Meet our Artist of the Week – Michael Mayo, jazz singer.
We loved chatting with Michael to learn about his musical journey and how he is shaping such a thriving jazz music career in NYC.
MusicTalks: How did you get into jazz singing?
Michael Mayo:
Well, I am originally from Los Angeles and both of my parents are musicians. My mom was a background singer for Whitney Houston for many years and my Dad played the saxophone with Earth Wind and Fire, so I was around really great music growing up. For high school I ended up going to the LA County High School for the Arts. As a singer there, you have to chose between opera or jazz. Even though I wasn’t super familiar with either genres, jazz felt closer to the music I was listening to and I chose it. When I told my parents about my decision to study jazz, they gave me a ton of recordings, the most influential ones being Miles Davis from my dad and Ella Fitzgerald from my mom and grandmother.
MT: How would you describe your evolution as a jazz singer from high school to where you are now professionally?
MM: My love of jazz singing and performing initially gained momentum through participating in the Vocal Jazz Ensemble in my arts high school, which was essentially a choir that sang four part arrangements of jazz standards. That really was my introduction to experiencing jazz and music more deeply. By junior year of high school, I started getting really into vocal improvisation. I ended up putting a lot of time into honing that skill because I was drawn to it.
After high school, attending the New England Conservatory for jazz voice performance was a defining moment in that it made me certain that jazz singing was what I wanted to do. I then attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles. During my two year masters program there, I got to work with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and so many more jazz legends. It was an incredible program. It had one band, and we met every day, which allowed us to dig deeper and deeper into the craft of playing original music. Each week there was a different artist in residence as well who would give small scale masterclasses and talk us through their musical ideology. From that we, as individuals and collectively, had to decide how those experience would influence our craft.
MT: What is your favorite part of jazz singing?
MM: Definitely the emphasis on freedom. A group of jazz musicians enter into this unspoken collective contract of service and expression, something that is important to me in life in general. The fact that we can do it on a micro scale through this music is very rewarding.
MT: To a new jazz goer, how would you describe your upcoming jazz concert on March 2nd?
MM: There will be two singers – myself and Thana Alexa – piano, bass, and drums. There will be a lot of jazz standards and a lot of creative arrangements of those standards into solos and duets. The concert will be fun and also a semi-educational intro into what jazz is. We will also take a couple moments to explain the roots of jazz, because even though it is a chiefly American style, not many people today are aware of it and it is not widely recognized as a part of our heritage.
MT: Now that you are in NYC, has it changed how you approach your career? What are some challenges you have faced?
MM: I‘ve been here since September 2016, so almost a year and a half. New York represents a kind of freedom I never had before. This city forces you to embrace your own agency, whether you’re looking to do that for it or not. Whether you need a break of not, it pushes you to really figure yourself out, and find a way to make your career work. Since I am relatively new to the city, time has been spent overcoming the obstacles of being new to a music community and having to establish myself within it. Luckily this city never lets you stop progressing, so that is what I‘ve been steadily doing.
