Smooth as Silk
She’s a radio announcer by day, jazz singer by night
by Jessica Laskey
Beth Duncan can’t sit still. Whether she’s performing to the percussive beats of her favorite musical genre, jazz, or lending her mellifluous voice to radio news, Duncan is a whirling dervish of action and artistry.
“Rhythm is part of my soul,” she says with the velvet vocal resonance that has made her not just a popular jazz singer but has also kept her busy as a broadcast journalist for more than 40 years.
“I make a living off my vocal chords,” she confirms.
Duncan has had rhythm and music in her soul since she was 5 years old, when she can remember first singing in church. She could always be found in the music room at school, and she was an active participant in choir. But it wasn’t until Duncan reached her 20s that she felt like she’d finally found her voice.
“I blossomed really late,” says Duncan, who lives in River Park. “One of my heroes is Barbra Streisand. I’d listen to her voice and think, ‘Why should I even bother?’ But then I trained with a vocal coach in Berkeley, who gave me a lot of confidence and helped put my feet on the ground.”
It didn’t take long for Duncan to rediscover the jazz roots that had been lying dormant since her childhood years.
“As a little kid, my older brother loved jazz,” Duncan recalls. “He painted his room black, had bongos, and I would hear Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Stan Getz and Mel Tormé wafting out of his room. The music washed over me and into me, so it seemed like a natural thing for me to like that kind of music. Jazz really is my first love.”
After spending time on the road singing with a rock-’n’-roll band, Duncan decided to return to her roots. Twelve years ago, she dedicated herself almost exclusively to performing and recording jazz. Her first album, “Orange Colored Sky,” was released in 2005 to critical acclaim, and her jazz journey truly began. Duncan’s second album, “Comes the Fall,” debuted last year at number 26 on CMJ’s Jazz Top-40 chart—right behind Diana Krall—and has been played on more than 110 radio stations across the world, including in Canada, Japan, Australia and the Netherlands.
For her second album, Duncan hired a publicist. “It was the best decision I ever made,” she says. “When a publicist sends it to the programmers at different radio stations, it says to them, ‘Someone who knows music has liked this—and if you listen to it, you’ll like it, too.’”
It didn’t take a publicist, however, to convince the judges of the Independent Music Awards that Duncan’s music was something special. This past July, Duncan won top honors in the Cabaret Song category for her album’s title single at the IMAs—singled out of hundreds of submissions from self-released and indie label competitors from more than 70 countries by guest judges that included Tom Waits, Suzanne Vega and “Weird Al” Yankovic. Duncan credits her collaboration with the song’s composer, Martine Tabilio, for the song’s success. Like everything else, she’s taking the accolades in stride.
“When peers like what you’re doing, it gives you the encouragement to continue,” Duncan says simply. “When people ask what getting an award like this means, I always say that it means I’m going to sing more. It’s not easy to be motivated. Recognition is an affirmation to keep my creativity going.”
It appears that there’s no rest for the talented. Even with a busy performance schedule and plans for a third album in the works, Duncan is still lending her veteran voice to radio news and traffic reports on stations throughout the region.
“As strange as it sounds, I keep working in broadcast media because it’s more stable,” Duncan says with a laugh. “I’ve been a reporter on KFBK, I did traffic for News 10 and I’ve been working with an independent news and traffic company called Metro Networks for the past 20 years. Just by flipping a switch, I can serve stations all over the place. I do traffic on The FISH and reporting on 1380 and Clear Channel."
Whether she’s singing standards straight or improvising around a familiar melody, Duncan does it all for the same reason she did when she was 5.
“I’m just thrilled to be singing,” she says.
Beth Duncan will perform with the Beth Duncan Jazz Sextet on Sunday, Nov. 10, at 5 p.m. at JB’s Lounge at the Clarion Inn (1400 Arden Way). For more information, go to bethduncan.com