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Singer Morgan James entered the Juilliard School at age 18 as an opera student, but eventually abandoned that career path to pursue musical theater. \u201cFor a long time I wasn\u2019t sure what to do with the fact that I\u2019ve got this gigantic voice that doesn\u2019t quite match how I look,\u201d she says, \u201cso I ended up trying out lots of\u00a0different things to find my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a series of false starts, James found her teenage dreams turning into a reality on Broadway. She appeared in the original casts of The Addams Family<\/em> and Wonderland<\/em>, as well as the first-ever Broadway revival of Godspell<\/em>. Building on her newfound success, she began performing regular solo gigs at New York City nightclubs. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty grueling, working all day and all night,\u201d James admits, \u201cbut it\u2019s really taught me the importance of stamina and taking care of my body, my instrument. On Broadway you\u2019re in an environment of\u00a0constant creation, with so much creative energy swirling around\u2014it\u2019s so stimulating and inspiring to me.\u201d<\/p>\nOne result of James\u2019 intense work ethic is her debut album, Morgan James Live<\/em>, a modern fusion of soul, jazz and R&B. Recorded at Dizzy\u2019s Club Cola-Cola, a jazz club in New York City, the album features James\u2019 renditions of songs culled from the repertoire of Nina Simone. The California native puts a new spin on classics such as \u201cI Put a Spell on You,\u201d \u201cTell Me More and More and Then Some\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Be Misunderstood.\u201d Simone\u2019s vocal style\u2014along with her boundless ambitions\u2014have been influential in James\u2019 own musical development. \u201cNina refused to be pigeonholed into any one genre and she wasn\u2019t setting out to impress anyone,\u201d she says. \u201cThat sort of purity and lack of showboating means\u00a0so much to me as a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MORGAN JAMES HOMETOWN: Modesto, Calif. INFLUENCES: Etta James, Donny Hathaway, Eva Cassidy ALBUM: Morgan James Live, out now WEBSITE: morganjamesonline.com Singer Morgan James entered the Juilliard School at age 18 as an opera student, but eventually abandoned that career path to pursue musical theater. \u201cFor a long time I wasn\u2019t sure what to do with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83],"tags":[5741,5740,5742,5739,5743,5744,5475],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8524,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8521\/revisions\/8524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Morgan-James-Nov-2012.jpg\" "\\"Morgan-James-Nov-2012\\"")
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