Album Rating: 4.0
this 2006 interview bangs too
“ “When I was younger, I could do a great Joni Mitchell imitation — I used to really nail it,” laughs Shira Small, the only African-American on the compilation, as we recline on a bench in Central Park. Small and her siblings came up in East Harlem, pretending to be everyone from the Temptations to the Marvelettes; Small could also mimic Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald to a T. Small sets a striking contrast with the other “ladies from the canyon” in more ways than one: Of her contemporaries on the disc she says, “There’s lots of talk about how short life is. And [my song] is how life never stops, how big it is. I have a strong spiritual core, but not that really religious thing.”
Having worked in the medical field for three decades, Small is glad stardom passed her by. She busked on subways and in the lobby of the Brill Building, but “I was such a flotation device, going with every single flow. I would’ve self-destructed.” As Small discusses her contribution to the album, her lip trembles and her throat tightens. She was a teen in the tumultuous Vietnam era when “Eternal Life” came to her. “I was finding out you had some control over how you were feeling . . . over whether or not I had to be in a bad mood all day long. And I had a couple of friends that were going through a depression, and . . . that song was directed to them. I didn’t write those lyrics, they just popped out of my head one night on my friend’s waterbed.” A smile now flashes as she recalls the setting. “We were probably stoned to the bone, knowing us.”
Small’s voice is brassy and bold compared to the effervescent warbling of the surrounding songs, and the contrast is not lost on her: “That light, airy tone . . . you think they’re just hovering in La-La Land, but some of that stuff is kind of dark.” Small conveys the struggle that you hear in Nina Simone, while also offering an uplifting message akin to the space hymns June Tyson used to sing for Sun Ra. “I’m the one with the heavy voice,” she says, “but I got the upbeat music going on.” At this point in our conversation, a nearby conga lesson gets the better of her and she taps out a polyrhythmic response, delighting the old conguero, and offering a glimpse into the musician still residing within. Small says later that being contacted by Ken Shipley and the Numero Group rekindled her creativity: She wants to write lyrics again, even if no one hears them.”
Imma hit up Shira one day pay that lady a visit
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