Winters shares the “Secret of Life”

Heather Leszczewicz
OnMilwaukee.com Reporter

While she displayed “Pure Imagination” on her first CD, Ellen Winters lets Milwaukee in on her “Secret of Life” with her second.

Winters recently left her position at the Westown Association to dedicate herself fully to her music.

“The Westown Association was a wonderful place to work and I learned so much about the business world, event planning and about marketing. I’m grateful for the time I spent there; however it was becoming more and more clear to me that my music was not just a hobby,” Winters says. “It was becoming a second career and I realized that I wanted to focus my energies on my passion while I was still in a position to do so. Not many people even know what their dream is and I not only knew, but was in a position to actually pursue it — so I did.”

She says that her newest CD, “Secret of Life,” shows a maturation because she has grown as an artist and a person.

“‘Secret of Life’ was a fantastic journey for me both musically and personally. The process of recording was much more detailed than that of my first solo recording,” she says. “The project came out of a discussion with my producer/best friend Chris Cole, president of Chicago-based 251 Records, and took off from there.”

Cole and Winters shared a love for singer/songwriters, so they decided to create a CD that was a mixture of covers and original songs that were jazz oriented.

“We wanted to find more obscure tunes written by our favorite artists and turn them around to the jazz idiom. In the process, we found some originals by friends and a few collaborations I’d done with local jazz guitarist Steve Lewandowski and started make our ‘wish list’ of tunes,” Winters says. ” I found some tunes that really spoke to me that were written by friends like teacher/songwriter Jeremy Fox, Peter Eldridge of New York Voices, Brian Eichenberger of the Four Freshmen and Peder Karlsson of the Real Group and those quickly became ‘musts’ for the recording.”

The CD is rounded out with songs from Joni Mitchell, Harry Connick Jr. and other established artists.

Winters says that none of this would have been possible without hard work by her trio of Jim Ryan, Hal Miller and Sam Steffke. “This project would have been very different, (without them)” she says.

New York already celebrated the release of Winters’ “Secret of Life,” but this weekend she, and a few of her musical friends, will celebrate in Milwaukee, at Caroline’s Jazz Club, 401 S. 2nd St. Winters says that this weekend’s party should be less stressful than her Big Apple date, for which her CDs almost didn’t arrive in time.

“The CD release party in Milwaukee will be a blast, I know. After the stresses of the NYC release, I can enjoy the laid back, Milwaukee vibe and welcome friends, family and musical colleagues to help me celebrate this project,” she says. “I’m doubly proud to have utilized many of Milwaukee’s talented musicians on this recording and almost all of them will be there at the party. I deliberately scheduled the party for a Sunday afternoon so that many of my musician friends can attend. If I held it on a Friday/Saturday, I would risk losing about half of them to gigs.

“It was the perfect choice for my CD release party. I had my first one there in 2003 and it made sense to have the second one there as well,” she says. “Caroline’s was sort of my first musical “home” in Milwaukee when I moved back to town. A friend brought me to a jam session there in 2002 and they welcomed me with open arms and I started gigging with the Paul Spencer Band.”

After the CD release party, Winters will make her theater debut with In Tandem for “A Cudahy Carolers Christmas” at the Marcus Center for Performing Arts.

OnMilwaukee.com

OnMilwaukee.com
Review By Jason Keil
November 2003

Jazz vocalist Ellen Winters has impressed audiences for several years, either showcasing her brassy vocals as a group singer or as a solo artist at venues such as Caroline’s Jazz Club.

She has received rave reviews for her local performances and the show “Harmony,” which she performed in New York with her longtime friend and fellow musician Sara Kuehl. Despite her talent and success, it took her colleagues five years to get her to record her debut album, titled “Pure Imagination,” the first release from Chicago-based jazz label 251 Records.

“I didn’t want to make a CD for a long time because I’m a group singer,” the musician recalls, “I didn’t think I had anything to say as a soloist. I was scared.”

Winters decided to conquer her fears armed with her vivacious voice and a different take on her favorite jazz standards. Inspired by the quick recording methods of Miles Davis and the thrill of collaborating with musicians Rob Cookman, Shawn Sommer, Vance Okraszewski, Jeremy Fox and Christopher Cole, “Pure Imagination” was recorded in Chicago in only two days. The experience was an exhilarating sensation for the one-time English major.

“It was energetic and exciting. We had to take some time and create arrangements on the fly, which is part of what I love about the project. I wanted to do songs that I really loved. I thought I could offer a new spin on them. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s extremely collaborative and created by all of us in the studio.”

She could be rubbing some funk on “My Funny Valentine” or adding some zip to an Alan and Marilyn Bergman tune, but Winters handles the 11 standards, including one she penned herself, on the album with maturity and proficiency. That’s why it’s hard to believe that the 34-year-old started taking music seriously only 10 years ago, an age when most musicians already have a wealth of experience under their belts.

“I came into music kind of late,” she says, “Until (I was 24), I did it just for fun and was singing in choir. I ended up attending a workshop. (My teacher) said, ‘You’ve really needed to consider taking this more seriously. You’ve got a natural talent, but you will have to work really hard to catch up.”

That teacher was esteemed director, pianist, and Grammy-nominated arranger Phil Mattson, and he put Winters through a “musical boot camp.” For nine long months, she played catch-up and learned to read and play music.

“It was the most intense experience in all my life,” she reminisces, “It was horrid and I hated it and I loved it all at the same time. I still feel like I’m catching up, but at the end of that workshop, I started teaching it.”

Even her live performances defy normal conventions. Combining elements of a jazz performance and a cabaret show, Winters prides herself on making her show one the audience won’t soon forget.

She describes: “I love to engage and interact the audience. Normally, jazz musicians build up a wall between themselves and the audience. I tend to be more real. I think it’s more engaging for an audience member to feel like they are part of the show.”

Winters’ determination comes from a strong love of jazz that she shared with her father, who died when she was 19 years old.

“The year after he died, they created a vocal jazz program at the University of Minnesota. I went to it to keep him alive. It was something he had loved and it was my way to feel closer to him. Little did I know it was where I belonged.”

It’s her ability to cut loose that continues to keep audiences entertained.