Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Waters And The Colors Of Sound

There is a widespread tendency to superimpose racial identity on the singing voice and musical genres, and for many years, my own encounters with this left me struggling to understand the sense of alienation I felt when I was accused or celebrated as sounding "white." Throughout adolescence and early adulthood, I was constantly on the lookout for role models who looked and sounded like me. There was always a sense of tension between what people expected of me and the eclecticism of my own vocal style, musical tastes, and sensibilities.

In my early twenties, I discovered something about myself that would fundamentally change the way I understood music. I was in graduate school at the time, taking a course on the jazz core repertory. The assignment was to listen and analyze different versions of the same song. I went through several songs, but eventually selected Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind." After listening to several versions, including the definitive 1960 Ray Charles recording, I came across one by a vocalist that immediately sparked a moment of recognition. In my listening,