© 2024 WEMU
Serving Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, MI
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Rondi Charleston shows some promising 'Signs of Life'

With Signs Of Life, singer Rondi Charlestonbreathes new life into jazz classics and shares highly personal yet universal reflections on life. During Women’s History Month we are focusing on women of jazz and blues past and present. Rondi Charleston’s Signs Of Life is one of the most powerful and personal discs to be premiered this March.

In her notes, Rondi Charleston credits two important mentors: Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter. Following in their footsteps, Charleston writes songs that inspire us to consider the beauty and fragile nature of our world and songs that question our very genesis and future. Rondi also displays significant musical courage by covering Thelonious Monk’s “Reflections” with the John Hendricks lyrics first interpreted by Abbey Lincoln and Carmen McRae as well as a touching new lyric to Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints”. Abbey Lincoln was often quoted saying “unrequited love is a bore”.

There is nothing boring about Rondi Charleston’s Signs Of Life. It’s nothing new for us to premiere a singer-songwriter session on 89.1 Jazz, but Signs Of Life brings new energy, passion and deep thought to questions and concerns of life couched in flowing melodies. It was a very memorable premiere today.

Linda Yohn simply cannot remember a day in her life that was not filled with music. Her early life was full of changes as the daughter of a well-respected cancer research scientist who moved his family about, but one thing was constant: the love of music instilled by her mother. So, when it seemed life was too hard to bear, young Linda would listen to her radio, play her guitar, dance her heart out and sing at the top of her lungs. So, it isn’t so strange that “older” Linda still does all those things!
Related Content