Valerie Day
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Valerie Day (born 20 November 1959, in Portland, Oregon) is an American pop and jazz singer.
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[edit] Overview
Day is a singer, percussionist, and arts education advocate. She comes from a fourth generation Oregonian family, growing up in Portland in a house filled with music. Her mother was a classically trained singer who performed everything from opera to show tunes. "Music was a constant in my life," Valerie remembers. "My brother and I used to sit under the piano while my mom rehearsed."
Day started piano lessons early, and discovered her passion for percussion at age of sixteen. " I was hanging around the rehearsals of a Calypso band called Felicidades," she says. "I started whacking on a drum and the conga player said 'not like that, like this.'"
In the early 1980s, Valerie studied music at Portland State University and the Cornish Institute for Allied Arts in Seattle, then returned to Portland and became immersed in the city's thriving nightclub scene.
[edit] Nu Shooz
In 1984, Day and her husband, John Smith, recorded a self-produced five-song EP as the group Nu Shooz. Listener reaction to their funky dance music track called "I Can't Wait," was strong and immediate. Airplay spread and the tune made its way to Europe, where a Dutch sound engineer created a remix that came back to the U.S. and caught fire in the New York dance clubs. The album, Poolside, was certified gold, "I Can't Wait" reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was in the Top 10 in Europe and the UK, and Nu Shooz was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best New Artist.
[edit] Singer and Session Player
When the musical landscape shifted and the ride ended, Day and her husband bought a house in Portland and had a son, Malcolm. Eventually, Day drawn back into music through teaching voice and lending her talents to other artists' recording sessions. "It felt good not to be married to a particular style of music anymore. I got to play the field musically."
She became an in-demand singer and session player, and has performed or recorded with artists; ranging from the Oregon Symphony Pops, to the pianist Michael Allen Harrison, celebrated jazz songwriter/pianist David Frishberg, African drummer Obo Addy and many others. She has appeared, as a vocalist and percussionist, on regional and national radio and television commercials for clients such as Nike, Hewlett-Packard and Fred Meyer.
In the late 1990s, Day began performing as one of the featured singers in the Woody Hite Big Band, an award winning group whose roots in the Portland area go back to the 1930s, when the Big Band sound began to emerge. Backed by key players from the Hite band, whom she dubbed "The Knights of Swing," and with husband John contributing arrangements, Day went into the recording studio and produced Beginning to See the Light.
Day's newest project is a recording of duets with the pianist Tom Grant, one of the West Coast's best-known jazz musicians. They have recorded a collection of vocal/piano duets that explores a wide range, from Tin Pan Alley favorites like "Side By Side," to modern standards such as "Up On The Roof" and "Charade."
[edit] Community Involvement
In addition to her music career, Day is one of the founders of Artists for the Arts, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds for arts education in local schools. Valerie has been closely involved in a number of other fundraising and outreach efforts.
