Mindi Abair
by Evan Scott
On stage, wearing hip hugger jeans, high heels and shoulder length blond hair highlighted with a black stripe on one side, you'd guess she was a pop singer the likes of Brittany Spears with a touch of Christine Agulara thrown in. Now, a woman playing jazz sax is not unusual in itself, but for a woman instrumentalist to work her way up the Contemporary Jazz ladder to become a name act, is a milestone. And, although most of her music features her sax playing, she sings on some of her tracks with a sweet voice that when I first heard it on the radio I thought it was Vanessa Carlton.
Her list of credits include:
Touring with the Backstreet Boys, Duran Duran, and Adam Sandler
Appearing on the big screen at Times Square
Playing the national anthem at several pro ball games
Appearing on the Drew Cary Show as the sax player in Mimi's band
"Best New Artist of 2003” at the Smooth Jazz Awards
Mindi also has a new, as yet unnamed, album coming out in April 2006.
This is just a tiny fraction of her work. You can see a long list of her credits and hear her music at www.mindiabair.com. In fact, click on her link right now, let the web page load, and sit back and enjoy; it will make great background music while you read the rest of this interview.
I arranged to meet with Mindi, at the concert hall, shortly before her show in Melbourne, Florida. Just the previous week Mindi had been on a Smooth Jazz Cruise with many other famous jazz artists, including the legendary Al Jarreau. This week she was touring with the Peter White Christmas Show. Tamara was tied up with other business and would be arriving later. As I navigated the back stage area I came upon Mindi exchanging a few laughs with fellow Jazz musician and trumpeter, Rick Braun. Mindi had just finished the sound check and was heading back to her dressing room. In black tennis shoes, jeans and a hoodie, she greeted me with a big smile and welcomed me in. She no longer had the black stripe in her hair from when I saw her last year as she toured with Craig Chaquico. It seemed to take away some of the wildness to her look but her smile was infectuous.
The following interview is only a few selected excerpts of the 40+ minute interview I had with her. If you want to skip the text transcription and hear the real Mindi and how much fun we had, go to the end of this article. You'll find a link where you can download the audio wave file of the complete interview.
I bought a digital dictation recorder just the day before so this was the first time I was using it, so I was flying on a wing and a prayer. Once we sat down, I fired up the recorder, but Mindi had already started talking about a gig in Jacksonville where her first saxophone teacher attended her concert.
MA: ...so yea well I better play well tonight! more >>
