The JOI of Jazz

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Donny Thompson 0:18
You're listening to 91.5k U, N, V, jazz and more. And this is jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz. I'm your host, Donnie Thompson, and this program is underwritten by d'agostinos Trattoria, a small local, family owned Italian restaurant at the corner of West Flamingo and buffalo, specializing in classic, always scratch Italian favorites, handmade pastas and desserts. For more information, go to d'agostinos lv.com and in studio today, I'm excited to welcome singer Patty Asher. Welcome Patty to the joy of jazz.

Patty Ascher 0:52
Oh, thank you so much for having me super happy to be here. Patty,

Donny Thompson 0:56
you grew up in Brazil, so it should be no surprise that you have a focus on those wonderful rhythms and your music, both classic and really cool interpretations of pop music. Tell us a little bit about your musical roots. How'd you start up? Yeah.

Patty Ascher 1:08
So my father was a musician, so music was part of my life since I was a little girl. In my family, all my cousins, they play, they sing, they do something like that, right? So it's a natural thing for me. I started later, to be honest, I was not professionally speaking. I started, I recorded my first album. I was 35 already, but music was always there since I was a little kid and enjoying and it's part of my life, for sure.

Donny Thompson 1:40
And so you have obviously a presence on Spotify and other places, 35 million streams, I guess, right,

Patty Ascher 1:46
yes, and growing isn't super cool. I feel very happy that people, they enjoy the music that I can do, you know can offer. When did you get to Vegas? Well, I moved to Las Vegas in 2013

Donny Thompson 2:01
12 years ago, and before you, before that, I think was it 2011 you're on the MDA Telethon with, yes,

Patty Ascher 2:08
yes. It was 2011 the last one with Jerry. And I came to Las Vegas to perform at a telethon, and it changed my life forever.

Donny Thompson 2:18
Yeah, is that where you met your husband? Because there's a connection there. Isn't there,

Patty Ascher 2:21
yes, yes. So my husband, he is the son number five of Jerry Lewis. So that's why my My name is Patty Asher Lewis. I have the Lewis. So I came to perform 2011 at the show the MDA Telethon, and it changed in my life because I met him and and I'm

Donny Thompson 2:43
still here. You went on tour with Michelle grand and yes, I had the

Patty Ascher 2:47
great honor in my life to do I did two tours with Michelle, and it was a life change experience, for sure, his

Donny Thompson 2:56
windows of my mind plays around in my head. I'm thinking about it right now because my grandmother had a music box in her house, and I used to play it. It played that over and over. I still remember that song. Yeah.

Patty Ascher 3:07
You know, this is something I would like very much to do, to record an album just singing Michelle, the songs are amazing. And by the way, it's a great opportunity to bring all those songs to the new generation, because sometimes I'm talking with my son of his friends, and they don't know who is Michelle le grand, believe it or not, so it's time for us to to rescue and to talk and to sing those beautiful songs. For sure. I

Donny Thompson 3:36
hear you. It reminds me of a Billy Crystal joke that he told years ago on his album marvelous. I think it was where he said his kids asked him, Daddy, is it true that Paul McCartney was in a band before wings?

Patty Ascher 3:48
Yeah, that that's where we are now, right? So we were talking about the great names of jazz, right? But the new generation, essentially, they don't know very well who they are, yeah.

Donny Thompson 3:59
So you brought some music with us. I'm excited to get into and since it's spring, I figured we'd listen to springtime. You must tell a little bit about wonderful

Patty Ascher 4:07
springtime is my own composition, and I was a Grammy nominee because of the song, original song. So it's very close to my heart, and we record all the strings. It's real. Okay, so this is, it's a great joy when you are in a studio with orchestra and do it all. So I'm very happy that we can hear that song now

Donny Thompson 4:30
from the 2010 album, do jazz, no Samba, spring time from Patty Asher. Oh.

Patty Ascher 4:53
Springtime is coming, but I'm still learning. All to play without you. Springtime is here, but I'm not feeling the dream.

Oh, can I fall in love again? Peter's

The brightest star. Kids are playing more in

the springtime, please come To

me guide a little bit and tell me. Oh.

Nature's the righteous. Nature's the brightest come to me and tell me and tell me endlessly

and tell me to

fly Welcome

Donny Thompson 7:04
back to jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz, underwritten by diagostinos Trattoria. This is your host, Donnie Thompson, and if you're just joining us, we're visiting with singer Patty Asher Patty, welcome again. Oh, thank you so much. I'm super happy to be here. So springtime, that was a great song. You want to tell us a little bit about the music, you know, how did you come up with the lyrics and the music? Did it? Did the music come first? Did the words come first?

Patty Ascher 7:28
Yeah, that's a good question. Have a partner in Brazil, a big Maestro over there, so he helps me with everything as well. And that's very interesting, because I came to us to perform at the telethon as we spoke before. And I'm not sure why, but when I went back to Brazil, I wrote all the songs, I did it all, and the album was good to go. So I don't know it's, it's an inspiration that comes from a different place, right? And then we do all together. In my case, I do both together, lyrics and melody as well.

Donny Thompson 8:04
Was that produced with? Is it Roberto manescal? Roberto

Patty Ascher 8:08
maniscal, he's one of the Bolsa Nova fathers, and he produced my first album singing Burt Bucha, Greatest Hits. So the album was a big hit in Brazil. Changed my life because I won a Golden album in Brazil, Mexico, France, Japan. So I started to travel and to tour all over the world. Thing thanks to Roberto meniscal and the first album that we recorded together. That's a pretty hefty mentor you have there. Oh my goodness, he's my personal friend, very close friend. Every year I go to Brazil, I visit him, and now we're finally planning to to to record another album together.

Donny Thompson 8:49
I hope it will happen this year. Are you going there? Is he coming here?

Patty Ascher 8:53
I'm going there. Yes. So meniscal, he's now 87 so it's a little challenging for him to be traveling, but he's very active, still producing, doing shows, doing it all. So for me, is is a big gift that I can be there with him and record again. Let's talk

Donny Thompson 9:10
a little bit about your touring with Michelle Legrand, because that's a that's a huge part of your life, right?

Patty Ascher 9:14
Yes, I'll be honest, it was amazing. Not easy, not easy at all, but I learned a lot with him, and it was a great honor for me.

Donny Thompson 9:27
You played some great venues too, didn't you? What are the some of the places you've played?

Patty Ascher 9:30
Yes, we did the Kennedy Center. We did the Barbican in London. We did the play el in Paris, all the big rooms and in Brazil as well, big rooms, Sala San Paolo, big orchestras was, was a life change experience, for sure. I'm

Donny Thompson 9:48
always interested with people that have toured, what lessons they bring from the road into their regular lives there, there are always some kind of lessons, how you work with others, how you cooperate with others, how you live your day. Day to day existence. Tell me about something that you thought struck you from your road work, that you bring into your everyday life. Oh, absolutely.

Patty Ascher 10:07
When you travel a lot, you understand that music is very important, but it's just part of the deal. It's not everything, because it's a team effort. It's a team work, if one of the musicians, if he or she is not feeling well, or if the sound engineer is not 100% there, then you you're in trouble. Nobody will say, Oh, the sound engineer is not feeling well, no. Everybody will say, Oh, this is a terrible show. I want my money back. So basically, I learned that it's a team effort. We need to work together to make it happen together. The artist alone can do nothing. We're nothing at the end of the day. We are depending on the musicians, the sound engineer, the light guy, and everything else. So it's a it's a wrong sensation that because you are in front of the microphone, maybe you are more important. You're not. Absolutely not. That's what I learned. I've

Donny Thompson 11:11
also heard stories from people that have gone through audition processes and so forth that have said, especially with rode to be on the tour, is that it's not just a matter of you have the best musician, let's say, for this particular tour. But does that musician also have a great personality? Because if they clash with other people, it just makes it miserable. Oh,

Patty Ascher 11:32
absolutely, it's like a family. Absolutely, we need to respect each other, understand each other, work as a team, and there's something important your own profile. So in my case, I'm very organized down to earth, and that's the kind of people that I try to connect with as well, even in my gigs here in Las Vegas, my the musicians, the band, they are very similar to me down to earth, simple people. We work as a team, because that's the way it should be done, in my opinion. We're

Donny Thompson 12:07
going to listen to another song from do jazz no Samba. Let's take a break and listen to some more of that. This one we picked out is also from that album, Taves, that's in your native language, which I've always found musical, even when it's just spoken. What does Dave mean? And what is the poems message when we listen? Yeah, this

Patty Ascher 12:26
is a beautiful song, by the way. So Dave means maybe, and the message is talking that maybe someday we will see each other again. So it's a love song, wishing that time, time will pass, but the love will still be there. It's a beautiful song. I'm very happy that you picked this song.

Donny Thompson 12:47
It's a great sentiment as well. How did you was this recorded here in town? Or was this recorded? No,

Patty Ascher 12:53
we recorded in Brazil. Yeah, all musicians. It's a very special project, my second album, because we invited 10 big maestros in Brazil, and they wrote the strings. So each song has a different Maestro writing strings for the song. So it was a big project. It was like one year working on that, because they were all so busy to do everything. But we did it. We conquered it. It's a beautiful album.

Donny Thompson 13:22
It's really well rounded too. It seems like every song stands on its own, but they all are woven together really beautifully. You

Patty Ascher 13:28
were right. Do you speak Portuguese? Because you're right. All the lyrics are connected. There's a message, there's a storytelling that album, and it's related to the four seasons of the year. So we have spring time, we have the summer, we have the fall, we have the winter. So it's very interesting, the concept, and it's from another time. Donnie nowadays, we release one song and then another song. At that time we released the album. So we had a message through the the album, the concept, yeah, again

Donny Thompson 14:04
from her 2010 album, Do jazz, no Samba, here's Patty Asher. Tell this you.

Patty Ascher 14:29
Nose,

I say. Days, Please, Hey,

Dave, no say,

If it was Simply,

about you? Donna,

Donny Thompson 17:08
welcome back to jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz, underwritten by d'agostinos tratria, this is your host, Donnie Thompson, and I'm joined again by singer Patty Asher Patty, I'm interested to know more about the collaboration you have with Tom Lyons. You mentioned before this last break that you reach you're doing more individual singles now, rather than full albums. So, and I've been listening to some of this stuff. It's really cool treatments of music that I personally grew up on, things like ahas Take on me Every Breath You Take from the police, and really cool things like that. And it just takes me back to high school, but in a way that is really unique. You know, it's got that sort of bossa nova Brazilian flair to it. Yeah, Tom, tell me about this. Yeah,

Patty Ascher 17:48
Tom Lyons, he's a local musician, Maestro, arranger, and I'm so lucky that I met him, and now he's a dearest friend, and we are developing this wonderful project. So we are recording only 80s hits, and you're right, that's from the time that we wore in high school. So it's super cool because he is doing only acoustic versions of these songs. It's not essentially Bossa Nova is like pop jazz. I don't know where we are with everything, but anyway, and I'm enjoying every minute when we are recording the arrangements, the process with him, because he does it all. He does the arrangements. We record everything together, and he is doing all the mixing as well. So it's a very unique process when you have a music creator, really creating everything. I'm only the singer, nothing else, but I am. I am enjoying very much, and it's giving me a chance to record again, because I released my second album in 2010 no 2011 and since then, I never recorded anymore. So it's great to be back in studio, and now I want to do it more and more and more. I have at least more three big projects in studio that I'll start to do this year, including with Roberto maniscal. So let's do this. Yeah,

Donny Thompson 19:20
how are you selecting the songs? And what is the decision process you and Tom have determining each one to make them uniquely yours? Yeah,

Patty Ascher 19:27
that's, that's, that's very interesting. So basically, I, I always make, like a big list. If from that big list, he picks the songs that he believes he he likes more, or the arrangement will be better, or whatever is his decision. But it's not easy, because we have so many great songs that we want to record. I told him, I said Tom, we'll be recording the 80s like forever, because we have, like, 100 songs to do. And I. And it's super cool because it's only big hits, right? So a lot of people, they ask me, Oh, you are, you are recording covers now? I said, Yes, but they are very different. So it's worth to to listen and to see the that we did a different, different version for these songs. Yeah,

Donny Thompson 20:17
they're really interesting interpretations. And you're right. You know, you and I grew up in the 80s. As far as I'm concerned, best decade for pop and rock, absolutely the

Patty Ascher 20:27
Brit pop. Come on. And we are planning amazing songs to record. We will absolutely record like Careless Whisper. That's George Michael. You know, all the good stuff. I cannot wait now,

Donny Thompson 20:40
of course, famous Portuguese singer Steve Perry, you got to do something with either him or journey, right?

Patty Ascher 20:44
Yeah, why not? I'm ready bring them all. So we're going

Donny Thompson 20:49
to listen to one of these more recent recordings. And I'm kind of excited about this one, because, you know, I'm a huge Michael Michael Jackson fan. Before we introduce it, I want to just make sure the audience knows where they can find this music, and if they'd like to explore your catalog more, where can they find you?

Patty Ascher 21:07
Yeah, so you can check all platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. Just look for my name, Patty Asher, and you will find me.

Donny Thompson 21:16
Patty Ashton. THAT'S A, S, C, H, E, R, if anybody else? There's one? Yes, it's

Patty Ascher 21:21
not a typical Portuguese, Brazilian name. But anyway, it is my name that I know, and

Donny Thompson 21:28
I found you very easily on YouTube and Spotify, and you know your website, Patty asher.com, yeah, that's great. So Well, it's been great learning more about you today. Thank you for our listeners, for tuning in, sharing the show with others. And of course, to our friends here at KU and V 91.5 jazz. And more especially, our producer Wesley Knight and the whole team. Thanks again to d'agostinos Trattoria for underwriting the joy of jazz. And if you would like to hear more information about jazz outreach initiative, the jazz Vegas orchestra and its nearly 30 performances this year, our many youth jazz programs and ways you can participate. You can find us easily@jazzvegas.org Okay, Patty, give us a quick intro into this song. This one's an interesting interpretation of the iconic 1979 Michael Jackson hit rock with you. Also available on Spotify under your patty Asher page. How did you pick this one and what did you do with it?

Patty Ascher 22:21
You know, we all love Michael Jackson, isn't it? So I think all singers in the world, we want to record Michael Jackson and and basically, this song means a lot to me. I was a little girl in Brazil, and I heard all the time on the radio, and especially with Tom. Tom, Tom, he did a version for this song that it's soft and light and elegant, and I think it was perfect match to the lyrics to the way I'm singing. So I hope you guys, the listeners, will enjoy as much as I did

Donny Thompson 22:55
from Patty Asher and Tom Lyons. Here's rock with you. You

Patty Ascher 23:19
girl, close your eyes. Let that rhythm get into you. Don't try to fight it. There is nothing that you can do. Relax your mind. Lay back and Groove with me. You gotta feel that here, and we can run a boogie, share that bit of love. I wanna rock with you.

Hello, yes, you went to the day. I wanna rock with you. We're gonna rock the night away, out on the floor there ain't

nobody there but

us. Girl, when you dance, there's a magic that must be lost. Just take its nose. Slow, because we got so far to go when you feel that here and we gonna arrive again? Shall that be tomorrow? I wanna rock with you. Oh, that you went to Dave. I wanna rock with you.

We gonna rock the night away

and when the groove is dead and gone. Yeah, you know that love survives so we can rock forever.

I wanna rock with you. Then

she went to the hay. I wanna rock with you. Rock with you whole night. We gonna rock the night away. Rock with you there. Oh, there she went to the sunlight. Rock with

you. Rock with you. We gonna rock that night away. How on a rock?

How wanna rock with you, not away.