not. People always commented on the quality of my voice; but until I went through my life and experiences, I didn't have what it took to match the quality of this instrument. I had to grow personally, to mature. It's taken me awhile to dive as deep as I have. If it's personal for me, it will be personal for the listener. What's the point if you're going to just sing the standards as they've always been sung? That's been done. I'm interested in what's new." In her second CD, Love Is the Thing, she includes a Billy Strayhorn classic. "When I first looked at Something to Live For, I thought, I don't know if I want to go there, but something compelled me to explore it, and I'm so glad I did. It's evolved into one of the more interesting pieces that I do. It's evolved even more since I recorded it is on the album." She listens to musicians who reflect the emotional intimacy she strives for. "Before I go on the stage, I listen to Chet Baker and Irene Kral. Chet Baker is so pure, simple, and deep, all at the same time. And Irene Kral had a no-nonsense approach to jazz singing. She cut to the heart with no adornment. When I feel down, I listen to Bill Evans' solo piano. It brings me back up time and again. He played from the bottom of his soul." "I want to share what I've learned about the power of music to uplift. I think music is more important today than ever. It is a big deal; it's very powerful."
Author: Tom Connor "I really believe that music entered me on a cellular level." - Rondi Charleston
Music floats from the 1845 Greek Revival a few blocks in from Main Street. On this afternoon, with a bank of French doors open onto the front porch, it is Bach that is wafting from the CD player inside. But on any other day, visitors and passersby might as easily hear not just a score of American standards, but live renditions from the keys of a Steinway grand piano and the voice of Rondi Charleston. The voice is telling, at once clear and smokey, moody and swinging, with great range, intelligence and passion. A nightclub singer with classical piano training, a Julliard education, an operatic background and a surprising mid-career stint on network news, Rondi manages to convey all these things on stage, and also at home. She is petite, blonde and pretty, and warm and engaging in a natural, midwestern way perhaps. Although the one being interviewed, she leans forward to ask her guest questions and to talk about subjects far afield of herself: books, politics, other musicians. A bright curiosity resides just below her surface. Above all, even in this front-porch setting, she has considerable presence - what you might expect of a jazz singer who was once a hard-hitting TV news reporter. You want to watch her. Even more, you want to hear her sing. Rondi's debut CD, Love Letters, was released in 2001. Since then, she has been gaining the attention of fans and critics. Her second CD, a collection of standards called Love Is the Thing, which was released last summer, has been climbing the jazz charts. Reviewing the CD in Cabaret Scenes, critic Jeff Rossen wrote, "Her sparse, sensuous deconstruction of `Wouldn't It Be Loverly' … is, simply put, brilliant in Charleston's spine tingling reading amid the airy and rich arrangement that envelops her." These days, Rondi Charleston is tingling spines in person across the country. Backed by a formidable quintet of jazzmen, she sold-out her first show at Birdland, the venerable New York City jazz club, and was quickly booked for gigs at other clubs in other cities. While commuting to Manhattan to sing for her supper by night, Rondi is in the enviable position of enjoying Westport by day. She moved here from Manhattan five years ago with her husband, Steven, and their young daughter, Emma, drawn by the town's physical beauty but also the cultural climate. "I'm part of an artistic community that I don't know exists elsewhere in Fairfield County, or in the nation," she says, seated out on her porch. The house, which is in the historic district, is within walking distance of Sally's Place, the landmark Westport record store and haven for jazz buffs and musicians, and also the Westport Country Playhouse, where she and her husband are board members. In a way, Rondi is recreating in her Westport home the musical milieu of her childhood in Chicago. "Music floated through our house growing up," she says. Her father was a musician and an English professor at the University of Chicago; he currently hosts a classical music radio show in Philadelphia. Her mother, a soprano soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, remains a much sought-after voice teacher in that city. Her younger brother, Erik Charleston, is a percussionist with the New York Philharmonic. Rondi began piano at six, playing the Bach Inventions by ear and later Brubeck. "There was a piano in the living room, where my mother had a full studio of voice students Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louie Armstrong - they were on all the time. I really believe that music entered me on a cellular level." In high school, she would sneak out of the house to perform folk rock and pop in Chicago bars and clubs, eventually opening for Bonnie Raitt at the Earl of Old Town in 1978. She was fifteen. It was also there that she first heard Carmen McCrae, who exerted a strong influence, along with Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone. Which may explain her profession, though she is quick to avoid labeling herself. "Labels are tricky," she says. "Other people are now referring to me as a jazz singer, which I think is a label that is bestowed upon you. It's an honor, though it's hard to define what a jazz singer is. You know, was Rosemary Clooney a jazz singer, or was she a standards singer? I think she was both. Tony Bennett - he sings the standards but does he scat? No, but he sure can hold his own with Bill Evans, and he can swing." Besides, as a teenager in the late 1970s Rondi was also exposed to young female singer/songwriters then coming into their own. "I was highly influence by Joni Mitchell and Carole King," she says. "I think that music is wonderful, and I think the intimacy that comes with that music can be applied to jazz, and it should be applied to classical music as well. Classical music shouldn't necessarily be a holier-than-thou thing - it should be accessible. I love what Yo-Yo Ma's been doing." Graduating from high school at sixteen, she applied to the Julliard School of Music in New York. Since the school doesn't accept students under eighteen into the music program, however, she auditioned for the late John Houseman and was accepted into the drama department. Two years later she enrolled in the music program, with no regrets about the earlier training. "The interplay between actors is very much like the interplay between jazz musicians," she says. Grateful for the musical training she received there, she is also aware of the value of life experience. "Julliard forces you to focus on music to such a degree that you can sort of forget that there's a world out there," she says. "It gives you a technical foundation, but I think that your art comes from your soul and I don't think any school can teach that to you." From Julliard, Charleston sang classical music for the next six years, mostly in operas. But in 1990, her intellectual curiosity and precocity suddenly took her in an entirely different direction. Passing the journalism school at New York University one day, she thought, "You know, I'd love to work for Charles Kuralt on CBS Sunday Morning." Without further thought, Rondi applied and was not only accepted but received a full fellowship in the master's program. Although Kuralt died before she graduated, that didn't derail her. In her last semester, working on a class assignment in investigative reporting, she broke the story of a major cover-up of a fatal Metro-North crash. After her teacher fed the story to the New York Times, which ran with it, the Dean of NYU called ABC News and advised them to hire her, which they did. She became, literally overnight, an investigative reporter, working with Diane Sawyer and eventually winning an Emmy and a Peabody Award for her medical investigations. But that did not sidetrack her first passion. "Don't ask me how I found the time," she says, "but I kept singing. I couldn't not sing. I was exploring the great American songbook, rehearsing during my lunch hour." She was performing at a club in the Village one night in 1996, when Diane Sawyer came to the show and sat in the front row. Afterwards, Rondi recalls, "She said, `You know, Rondi, I came to the show because I like you and I like working with you. But you didn't tell me you were really good.' She said, `You could do this.'" Charleston believed her - and her own gut. "Jazz has always called out to me," she says. "I had to sing. I had to go back." She quit the news program and started working with Peter Eldridge, the singer, composer and co-founder of New York Voices, the Grammy winning jazz quartet, who co-produced Rondi's Love Is the Thing CD and plays piano on some of the tracks. "She's learned about jazz singing while not losing the drama in her voice - that makes her a little different from the others out there," he says. "I love how expressive her voice is. There's a little bit of Sarah Vaughan in her." Eldridge also joined her on stage for her debut at Birdland. "Birdland was a turning point," Rondi says of the engagement. "I've sung with symphony orchestras and the big opera companies. I've sung at the Triad and Sweet Basil's [both Manhattan jazz clubs]. But Birdland is on a different level. It's a benchmark of legitimacy - it's given me some serious credibility. It's a place that says, `This is someone to pay attention to.'" On stage, Charleston both charms and swings. She has great range, possessing a rich soprano and a clear alto, and also considerable presence - qualities that come from emotional maturity as much as technique. "Of course, you have to have technical chops, which Julliard gives you," she said before a recent show. "But I have let technique go to see what happens." Perched on a stool at center stage, her body swaying with one hand extended, she glided through a fifteen-song set, her voice warming as the set progressed and the night outside cooled. Songs like Harold Arlen and Ted Kohler's "Let's Fall in Love," and the up-tempo Lambert, Hendricks and Ross "Charleston Alley," on which she was joined by Peter Eldridge and Erik Charleston, brought to the surface her spunkiness and joy. But the richness and depth of her voice found its fullest expression in lower-keyed numbers, like Jimmy Rowles' and Johnny Mercer's "Baby, Don't Quit Now" and "Love Is the Thing," the Ned Washington-Victor Young gem. Success means more time on the road, including plans for a worldwide tour, and career vying with family life. "I'm very happy here in Westport with my daughter and husband - I'm never leaving," Rondi says, "but I get equal amounts of pleasure just from being on the stage with my band and swinging." Now, however, the allure of the clubs ends when her set ends. "I don't need alcohol, I don't need drugs," she adds. "I've got the swing thing."
Jazz Performance Reviews
"Love Is The Thing" Reviews
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"What I am is a truth seeker," she said recently from her home in Westport, Conn. "I approach music and lyrics the same way that I approach an investigative story, which is just to peel back the layers and dig for that kernel of truth."
Onstage and off, Rondi Charleston, a slim, blonde jazz singer with a ready laugh, doesn't seem to be the type to see life's "glass" as half-empty. Her professional life scans one success after another. She has a family she loves, a daughter she dotes on, and a singing voice as warm and bright as sunshine. 
Rondi Charleston gave up a rising career on network TV news for a life in the jazz joints. Why do that? It must be The Swing Thing.