Jazz Monthly.com Interview with kiki ebsen

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Kiki Ebsen

Smitty: Well, I have the distinct pleasure of welcoming to JazzMonthly.com for the very first time a monster keyboard player and she has such a strong voice. Her latest record is called Introducing Kiki Ebsen. She has a wonderful, wonderful array of great songs. Not just this album, but all of her projects have been just stunning and inspiring. She has such an enduring style, a poetic style, and she’s purely exquisite. Please welcome the incredible and amazing Ms. Kiki Ebsen. Kiki, how are you?

Kiki Ebsen (KE): I’m great, how are you?

Smitty: I’m wonderful. It’s so great to talk to you.

KE: Great talking to you too.

Smitty: Thank you! You know, I remember seeing you on Maui a few years back.

KE: Mm-hmm.

Smitty: And I remember you were doing a beach gig on Maui.

KE: Right.

Smitty: And we were all hanging out and just laying out and listening to you, and then this wind came up.

KE: (Laughs.) Yeah, it was that afternoon wind.

Smitty: Yeah, and it just blew all of you guys’ sheet music away and I remember sitting there saying “Okay, let’s just see how good they are now.” (Laughs.)

KE: Yeah, that was a special moment.

Smitty: Yeah, but you and your band nailed it. I mean, it was like nothing ever happened and it was just a beautiful afternoon.

KE: Oh, well, thank you.

Smitty: You guys were fantastic.

KE: That was fun.

Smitty: Yeah. But I did not really recollect just how strong you were until I started to listen to your music and it’s just overwhelming, the strength of your voice and how enduring and endearing it is to listen to the lyrics and just how you phrase so many wonderful things in your music.

KE: Oh, thank you, thank you. It’s pretty much me (both laugh) for better or for worse. It’s pretty unique to me. It’s just how I hear things and I feel like I’m the type of singer who—I sing my own music and if I’m gonna do a cover tune, I’m gonna Kiki-ize it somehow to fit into what I do.

Smitty: (Laughs.) I like that. Kiki-ize it, huh? (Both laugh.) Oh, well, let me tell you, you Kiki-ized it and you supersized it. (Both laugh.)

KE: That’s great.

Smitty: Talk to me about how you discovered your voice. I mean, you know, it’s something when we discover something that we love to do and we’re good at it, but I think it’s somewhat different when a person discovers that they’re able to sing because not everyone’s able to do that.

KE: Well, it was interesting for me because I never set out to be a singer. In fact, it just never occurred to me that I could sing. Growing up I always played piano and always played by ear and loved to write music and I loved playing with other musicians, so I figured I would just play in bands and that’s pretty much what I did until I was kind of forced into the spotlight on a dare, I think, to go and to play my own songs by a club owner that knew that I had a lot of songs and he just sort of said “Get out there and put a band together and sing,” and I was, of course, terrified, but had a lot of support, so that’s how that sort of came about, but it’s been a long journey just to feel comfortable with who I am and know that that’s enough because we’re artists and we’re so critical of our work. It’s sometimes unbearable, really. (Both laugh.) Good ideas. I mean, I don’t know any artist that doesn’t have a certain amount of self-criticism whether they want to admit it or not, but it’s hard sometimes to get out from underneath that.

Smitty: Mm, I can imagine. They say that one of the ten most fearful sings to do is to recite or to speak before an audience.

KE: Right. That is hard to do. I can sing in front of an audience a lot better than I can just talking. (Both laugh.)

Smitty: I understand.

KE: I have to talk in between songs. It’s kinda like okay, get to the next song. But I usually try to tell a story and people love to hear the background of the songs and things like that so…

Smitty: Yeah. Speaking of background. Now, you come from an entertainment background, but talk to me about how you first started to play the piano.

KE: Well, I did grow up with a family filled with actors, with my father [Buddy Ebsen] and my mother was an actress as well, and my mother also played piano and my sisters were in piano lessons so I, being the youngest of the girls, I just followed my sisters around and did whatever they did anyway, so while they were in lessons, after they were done, I was too young to be in the lessons, so I would just get up at the piano and start plucking out the melodies, and as a few of my siblings moved into the acting world, I stayed with the piano because it was less crowded. (Both laugh.) I found, actually, it was a great way for me to express myself, and since I heard so much music in my head, it just seemed natural for me to spend many hours plucking away melodies and things like that.

Smitty: How cool is that? Wow.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: When you did your first album, and by the way, I love all of your albums. Your album artwork is always so colorful and it just seems to have such great substance.

KE: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: Yeah, it’s always really cool.

KE: Well, I painted my first record cover. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Yeah, it’s cool and creative.

KE: The very first one, with the Red record, much to the record company’s chagrin. I think they wanted me to put my face on the cover in a low-cut gown (both laugh), but I insisted on putting this painting on the front, which I still love to this day, so it was a good choice.

Smitty: Yeah, there are some of my favorite songs on Red.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: Particularly the things you did with Boney James were just fantastic.

KE: Ah, yeah. He is amazing.

Smitty: How did you meet Boney?

KE: I met him through a group of musicians, actually through Curt Bisquera, who is just a wonderful drummer who plays on a lot of records, and back in that day he was in a fusion band with Boney and a couple of other players and he asked me to join, so we started playing together in this fusion band and then I asked Boney to join my band. We were all playing with each other anyway in different formats, so when I started doing gigs, Boney came and started playing with me and then he got his deal and that’s how I got involved with Paul Brown because Paul was producing Boney’s record.

Smitty: Yep.

KE: And then he came and saw me and then he offered to work with me and we both made our first records right at the same time.

Smitty: Oh, cool. In fact, your self-titled album, Kiki…

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: Paul produced that one, right?

KE: Yes, he did just a few years ago.

Smitty: Yeah, there are some great songs on there too.

KE: Thank you.

Smitty: I particularly love “Say A Little Prayer.”

KE: Oh.

Smitty: Wow, did you nail that song!

KE: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: Wow! I mean, that’s the kind of song that will either make you just jump with joy or cry, you know?

KE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was Paul’s suggestion to do the song and I felt the same way, like oh my gosh, that’s kind of a heavy—that’s a hard song to sing, very hard melodically, but with his arrangement and he has a great touch as a producer, he’s great producing vocals, you know, so I felt very comfortable with him.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely, and speaking of that, there’s one track on there, “Missing You.”

KE: Mm.

Smitty: And your dad wrote that song, right?

KE: Yeah, yeah, he wrote that, and I didn’t find the track until after he passed away. It was written for a musical that he had co-written with another gentleman named Zeke Manners and it never made the cut. It was sort of in a bag of songs that just never got cut and never got used for anything, and the original recording was a bit different than the one I recorded. I sort of, again, put my own little slant on it and added a solo section and whatnot, but it’s a beautiful song. It gets a lot of great, great feedback every time I play it.

Smitty: Yeah, it is a beautiful song. You had an opportunity to do that song during a tribute to your dad.

KE: Right. A&E did a biography on my dad and I was interviewed along with my sister and I sang a bit of the song and they used it in the show in the back towards the end, and it’s pretty cool. I was really happy to be able to do that. My dad always wanted me to sing jazz standards when I was younger and I was such a rebellious thing and I didn’t want to do it, and of course in the end he turned out to be right because it’s actually a format that’s great for my voice, so they always win. Parents always win in the end, you know?

Smitty: Yes, they do. They always know what’s best.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: That’s for sure. What were you thinking when you were—was that sort of a joyous thing or was it mixed emotions when you were doing that song at his service? Because your dad’s picture was in the background and…

KE: Yeah, that was intense, I’ll tell you what, because what it was, it was a public service for my father at the Recording Arts & Sciences building in North Hollywood, a big to do, and let’s see, Dick Van Dyke was the host. He was sort of bringing on different people to talk in honor of my dad and, of course, there was Donna Douglas and Max Baer and Fess Parker and all these great people, and they showed a documentary that my dad had produced on his own life and right before he passed away they had released it, so they showed his whole life, it was a two-hour thing, and I was to come up at the end and sing, and it was to track, and I got up there to sing and I got through the first couple of lines and the track stopped.

Smitty: Oh.

KE: We were on stage with no track and so it was like, okay, we’ll start it again and the track stops again. Okay, I’m not digging this at all. (Both laugh.) So I went, “You know what? I’ll sing it a capella.” And the place is packed, there’s probably a thousand people there, and I go “I’ll sing a capella.” I start to sing it a capella, the track starts.

Smitty: Oh!

KE: So there’s something going on and they do say that people in the afterlife can affect the electricity or something like that, so we just sort of laughed it off as being a little something from the other side and my dad was involved. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Oh my goodness.

KE: Put me on the spot, wing it, but we eventually got through it. It was pretty intense to sing in front of everybody, especially with all that, but I’m a trouper.

Smitty: Yes, you are. Wow. Was your dad really into the arts as far as jazz music?

KE: Oh yeah, he loved it, loved it. His favorite band was The Chicago Six and, of course, he loved and had every Charlie Bird record ever made.

Smitty: Wow.

KE: And just loved really old, old school jazz and being a hoofer, a dancer, he just came from that old school and he really appreciated jazz and standards and great musicianship.

Smitty: Yeah, how cool. Well, I must tell you, he was my mom’s favorite. (Laughs.)

KE: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was really special. He really connected with a lot of people.

Smitty: Yes indeed, yeah. So now, when you’re out doing your gigs, do you reflect back sometimes on some of those things that he taught you and some of the things he talked to you about as far as music goes?

KE: Oh, yeah, I mean, what he liked to do was instill us with these sayings and laughters and he would say things like “Never turn your back on enthusiasm” and “Every day is a new ballgame,” and he was very much—he had seen a lot of hardship in his life before he really took off. He had success as a youngster. Well, as a 20 or 30-year-old, and then tried to reinvent himself after he came back from World War II and was shunned basically by Hollywood and told to quit and all that, so when he sees us in our careers going through ups and downs, it’s just there’s no question but to press on and he gave us that Calvin Coolidge quote. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, but it’s “Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” So he gave that to us as a message for our life and our career, and that’s really stuck with me in anything I do.

Smitty: Wow, that’s so strong.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: Yeah. He was a special man, I tell ya.

KE: Yeah, yeah. That being said, he wasn’t a huge pop music person, so (laughs) he was very opinionated about my music, so he liked certain things but other things he didn’t care for at all, but you know, okay.

Smitty: Yeah, but that’s just variety in music too.

KE: Absolutely, yeah.

Smitty: Well, you can be seen and heard in so many places now. My goodness, you’ve done the Jakarta Jazz Festival, you’ve done festivals in this country.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: And you’ve been on tour with fantastic musicians like Christopher Cross, Tracy Chapman, oh my goodness, the list goes on. Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Al Jarreau. How do you have so much fun?

KE: Oh, you know, someone’s gotta do it. (Both laugh.) No, I’ve been really lucky, you know, I’ve been really lucky. I’m just one in a million keyboard players/singers out there. There are fantastic players out there that are playing in a hotel somewhere or playing in a coffee house that may never get the opportunity to travel the world, so I’ve just been really, really lucky and I count my blessings every day because it’s quite an opportunity, and I’ve been doing it for a while but I have been lucky enough to go from one thing to another to another, and it’s just being open to the experience, I guess, that’s allowed me to continue the experience.

Smitty: Yes, and speaking of great experience, you can be recently heard on Jessy J’s debut album Tequila Moon. You wrote a fantastic song for her, “Turquoise Street,” yeah. How did that come about? Man, and what a hit. Everybody’s loving that song.

KE: Yeah, and they love her and she’s great. She’s so cute. She’s just great. And that came about through Paul Brown. I remember him coming to me with her originally saying it would be fun to do some demos with her with the same band that recorded Kiki, so we got Dave Beyer and Roberto [Valley] and myself and went in the studio and recorded four songs, and those are the four that you can find on her CD: “Poetry Man” and “PB & J” and “A Song for You.” And while we were recording the first round, when I went home one night I just started playing this song, this melody and these chords, and it was inspired just by her and just that whole environment, so I brought it to them and they loved it and we recorded it. So it was really done with her in mind and we’re so glad that she recorded it.

Smitty: Wow, how cool is that, huh? But that’s where putting your heart into something that comes out so good because you had that in your heart and recognizing who she was, her personality, feeling her vibe, her musicianship, and then when you write in that regard I think sometimes it really just comes out so cool. Sort of like doing a portrait of her with song.

KE: Yeah, I agree. I’ve never been a real good writer for hire. I’ve tried (both laugh) but it has to come out of some sort of inspiration. Usually if I write for something that’s like an assignment, I never feel that passionate. Even if it might be okay, I’m not very passionate about it, but I love getting inspiration from talking to someone on the phone and say they’re looking for a song and then oh my God, I’ve got this great idea and then it’s just great, it’s magical to me.

Smitty: Yeah.

KE: So and then hopefully it works out and they record it.

Smitty: Absolutely.

KE: But that’s how I am.

Smitty: And it works, you know? Yeah.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: Now, let’s talk about some of the wonderful things you’ve done outside the realm of music because you’ve done some really cool things with animals, humanitarian things. Talk about how you started out volunteering for the emergency response team there in L.A. County.

KE: Oh, well, that’s a team of people that goes into disaster areas that are on fire or in floods and helps remove animals from the homes when the people have been evacuated. Because I live out in the country, I’ve lived on a ranch for most of my life, I’ve been through several fires and I’ve had to evacuate my own animals and horses, and it’s a really scary time when you’re dealing with that and my heart goes out to people when I see areas on fire. Oh, I just have this urge to help, so when this opportunity came up where there’s a very good group of people in the area that are trained specifically to do this, I just come to do it and so I do it, and we take our trailers out and line up and try to go in there and help people out.

Smitty: Very cool.

KE: Then we take care of the horses, Pierce College or wherever they’re sheltered, and we just stay there all night for days on end if we need to.

Smitty: How nice.

KE: Yeah, of course, all my animals are rescue animals. All my dogs are and cats, and I’m a sucker for animals. (Both laugh.)

Smitty: Well, that’s cool. I think that’s a very heartfelt and very cool thing to do, yeah.

KE: Yeah, yeah. I’m into really healing [I think they’re really healing] and that’s why I’m also developing these horse programs that are growth and learning and awareness, that help you, help the person become more aware of their own surroundings and the person that they are. They’re very enlightening programs, but you work with the horses on the ground. That’s a whole ‘nother area that interests me and makes me a better person too, I think.

Smitty: How cool. So now, what are you up to now? You’re touring?

KE: Yeah, we’re getting ready for the Temecula Wine & Music Festival at the end of the month, or actually in May, first part of May, and I’m doing some recording. I did a recording. I’ve got Steve Oliver playing on a tune of mine right now, that and I think we’re gonna be playing together in Temecula, and then I’m going to Spain with Christopher Cross in June and another festival, I’ve got Waikoloa, the music festival in Hawaii [The Great Waikoloa Food, Wine & Music Festival and Dolphin Days Summer Fest], and want to record another original record this year, so probably in the fall we’ll get that put together.

Smitty: Very cool. So you’re gonna let me know when you finish that project?

KE: Oh, are you kidding? You’ll be the first to know.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

KE: Honest.

Smitty: Oh, thank you. Wow, well, we certainly look forward to that. And let’s see, people can learn more about you on your Web site and all that stuff?

KE: Yeah. Come and be my friend. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Yes, I am already your friend, my friend, on My Space.

KE: Yes.

Smitty: I have you on the front page of my My Space.

KE: (Laughs.) Me too, with you on the front page, see? See how that works?

Smitty: (Laughs.) Absolutely, and I saw one of the quotes from your dad too on there.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: Yeah.

KE: I love that one. (Laughs.)

Smitty: It’s very cool. Wow, so now, let’s see, so we get to see you in the U.S. this year and you’re coming out with a new project. That’s always very cool.

KE: Yeah, always check my site. I always have my dates up on my site.

Smitty: Yeah.

KE: I’m all over the place.

Smitty: And some tracks and all that good stuff.

KE: Yeah.

Smitty: Now, tell me, how can people get your music?

KE: Most of my music is on CD Baby.

Smitty: Very cool.

KE: Or for albums, you know, for actual hard copies, and then you can buy the others on iTunes.

Smitty: Very cool.

KE: And the newest CD, Introducing Kiki Ebsen, which is a cover CD, is available right now only in Southeast Asia, but I plan to release it here later this year.

Smitty: Please.

KE: Red, unfortunately, is out of print.

Smitty: Really?

KE: So I have a few copies if you come to my gigs. That’s about the only place. Otherwise you have to look on Amazon.com. (Both laugh.) That’s when you know you’ve made it when your first CD’s like a collector’s item, you know? (Both laugh)

Smitty: Well, it’s a great collector’s item because I love the tracks on there. Man!

KE: Oh, it was special. It really was a special record.

Smitty: Yeah, I hear a re-release coming or something, you know?

KE: I would love that. It unfortunately belongs to the original record label.

Smitty: Yeah.

KE: You know that story. It’s your typical first record deal.

Smitty: Yep, absolutely. I totally get it. Yes indeed. Well, Kiki, you know what? I just love everything you do as far as your work both on and off the stage. You’re just a stellar performer and a great person, and we’re so fortunate to have you in the music world and also for what you do for others aside from the music world.

KE: Thank you so much.

Smitty: Yes indeed.

KE: I appreciate that.

Smitty: Yes, and I look forward to catching up with you out on the road and hearing some great live music, and perhaps a little hang or something. That’ll be really nice.

KE: You got it.

Smitty: All right.

KE: I will definitely let you know when I’m in your area.

Smitty: Oh, please. All right, we have been talking with the incredible Ms. Kiki Ebsen. Her latest project is called Introducing Kiki Ebsen, and trust me, you will love this one, you will certainly love all the others as well. I highly recommend all of her projects and don’t miss her live performances. They are fantastic. Kiki, thank you so much and all the best in 2008 and beyond, my friend.

KE: Thank you so much.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.kikiebsen.com and www.myspace.com/kikiebsen