“With “Spooky,” I was purposely looking around for a song to put on the record, which was a pop tune that would fit into a nice jazz arrangement. I was looking for a song with a fun, coy, sexy attitude,” she says with a hint of mischief, which mirrors her flirtatious demeanor while singing “Spooky.”

Wexler says that “Spooky,” arranged by Alan Pasqua, came to light while she was surfing youtube. She came across what she describes as a hilarious and campy video of Dusty Springfield singing “Spooky.” She remembered the song from her youth and felt that other people from her generation would also enjoy the song. 

Any artist, no matter what their stature, always runs the risk of comparisons when they record a song that has been recorded, and made infamous, by someone as highly respected as the late Dusty Springfield, and so we asked Judy Wexler if that had been her experience with the song “Spooky.” 

“I thought there would be risks, but in the end there was absolutely no danger, because (she laughs) it doesn’t seem as though anyone has made the connection. I thought that there could be, but it turns out there aren’t. The vibe and the approach are different, and people really are not drawing those comparisons. I searched and searched, and I could not find anyone else who had recorded “Spooky,” which may not be the case, but for me it was like, ‘Hardly anyone has done this, except forty years ago,” she says.

During the singing of “Pent Up House,” Wexler takes us on a whirlwind trip through the daily life of a beleaguered woman who is trying to balance the demands of running a household, while holding onto dreams of a restful vacation. The singer’s lightening fast vocals, paced by Alan Pasqua’s piano and supported by Derek Oles’ bass easily help us imagine being thrust into that hectic scene—or perhaps prompt grim reminders of a lifestyle too many of us seem to lead.

Wexler explains her preparation as she approaches lyrics to a song, “Sometimes when there are a lot of lyrics, you have to get the story, so that you can memorize the lyrics and it will all make sense. Sometimes the lyrics are so arbitrary, that you can substitute one verse for another. Those are the hardest lyrics to memorize, because there is no story. Your brain can’t go from one verse to another verse and have it all make sense. “Pent Up House,” wasn’t that difficult. It was just a matter of saying them (the lyrics) over and over again, until I memorized the lyric, and got the feel of them. Singing it to the melody involved a different layer of learning,” she says laughing.

It may be that attention to preparation, borrowed from her experience as an actress, that more than anything else distinguishes Judy Wexler as a jazz vocalist. “I did a lot of internal work, which helps with stories like those in many of these songs, because I can really visualize the place and the person with whom I am talking. It is about applying all of the acting points that I used when I perform on stage. I present a character. When I go into the studio, I try to visualize the scene, what just happened, with whom I am talking, and what this guy looks like. It is all of those things, who, what, where and why, that help me to get into the song. I think it is the same when you are communicating anything, it takes a lot of sense memory and compassion for that person,” she says.

June 2008

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