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motivated. I know that's the truth about me, and when somebody tells me that I can't

do something or that I'm not good enough, I am very highly motivated.

I used to smoke cigarettes back in the day and my boyfriend at the time also smoked
and I said, I need to quit smoking because I'm a singer and I can't smoke and sing. I
want to be in this for the long haul. And so he says, well, why don't we start a running

program? I said, okay. He could run a mile the first
Bill Russo
day and I couldn't run around the block, and I was
so angry at the cigarettes that I was so out of shape,
I just threw them in the drawer, and I never smoked
again.

BiTS: You graduated eventually with a degree in
music, I guess, from Columbia College. Did that
change your life?

LM: Actually, it did. Actually, it did because Columbia
College, having that piece of paper from Columbia
College filled a gap in my soul. And Columbia College,
when I went there, I don't know what it's like now,

I've never been back since I graduated, but at that
time, it was extremely nurturing for artists and
creative types. I got such a great education there,
musical education. My department chair was the

great Bill Russo, who was an arranger. He learned
his craft from Ellington. He was in Ellington’s band as an arranger, and he worked
for Stan Getz, and he was first with Stan Getz and did his arrangements. This was the
guy that was leading the department.

BiTS: At what stage, Liz, did you consider yourself to be a professional musician?
Was there any kind of changing point when you got your own band or something
like that?

LM: Oh, I always had my own band. The thing about that was that nobody else wanted

to do it.

BiTS: Right.

LM: [Chuckles] Nobody else in the band wanted to be the band leader, make
decisions, book the gigs, do the marketing and publicity. It’s like that children's tale,

The Little Red Hen. Do you remember that one? It's like The Little Red Hen asked the
other animals, who will help me thresh the wheat so that we can have flour and I can
make a cake? And all the other animals say, not I, not I, said the rat, not I, said the cat.

I'll do it myself, said the little red hen, and she did. So that was how I ended up being
a band leader, and I’ve had my own band in Chicago for over 30 years.

BiTS: You've been called by somebody, a true blues singer and a fervent promoter
of the blues, a renaissance woman. How does that make you feel?