There’s no slowing down legendary vocalist Marilyn Maye. At age 96 she is just as strong today as she was when she was discovered by Steve Allen in 1963 who had Maye on his show many times (as did Johnny Carson). She would release her first album, Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye in 1965.
Maye is closing out 2024 with a series of performances in New York at Birdland Jazz Club from December 27th – December 31st with two shows nightly (except for December 30th).
Earlier this month I spoke with Maye about her remarkable career, the joy she still finds in performing (which is why the word retirement doesn’t enter her vocabulary) and how she approaches the songs she performs. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.
Q: Those who who bought records back in 1965 got to Meet the Marvelous Marilyn May with your first album. The first song on that album is Get Me to the Church on Time. What do you think your reaction would be if you went back and listened to that recording today?
They are timeless because I had a who’s who on them. All the big full orchestras, big bands. They were a who’s who of musicians. They were fabulous. And Peter Matz and Don Costa – wonderful charts. So I’m still very proud of them.
When you hear some of those tracks, do you recognize that young woman from 60 years ago?
I’m [singing] much higher in those days and I’m younger, obviously. And I think I sound younger. Today the keys are lower, I say proudly. With people that are still singing, I guess it’s an ego thing that people still say, “No, I’m singing it in the same key.” Well, I always want to say to them when you reach a certain age, it’s okay to lower the keys. Your voice gets more mature and you sound you sound better in a lower key. But some of my people that I coach every now and then, you know, they’ll say, no, I sing the same key. But you’re not sounding great in that same high key. So my keys are have all been lowered and I’m proud of it.
At this point in your career, you’ve sung thousands of songs thousands of times. How do you approach each performance so that performance is fresh for you?
As if it’s the first time I ever sang it. Every time you do the lyric, you think the lyric. You don’t think about going shopping tomorrow or what I’m going to do tonight, or who’s in the audience. My mind is always on what I’m saying in the lyric. And new things happen melodically, not lyrically. Sometimes you find another note that you sing improvisation.
I sing to the audience, not for them. I don’t close my eyes and sing, you know, because that would be me singing for myself. So I look at my audience because I’m so glad they’re there. I’m grateful that they show up and buy a ticket and come to play with me for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. And I’m very honored that they’re there. So they’re the stars. They’re the people that are the most important in this performance. It’s my job to help them have a good time.
But doesn’t life experience inform how you approach a song?
Sure. And the meaning can change. So if you think the lyric, vocally sometimes you add some notes here and there. Because after all, we do sing some jazz. But I don’t tamper with it much. It’s true to the melody and through the lyrics. Although I am known to write an intro or an ending or some special lyrics here and there and that’s entertainment.
You’ve said for quite some time that lyrics are what drive a song for you. Are there any particular lyricists whose work you think stands head and shoulders above others?
Well, of course, we love Sondheim. We all love Sondheim. My very favorite for lo these many years is Johnny Mercer. I love Johnny Mercer. I think he was the best. There’s so many. I don’t choose a song unless the lyric says something and has a message or a varied lyric so that it’s always fresh with me. I try to keep it fresh all the time.
I read that you put your set list together very last minute or fairly close to fairly close to showtime anyway.
Not really. That is a misnomer. No, I give it thought. By this time, I’ve put together a lot of set lists and thank God I’ve lived long enough that I have done a lot of sets. So is there a pattern? Yes, there is a pattern and a belief in my set list. It’s not put together just haphazardly or because I like that song, I’ll open with it. It has to say something. It has to be something that they hear for the first time. For the first three numbers at least, it’s about the audience.
As you’re talking about setlist, I’m suddenly flashing on a memory that I had at the Cafe Carlyle where I saw Elaine Stritch do for her second song, Rose’s Turn (from Gypsy).
She was good and wonderful and had a great career. So whatever worked for her.
Could you imagine doing Rose’s Turn as a second song?
Because the lyric is so important it’s got to be happy and up tune. The ballads are down in the middle of the show and and the heartbreakers are very late in the show. We hope we’ve made everybody happy and then we do the heartbreakers. One of my most requested songs is Guess Who I Saw Today. And we always follow that with Fifty Percent. So it’s the wife and she saw the husband and then Fifty Percent is the woman that the husband was sitting with and that’s the other woman. So those sad stories can’t come too early in the act, I don’t think.
A lot has been made this year of Taylor Swift and the Swifties and all the concerts that she’s sold out. You are also selling out on a regular basis.
Her crowds are larger. I should learn a Taylor Swift song, although I don’t think I’ve ever heard one.
The level of attendance that you have at your shows is remarkable because we don’t think of jazz shows and cabaret shows as having this kind of following. But you do. How does it feel?
I’m so grateful to that. I appreciate that. That’s why I say the audience is the star, because they do come and I’m so grateful. You build a relationship with them as time goes on. There are so many people in the audience that I know have been there loyally, many, many, many times. And they’ll say, I’m so glad you did some song that they’ve heard, I don’t know how many times, but it doesn’t seem to upset them if we repeat various songs. Because that’s what they came to hear, the songs they like.
But what do you think the reason is this relationship has developed and remains as strong as it is? It can’t just be the audience. There has to be the Marilyn Maye component of this.
Well, I do meet and greet afterward, and I think we get acquainted that way. And I think we get acquainted during the act. There again, it’s like I’m talking to you. I’m not talking at you. You’re in California and I’m in New York City. But I love it that we can communicate. And I appreciate that you’re there, just like I appreciate every seat that’s occupied with people that want to hear my music.
You have worked with music director Billy Stritch. In an interview he called you his Auntie Mame.
I was singing in Houston, Texas, and he lived in Sugarland, Texas. He was 17. I was singing in a club and somehow he must have had a fake idea or something because he got into the club. It was a club where I would work one show and then I’d kind of mix with all the audience and they would stay for two shows. During that intermission time between the first and second show, he would find me and asked me, I noticed that you modulated down. Everybody else changes keys and they modulate up. What makes you do that? And I said, what a great question and I’ll talk to you later. He was so aware of the arrangements and the things that I did vocally. He was a bright young man.
You’ve recorded some of the songs from Mame. Do you think you share any qualities with her?
With Mame? Well, I did. Was she rich?
She married well.
Okay, I didn’t. But in other ways, yes. I think she was very positive thinking and you better be if you want to be in this business. I don’t know anything else but this business in my life. That’s how I make my living and it’s very important to me to do what I do and do it well. And there again, to have the people out there listening to it.
Michael Feinstein said in a story about you in the New York Times that you are “A life force that awakens something in other people.” Who are the life forces or what are the life forces that awaken something in you?
Just people that are not ambitious. People that are energetic. That, if they’re in this business, they love what they do and convey it to an audience of people. That know they’ve got to sing it in the right key. Just positive thinkers. I’m so blessed in that I have a lot of people that are so very good to me and helpful to me and aware of what my business is. That’s part of what will be fun New Year’s Eve, those kinds of feelings. I’m really blessed.
How do you think your relationship with these songs that you perform from the Great American Songbook is influenced by the fact that you’ve been around long enough to remember when they were fresh and new as opposed to if somebody were to record those songs today who’s maybe 25, 30 years old? How do you think your relationship with these songs impacts the way you perform them?
That’s the very thing that I’m saying. I try to keep them fresh and new. I think that way it’s always new. I try to convey that it’s a new story. I don’t think it’s monotonous or it’s something that I that I’ve done so many times that I’m bored with it. No, I’m not bored with any of the music that I sing. I love the Great American Songbook and believe in those lyrics and believe in the stories and believe that the positive stories are great for the people to hear. Or maybe they identify with it. That’s fine if they identify with it and lived through it.
When you were nine years old, you won a talent contest in Topeka, Kansas and you got a big prize of $3. If that nine year old girl was to be at Birdland for New Year’s and watch you perform, what do you think she would have to say about everything you’ve done so far and all that’s ahead of you?
I hope she would say I want to do that. I want to do what she’s doing. New Year’s Eve is, to me, a time about love. Most of the show is a love story and we hope positive. Except that I know I’ll get requests for Guess Who I Saw Today and Fifty Percent. So it’ll be a great time. It’s always a party. If you want to have a party around New Year’s Eve, come to Birdland. You know, I opened that theater some time ago and I cherish that room. It’s intimate and warm and we’ll have fun.
To watch the full interview with Marilyn Maye, please go HERE. She sings excerpts from songs throughout the interview. You won’t want to miss that.
Photo of Marilyn Maye courtesy Birdland Jazz Club.