Second Cup Café: Holiday Music
The Saturday Early Show's Second Cup Café usually invites a guest performer to give the audience a musical thrill.
In our special holiday edition of Second Cup Café, three powerful singers take the stage to sing three Christmas songs.
Jazz virtuoso Eliane Elias, R&B star Heather Headley and rock 'n' roller Melissa Etheridge have each visited the Second Cup Café recently, and entertained us with their various musical backgrounds.
Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but now the jazz sensation calls New York her home.
The pianist/vocalist/composer performed a few of the recordings on her CD, "Kissed by Nature," for The Saturday Early Show's Second Cup Café on November 2nd.
Throughout her 16-year recording career, the Grammy-nominated Elias has been heralded as one of jazz's finest pianists. She played the piano at an early age, and was able to study the works of jazz icons with classical piano literature as her training. She performed in local jazz and bossa nova clubs, and taught piano and master classes while she continued her music studies. Her introduction to the international music world came when, at the age of 17, she started working with two of the most respected artists in Brazil, Toquinho and Vinicius de Moraes.
But the jazz scene in the U.S. became her true calling and she moved to New York City in 1981. In 1983, she became a member of the jazz-fusion group Steps Ahead and then launched her solo recording career in 1986.
Recently Elias was a featured performer in the critically-acclaimed documentary on Latin jazz, "Calle 54." The soundtrack album was nominated for a 2001 Grammy in the Best Latin Jazz Album category. In the same year, Elias was also nominated for a Grammy in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category for her album "Impulsive!"
Melissa Etheridge
Multiple Grammy-award winner Melissa Etheridge recently released a DVD, "Live and Alone," and she performed selections from it on a visit to The Saturday Early Show's Second Cup Café on December 14th.
The two-time Grammy Award-winner, known to some as "the female Bruce Springsteen," recorded "Live and Alone" during her 2001 solo tour performance at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. (The DVD is available in a two-disc Deluxe Edition and a single disc Standard Edition. All her greatest hits are in the deluxe package.
Since her debut release in 1988, Melissa Etheridge has received 11 Grammy nominations and has won two awards. She also received the prestigious ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award. Millions of people around the globe have attended her live performances.
Recently, Etheridge completed a successful North America tour with her band, performing her familiar hits as well as new yet-to-be-recorded songs.
Heather Headley
From Nubian princess to R&B star, Heather Headley has had quite a journey.
The singer stopped by The Saturday Early Showon November 9th to perform her single "He Is" and several other tunes from her album "This is Who I Am" for the Second Cup Café.
Headley is a self-proclaimed "Trinimerican," because she was born and raised in Trinidad. She left the island at 15 for Indiana and went to study communications and musical theater at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Some may recognize her as the star of the Broadway smash "Aida," where she won a Tony award for best actress in a musical. She also performed in 1997 in the role of Nala in Broadway's smash musical "The Lion King." But, she says, her dream was to record an album.
Headley achieved that dream with production help from R&B heavyweights, such as Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Dallas Austin, Shep Crawford, and Britain's D'Influence. She also co-wrote several songs on "This Is Who I Am."
Along with "He Is," Headley also performed "I Wish I Wasn't," and "Fallin' For You."