Page 12 - Susan Taylor

By Judith A. Habert
Photographs by Lisa K Miller

experts in this procedure. The focus of Dr. LeiLani’s Better Health and Well-
ness Center is “Beauty from the inside out.”

With her prosperous Health and Wellness practice and a growing family, Dr.
Vidal soon felt the urge to get back to her music. “This actually happened
because my children were all getting seriously into music and I started to
have a desire to share my love of music with them. I wanted to be able to
jam with all of them.” Ironically, all three of her children were very involved
in music, and they were all becoming very accomplished musicians. Her
daughter Alexa, 18, plays classical and jazz piano; son Dominic, 16, plays
the saxophone and bass, and her youngest Gino, 14, plays the trumpet,
bass and the piano. Dr. Vidal adds, “Watching them get more and more
into their music was exciting for me, and I decided to pick up my saxophone
again and get back to my childhood passion. What I soon found out was
how frustrating it was, because I was not as good as I had been as a child.
The years away from my music had diminished my skill, and I knew if I was
going to get back into playing the sax I would have to take lessons to get
back up to speed.” It didn’t take long for Dr. Vidal’s skills to come back and
she found that being able to share music with her children brought them so
much closer together.

It wasn’t until Dr. Vidal attended a conference called the “Warren Hill Sax
Summit” that she realized how rare she was. “I was the only woman in
attendance at the conference. It was one of the speakers who caught my
attention when he said that you didn’t have to be the best sax player, but
the key to success is setting yourself apart from others, being different. I
realized then that I wanted to create a female sax quartet.” Although, this
seemed like a great idea, Dr. Vidal realized the biggest challenge was going
I am often amazed at the many talented women around me. Just when you to be finding three other female saxophone players. Finally she found one,
think you know someone, which I must admit, is often based on physical who then led her to another, and before she knew it she had created her
appearance and attitude, do you realize that what you see is only a minute dream. An all-female saxophone quartet named “The Saxations.”
part of who they really are. Dr. LeiLani Vidal is a prime example of this.
By day she is a Doctor of Chiropractic and the founder of the Better Health
and Wellness Center. At night she trades her white coat for an edgy outfit What started out as a fun idea for Dr. Vidal soon turned into one of the hot-
and a sleek saxophone and becomes a member of the beautiful all-female test new groups in San Diego. The Saxations, which consists of four beauti-
Saxophone quartet known as the Saxations. ful and talented women LeiLani Vidal, Allison Boles, Kyrie Lombard and
Michelle Maynard. Their slogan, which says it all is “The Saxations, defining
Dr. Vidal was born and raised in Poway where she attended Poway High hot sax” The combination of beauty and talent on stage has produced stand-
School, and is today still a Poway resident. Growing up in a musical family, ing room only audiences at their recent performances.
she started performing with her parent’s band, Cam Vidal and the Blue
Notes, at the age of 11. A popular band at the time, they performed at wed-
dings, corporate functions and concerts throughout San Diego. By the time Dr. Vidal, accustomed to excellence in everything she does, decided to
she reached college age she decided she’d had enough music and would approach her new band as she did her primary business. “I decided to go
instead pursue a career as a chiropractor. Content with a break from music, out and get the best professionals to work with our band. So even though
Dr. Vidal attended Southern California College of Chiropractic in Los Ange- there are only four of us on stage performing, there are a lot of profession-
les, CA. It was only out of financial necessity that Dr. Vidal found herself als behind the scene, helping to make us the best we can be. We added
playing at some local events to help with her tuition and expenses. a musical director, Gerard Nolan, who was also my sax coach. Gerard
was very instrumental in hand picking our rhythm section with some of the
best San Diego has to offer." Dr. Vidal also found the best arrangers in
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology and, a Doctorate in the business to make The saxation's custom arrangements, such as Rick
Chiropractic, Dr. Vidal moved back to San Diego in 1992 and opened her Hirsch, musical arranger for Pennsylvania State University, and also well
first Chiropractic practice, in Rancho Penasquitos. Five years later the known smooth jazz musical arranger David Mann, who has composed many
growth of her practice led her to find a new location in her hometown of chart- topping smooth jazz hits and recorded with Rod Steward, Christo-
Poway. Branching out from her Chiropractic practice, Dr. Vidal decided that pher Cross, Madonna as well as many others. Dr. Vidal also joined forces
she wanted to grow her business to include health and beauty. She went with a professional singer from Memphis, LaDon Jones, who performs with
back to school to obtain training in Esthetics, and became an expert at lash the girls regularly and also a professional photographer well known in San
extensions. Today her company "Glitz Now" teaches and certifies other Diego, Lisa K. Miller, the magazine's photographer.