Springfield News-Sun

February 12, 2004

Kathy Wade likes her jazz served “hot, hot, hot”

By Andrew Mcginn

You really hate to compare anyone to a hydrogen-filled zeppelin.  But this one just makes sense.

A jazz singer of the old order, Kathy Wade punctures her soul and explodes into a fireball when she touches a mic.

So if you’re in the mood for a hot Valentine’s present, get ready to blister.  The Cincinnati native performs Friday in the downtown Bushnell building as part of a romantic holiday party at 8 p.m.

By day, Wade is president of a Queen City arts outreach program.  But by night, she’s out to keep jazz alive.

“I mean real jazz.  I don’t mean ‘lite jazz.  I mean real jazz.  Classics.  Hot, hot, hot.  Not milky smooth,” as she put it.

Milky smooth is code for Norah Jones and Diana Krall.  The crossover stars.  And that ain’t Wade.

The likes of Rosemary Clooney, Shirley Horn and Nancy Wilson are her girls.  The real divas, as Wade will gladly tell you.

Nor does she dig smooth jazz – that emasculated, but hugely popular, version of jazz peddled by one Kenneth G.

“Do you like your jazz lite or hot?  The hotter the better,” Wade declared this week from her downtown Cincinnati office.  “The Kathy Wade sound is a new twist on an old tale, but with a thorough understanding of how the tale is supposed to be told.  I met a guy just the other day and he actually asked, ‘Do you scat?’  My God, yes.”

On Friday night, then, expect a heaping of jazz standards when she takes the stage with pianist Khalid Moss’ trio. 

Admittedly, Wade’s ongoing mission is to “get people back to regular jazz.”  She does that with Learning Through Art, the outreach organization she formed with her late husband 12 years ago. 

“I’m introducing jazz to kids at an early age,” she explained.

On Wednesday, Wade started visiting local schools to talk about her genre of choice.  In what’s become a 20-year labor of love, she traces the history of jazz music from Africa, than all of the steps and obstacles it’s taken on.

 “I had this concept of tracing the history of jazz, so that kids could see it is America’s classical music.” Wade said.

 With a bachelor’s degree in sociology and master’s in arts administration – not to mention that, while growing up, she always was the only kid on the block who had even heard of Dave Brubeck – Wade was ideally suited for it.

 By taking jazz to the kids, Wade has a shot of winning her war.  After all, adults already have made their minds up.

 “Suddenly, someone decided jazz was too avant-garde and too intelligent to understand,” she grumbled. 

Maybe that’s why people in Cincinnati, where Wade could be considered a star, call her “the first voice of a new era.” 

“It is an era of listening again,” she said.  “But rather than going back to basics, it’s going into the future with history.