Ann Hampton Callaway answers five questions before the show in Pittsburgh

For jazz singer Ann Hampton Callaway, there’s a sure sign it was a good show.

“One of the things I love is that people laugh and cry with laughter, and then the straight men tell me they cry during some of my ballads. “So if I can make straight men cry, then I’ve done my job,” Callaway said with a laugh.

That will be the goal on October 13th when Callaway brings her Finding Beauty tour to City Winery Pittsburgh. In what she describes as “a very warm embrace of a show” and “chicken soup for the soul,” Callaway celebrates the 1970s songwriters who inspired her, including Carole King, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and more .

Callaway, who was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame last year, will also perform songs from her latest album, “Finding Beauty: Originals, Volume 1,” which debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes jazz chart. Although she estimated that she has written around 500 songs in her career, until this one, Callaway had never made an entire album of just her songs.

“So this seems like the perfect time to reveal my vision as an artist and a person that matters to me, with the incredible musical accompaniment that I was able to have on the record,” she said, “and I’m so happy “that it is so” was so well received around the world.”

Volume 2 is already in the works, with the first single “I Believe in America,” written after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, expected to be released in October.

Callaway spoke Friday in a call from St. Louis about updating the theme song for “The Nanny,” which she wrote and sang in honor of Kamala Harris, finding beauty in the world, cover songs and more:

They recently did a cover of the theme song “The Nanny” as a tribute to Kamala Harris. What sparked this idea?

This appears to be an extremely important election for the preservation of our democracy. And for anyone who wants to keep the fabric of this nation alive, there seems to be no smart choice other than Kamala Harris. And so I feel very, very inspired as an artist to do my civic duty and try to write something that’s fun and engaging and maybe maybe gets a little bit more votes, especially among young people who appreciate the playfulness of some of They enjoy the memes and some of the more entertaining aspects of Kamala Harris’ campaign, which represents a stark contrast to her opponent. So I teamed up with my sister, who sang backups to the original. And I also brought in Lissa Forehan, who did the art, which has a sort of “nanny” reminiscence of the original art. And then Jessica Fishenfeld made a wonderful video of it for us. And Fran Drescher decided at the last minute to join in and announce her support for Kamala, which reached nearly 3 million people. And I’m really happy to be able to make a difference with it. And I hope that it plays a small part in her becoming president.

As an artist, do you feel like it’s your responsibility to speak out on certain topics like this?

For me it is not a political statement. It is a human statement. There is so much more at stake than one party, and I am sometimes afraid to talk about politics, but in this case it seems morally necessary to be open and celebrate someone who I think has hope and new ideas and incredible energy and positivity brings perspective on things, as opposed to the – I mean, I don’t want to keep talking about someone who I think has caused enormous harm to an enormous amount of people. The thought of her opponent becoming president is extremely depressing to me, so I am doing what I believe is right for the good of all people, not just Democrats.

Speaking of “finding beauty,” how important is it for you to find and acknowledge the beauty in your life and in the world around you?

It’s very important and in my shows I talk about the person who first made me realize that this is a lifestyle, a choice, a way of life, and that was the great Anne Frank, who during the Holocaust her He wrote an extraordinary autobiography. And as a child, I was struck by how someone could go through such unimaginable pain and devastation and loss and still find beauty. And I thought to myself: This is the way to live and this is how I want to be. And so, as an artist, I want to share a perspective and remind people at all times of the beauty that surrounds us, no matter how challenging it may be. And it was a particularly powerful image for what I wanted to communicate when making this album during the pandemic. It was a time of great uncertainty, fear and loss. And so persevering seemed to be a very valued intention. And I try to do that every day of my life and look for the silver lining and the good in people when I don’t always see it right away. And I think that life is very meaningful and beautiful when you take this perspective.

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Do you still do improvised songs every night?

It depends on the time. I’ll do an improv in the show if it’s not too late and it’s one of my favorite things to do and the audience enjoys the craziness of it all. So there’s a good chance they’ll get one of my wild improvisations and I’ll call it a song for volume two of my new CD. I want them to help me write a hit, not just for Volume Two, but also for Barbra Streisand, because I really need to be on one of their next albums. (laughs)

How do you choose the cover songs you do? And then how do you make them your own?

The covers I do on this show are songs from incredibly important albums that changed my life. And I make them my own by looking at the text first. And I think about what does this song mean to me? And how do I want to express the energy of that? And how do I want to freshen it up and make it something that has my own perspective and helps people hear it in a new way? Sometimes we hear songs and just stop listening to them because they are such a part of our lives. And it’s like looking at the weather but not actually seeing and experiencing it. So I try, thank God I’m a pianist and a serious musician. And I try to explore the different faces of songs. And sometimes, for example in my arrangement of Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, I also looked at the history of how things came about. And he was really inspired by some important gospel music that he heard before the song came to him. And I think that the arrangement really didn’t have the gospel energy that inspired it. So my version is gospel, and it’s very, very soulful and powerful. And it has a little bit more of a sense of urgency. And that’s how I feel about life. That’s why I enjoy the creative challenges of making a song my own while honoring the songwriter who wrote it.