There are some Christmas classics that you can rely on year after year, no matter where you seem to find yourself: you can scan any calendar and find a performance of Handel’s "Messiah" nestled near any given ballet company’s annual Nutcracker show—and you generally know what to expect. But at Tim Warfield’s All-Star Jazzy Christmas, the headliner is bringing along six of his favorite performing friends for a fresh show of smooth takes on traditional holiday music. Among them is vocalist Joanna Pascale, a Philly native who is the only woman that will be holding down the stage at Jazz at the Bistro during the ensemble’s four-night engagement. She’s also the voice you hear on Warfield’s album Jazzy Christmas. As she prepares to join her fellow comrades, the singer, educator, and artist-in-residence at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia talks about her family history with jazz music, representing for her hometown, and keeping the Great American Songbook alive.
You’ve been an active jazz singer since 17. What made you what to make this your career?
I was always just very much attracted to the music. As a kid, my mom was very religious, so I couldn’t really listen to any secular music. I would sneak and listen to the radio, and one of the stations that I connected with was one of the jazz stations. She caught me listening to jazz and it turned out that my grandfather, her father who had died when she was 19, was an amateur jazz singer. So it was really strange that I had this connection to him and we had never met. So she allowed me to listen to jazz, and I just learned the music like it was my pop music. Some of the singers I was listening to when I was 15 were Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan and Little Jimmy Scott, and I really just kind of dove in, and I knew immediately that was what I wanted to dedicate my life to.
What is the jazz scene in Philadelphia like?
I think one of the cool things about Philly is that we’re always surrounded by such incredible musicians. A lot of the learning I did was on the bandstand. It was just a really real history of the music there. That’s one of the things that I’m really proud of. I think Philadelphia has a really distinct sound, and I’m a product of that. I don’t know that you always get that in other cities.
What is it about the Great American Songbook that attracts you?
I’m very lyric-driven and story driven, and I just think that the lyricists, and that the composers of that era, I just connect with it more than any other period or genre. There’s just something in the way that they express sentiment and emotion that just hits home for me.
You’re the only vocalist—and the only female—in this show. What can we expect at the concert?
Some of Tim’s arrangements, a few of them are obscure. I’m doing “Let It Snow,” “Silent Night,” and “Silver Bells,” but then there’s also a very obscure song by Tony Bennett called “Snowfall,” and we’re actually doing one of my arrangements of “Caroling, Caroling.” We’ve been having so much fun, and it’s really incredible to be around such incredible musicians. I’m looking forward to what the next couple of weeks are going to bring. We have a lot of fun together off the bandstand and that just elevates it. It’s really a great way to end the year.
And what is your favorite Christmas song?
Oh that’s a tough one! I have a lot of them...I guess "O Holy Night."
Tim Warfield's Jazzy All-Star Christmas featuring Terell Stafford, Stefon Harris, Cyrus Chestnut, Rodney Whitaker, Clarence Penn, & Joanna Pascale comes to Jazz at the Bistro December 14–17. The Ferring Jazz Bistro is located at 3536 Washington; for performance times and ticket information, visit jazzstl.com.
