Gena Chambers Talks Jazz and Soul in Charlotte Before Lovers’ Night Out

There was a time in the 1990s when Gena Chambers was keeping a roof over her head with karaoke.

The soul singer was living in Atlanta, where karaoke competitions were prevalent and rent was low.

“I paid rent by going and singing karaoke and doing karaoke competitions, that was the way of life then,” she told me. “That’s when rent was $400 a month, though … I went to a different karaoke bar once a week and had rent money by the end of the month. I could win $100 a week. Then with my other side gigs, it was easy to be a full-time musician then. As you know, now, that’s not the case. It was very different.”

The Columbia, South Carolina, native moved to Charlotte a couple years before Y2K, and after a seven-year hiatus that followed the birth of her two children, she eventually started exploring Charlotte’s music scenes. She’s gone on to enjoy a sparkling career, performing regularly at Charlotte venues like Middle C Jazz while also touring nationally at times.

One of her career highlights included performing in front of President Barack Obama and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the 2017 Democratic National Convention, though she’s also shared stages with the likes of jazz greats like Gerald Albright, Sheila E, Jonathan Butler, Oli Silk and Jazmine Ghent.

On Feb. 13, Chambers will team up with a few of her most common Queen City collaborators — bassist John “JD” Dillard, singer Mandyl Evans and vocalist trio TRS — for Lovers’ Night Out, a Valentine’s-themed show full of the performers’ favorite love songs.

In the lead-up to that, we caught up with Gena Chambers to discuss how she’s watched Charlotte’s jazz, soul and R&B scenes evolve since her arrival.

Queen City Nerve: Tell me a little bit about your musical upbringing. How early did you start singing, and at what age did you decide you wanted to pursue the art seriously?

Gena Chambers: Well, I’ve been singing all my life. I started, of course, much younger, singing in church. My dad is an awesome singer and he had a band, he sang in church. So I grew up around music my entire life. Everything was music. My brothers also play and sing. And I think at around maybe 15, my brother had a band. He’s older, but they always had a band. They practiced in the garage and I always said, “I want to do this.” I think the first gig I did with them was at the skating rink when that was a big thing. And after that, I just enjoyed it so much, the performing aspect of it, and I just continued to do it and hone my skills over the years. And this is where I am.

So how would you describe your style? I’ve seen you perform a few times and I know soul would be the best way for me to describe it, but I always like to allow musicians to sort of describe their own sound.

Well, first of all, I’m multifaceted when it comes to that because I sing many different genres of music. But I would say that, yeah, that would probably accurately describe me; I am a soul singer. I love gospel. I love R&B. I do some country. I do some hip-hop. I do a variety of different things because I love all genres of music. But yeah, I’m deeply rooted in gospel, R&B and soul.

Who were some of your biggest inspirations coming up as a young singer who was just starting to learn the ropes of making music beyond just going to church and singing?

My biggest inspiration was probably, like I said, my family, first of all, because it was so deeply rooted in us as kids and music was just such an everyday part of our lives. But I think listening to different artists back then, soul singers that my dad listened to were Aretha Franklin; Gladys Knight; Earth, Wind & Fire; The Brothers Johnson. It was endless. Jimmy McGriff, listening to the jazz side of it. The music itself really inspired me because everything made me feel something, you know what I’m saying? It’s just one of those things that when you listen to certain things, you realize how much music makes you feel a certain way. It can make you feel sad, it can make you feel happy. It’s just always been that for me. It just makes me feel good.

Coming here from Atlanta 29 years ago, what was the difference like for you in terms of trying to dip your feet into the music scene here in Charlotte?

It was very different. In Atlanta, the jazz scene was really big. There wasn’t a really big R&B scene. Most of the clubs we played in were jazz clubs. I had to really work and study the art and the craft of jazz if I wanted to work … It wasn’t until I moved to Atlanta that I really got into loving jazz the way I did. I listened to it a lot growing up, but studying it is something totally different. That was the only way I could work. That was my primary job.

I was a full-time musician and I did other little jobs on the side just to make ends meet. I paid rent by going and singing karaoke and doing karaoke competitions. That was the way of life then. That’s when rent was $400 a month, though. You could do that. It’s very different now. You can’t do that now. I went to a different karaoke bar once a week and had rent money by the end of the month. I could win $100 a week. Then with my other side gigs, it was easy to be a full-time musician then. As you know, now, that’s not the case. It was very different.

But leaving Atlanta, I played with some awesome musicians that really taught me a lot about the business, the performance side of things. When I moved to Charlotte, I knew a few people here on the music scene. I just went to jam sessions, just went from this place to that place and asked, “Could I sit in?” There were a few people that I knew. From the first day I got here, I met John Dillard, who’s an awesome bass player. We’ve been working and gigging for a long time. I did that for a while. I had two kids. I stopped singing for about seven years, give or take, then I came back on the scene doing the party band thing. The rest is history.

I just made sure that I talked to people. I went to places. I was able to find [the scene] and we have some really good guys to work with. From there, we just took the Charlotte scene, and here we are.

How would you describe the way you’ve seen Charlotte’s music scene change in the time that you’ve been here? What really sticks out to you in terms of how the jazz and R&B scenes have evolved here in Charlotte, specifically?

When I first got to Charlotte, of course, the club scene was a little different. I wasn’t on the jazz scene here. There was actually more R&B here, at least from what I knew. What they called jazz, when I got here, it really was not jazz. To me, it was more like smooth jazz. It wasn’t really like the straight-ahead jazz stuff that I had been doing in Atlanta. So it was definitely a lot easier to adapt because I was already doing a lot of that same stuff, but I wasn’t doing a lot of straight-ahead jazz. There were a few places here that I knew of then that were doing that, the straight-ahead that I enjoyed going to listen to, like at Sullivan’s and a couple of other places.

But over the years, I have actually watched the community really change. The level of musicianship now is amazing. There are so many people here that can sing. Everybody can sing. Everybody plays. Everybody in the music community here is pretty close. You may not know everybody but we’re all connected by somebody else in some other way.

I think it’s pretty cool how, over the years, we’ve seen people come from other cities and make this huge impact on our music community here. Just the level of musicianship that has come out of Charlotte is incredible. Charlotte has great musicians. There are places that have music right now that I’ve never been to because I work so much, but just seeing videos of it and things like that, there’s a lot happening in Charlotte all the time.

It seems like the opening of Middle C Jazz has played a big role in that. I know that you’re a regular there; yourself, JD, people like Noel Freidline and Maria Howell come to mind as some of the most established folks who perform there on a regular basis. How would you say Middle C has played a role in the evolution and growth of the local scene in these six short years it’s been open?

Wow. They’ve done an amazing job. They’ve provided a really great space. The space itself is just incredible. It really puts you in the mind of a New York-style jazz club. But they’ve created a space for that generation that really does not like the club scene but still likes the good music where you can go. It can be a date night, it can be a girls’ night, it can be just a night you just want to go hear some great music. They have such a wide variety of music for everybody.

It has opened up a space for us to really go in and be creative and be artists and do our original music, if that’s what we want to do. It has also allowed us to go in and do tributes to some of our biggest influences.

Read more: Middle C Brings Full-Time Jazz Back to Uptown (2019)

The space itself has opened a market for Charlotte artists to really come in and be their best and to showcase what they have. Because the caliber of musicians that come in there is incredible. And you know that because they’re from international to national to … I hate using local, because a lot of us really are not just local artists; we live here but we play all up and down the East Coast to the West Coast.

Middle C has really opened an upscale venue for us to really go in and cater to that audience that is really not into the club scene anymore. You want a really nice, safe environment, good food, good music, great people, good talent. That’s Middle C.

You mentioned you connected with JD early on upon moving to Charlotte. You’re playing with him and some other regulars for Lovers’ Night Out, including Mandyl Evans and TRS. What is it like for you to get to connect with these folks whom you play with all the time? Is there a lot of improvisation in your styles when you go into a show like this?

For Lovers’ Night Out, we pick love songs that we really connect with, personally, first of all. Second of all, we’re really all a huge family. Although we pick songs that we like, there’s a lot of improv on stage. We do the work before we get there, and then once we get on stage, everything is just about having fun, being able to draw the audience in to be a part of the show, participating with us.

Mandyl and I have a great time on stage. There’s always a lot of laughter. I’ve known TRS for years since they’ve been here. Putting a show like that together is really almost like a no-brainer for us because we play together so much. After the major work is done, which is learning the music at home and really working and rehearsing, once the show starts, all of that goes out the window and we just have fun.

It’s very natural. We do a lot of stuff sometimes that people don’t notice; it’s really not in the show but it becomes a part of the show because that’s just how we flow on stage because we know each other so well. That’s the thing about playing with people for so long is that you really can flow through your show in a way that a lot of it seems scripted, but a lot of times it’s not. It’s just us having a good time on stage with each other.

What are you listening to these days? We’re speaking on the day after the Grammy Awards; do you keep up with contemporary stuff like that or stick to your longtime favorites in the gospel/R&B worlds?

I do listen to some of the newer R&B, like October London, but I still love the old greats. I still listen to Chaka Khan, but also Fantasia. I like real singers, people that still sing about real things, real love, real issues. That’s what gets me. I’m old-school. I grew up and we sang about love all the time. That’s the space I live in.

I’m listening to some of the newer stuff because I sing with a party band out of Raleigh. We do a lot of Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus. I’ve done a couple of rock shows; I love Journey and Aerosmith and Cher. I do a Tina Turner tribute show that’ll be back this year in July, which is really a big show for me. We sell out every year. But I love that music. I love rock music. I grew up in that era, that ‘80s rock. I’m really eccentric when it comes to music. I do like some of the newer stuff — I do like some of the SZA stuff, some of the Kehlani — I do like some of that stuff, but I’m strictly, really old-school.

Lovers’ Night Out with JD, Gena Chambers, Mandyl Evans and TRS is scheduled for Feb. 13, with two sets, 6 p.m. & 8:30 p.m, at Middle C Jazz, 300 S. Brevard St.