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| Photograph by Sofi Seck | |
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Charles Glenn knows music like the back of his hand. His fingers are familiar with piano keys, drumsticks, and microphones. Yet he’s pretty low-key about it all. “Oh, I mess around with piano,” he says. “I try not to embarrass myself.” Not a chance.
Being a musician for hire is like any job; only instead of 9 to 5, it’s A to G. Though he’s good on the piano, Glenn’s true specialty is the only instrument he can never forget to bring to a gig—his voice. And though it’s well-trained, he comes by it quite naturally. “My mother was an opera singer,” he reveals. “She sang in Boston and Chicago.”
It all started with a rainbow. “I was 4 years old,” he recalls. “My mother was in the cast of Finian’s Rainbow. There was a flu going around, one of the kids got sick, and my mother said, ‘Hey, my son knows the song’—because I remembered when she was auditioning. I learned the songs with her.” Glenn not only got the part, but also debuted that night. “That was a christening, right there,” he says.
But he didn’t actually begin as a singer. Glenn’s first stint set the rhythm for a steady career. It happened when he hit on something. “I started playing drums,” he relates. “I did that for quite a while.” He began singing in 1977—and he was much more than a lounge singer in the era of leisure suits. But it was in the mid-’80s, when Glenn relocated to Los Angeles, that he finally found his stride. Suddenly, his calendar was filled with gig after gig, including session work and recording for commercials. But like any good thing, it didn’t last forever. Glenn returned to St. Louis in the early ’90s, after the L.A. riots distracted people from doing little things like hiring musicians. One of his favorite jobs since his return was touring as part of The Fifth Dimension.
Watching Glenn sing and play keyboard in a Union Station bar one evening is like witnessing a transfiguration of the art of the lounge singer. His incredible voice sprinkles just enough elegance—a seamless blend of silver and sunshine—over the clinking, slow-motion bustle. Glenn’s days are full, too; he conducts gospel workshops in Germany, sings the national anthem for the St. Louis Blues, did a halftime show for the Rams—and now performs on Friday evenings at Peppertini’s Piano Bar and Grill, in Chesterfield.
When it comes to his performance style and choice of material, Glenn likes to keep things melodic. Asked to name some of his favorite composers, he doesn’t hesitate. “Michel Legrand and Henry Mancini,” he says. “Oh, and Quincy Jones.” Is there such a thing as a singer’s singer? Yes, according to Glenn—and it’s no less than a triumvirate: “Al Jarreau, Gino Vannelli…and Pavarotti. He was a guy who could control his volume and control everything.” But Pavarotti excepted, a singer can only be as good as his material. It’s a rule of thumb that’s gone public, thanks in great part to the berating aspects of American Idol. Even Sinatra had to hang his hat on a good song, right? For his part, Glenn is a song lover, and in a way that only a singer can be.
So does he have favorites? He laughs. To him, the question is daunting. Maybe it’s because he’s sung far too many beautiful tunes through the years to single any out. “You hear a piece of music,” he says, “and you think, ‘Wow, that’s the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.’ Well, just wait five minutes—there will be something else.” True. And more than likely, Charles Glenn will be playing it.
For more info, go to charlesglenn.com.
