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The BiTS Interview: Jenny Langer

Known as ‘The Blues Pin-up” Jenny Langer is a powerful singer of jazz, blues and funk
who lives in Washington DC . With considerable experience of many kinds of music,

Jenny works with eight different bands and has just visited the UK to appear at the
award winning “Tuesday Night Music Club”, performing with The Boneshakers.

Ian McKenzie spoke to her on the telephone at her home.

JL: Hi, this is Jenny.

BiTS: Hello, Jenny. It’s Ian McKenzie.

JL: Hi, Ian. How are you?
BiTS: Let’s start at the very beginning. You live in Washington, DC. You

were brought up in California. What kind of music was there in your
house when you were a kid?

JL: Oh, that’s a great question. My mother and my
father listened to completely opposite types of
music, which I think really helped kind of push me
to be a more diverse musician later in life. My dad
was usually listening to rock music. He loved Pink
Floyd. He loved Led Zeppelin. He loved The Doors and
whenever he would take us to school, if he was driving, that’s what we
were listening to. My mom was always putting on Broadway music
and the big-belters especially, people like Bette Midler, for example,
and Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli. She had those albums on repeat
in the car, and as a kid, I was already involved in performances and
music. I did a lot of musical theatre professionally in San Francisco. I
was taking voice lessons by the time I was seven. I was doing talent
competitions all over the US. So music wasn’t just kind of in the
background. It was already a big part of my life at that age.

BiTS: That explains quite a lot because on your website, you are

described as part vamp, part glamour girl and all-commanding on
stage, and I guess that that experience holds you in good stead these
days.

JL: That would be it. That would be it [chuckles].

BiTS: You went to college at Berkeley College, which I think is in San
Francisco, is it?

JL: Actually no, people often confuse the two. There’s UC Berkeley, which
is based in Berkeley, California. I went to Berklee College of Music up in
Boston.

BiTS: Oh, okay. I didn’t realise that.

JL: Yes, and Berklee was the only college that I applied to. I knew exactly what I wanted to do
coming out of high school.