There she is. Shiny as a new penny and filled with new life. It’ a strange experience for Paul and me to kick back on Monday nights and watch her on NBC. We are happy that it makes her happy and that she and Afro Blue are bringing jazz to a new generation. Whether they win or not, they have already won.
Liza always loved the stage, often, paradoxically, in a shy way. We didn’t know her voice had matured into a strong, clear soprano until we heard her solo in Guys and Dolls at Moon Valley High. She began the lines of “If I Were a Bell” and we both wept.
Her path to Howard was a private one. I don’t think she thought much about being in an environment where she would be a minority – she just went for it. And when she auditioned for the top a capella group, she was selected. It was that simple. Nothing special. On the bus I ride every day, she has a cheering section of five African American women who tell others on the bus about Liza noting that, “She’s the Caucasian one.”
When Paul and I were growing up, differences among races were like walls. Prejudice and anti Semitism were everywhere. A woman might be referred to as a Negress or a Jewess, just so you’d know they were the “other”. It wasn’t necessarily mean-spirited or thought through, just common practice. All kinds of ethnic distinctions were made – “Manny, the Portagee baker”, “ Gina the Italian woman from church”. Distinctions that our kids’ generation have thankfully set aside.
And there’s Liza getting to sing jazz – one of the greatest gifts that African Americans have given the world – and she joins the harmony of ten kids with the world in front of them.
You go girl!
