Meet Judy Wexler

Today we’d like to introduce you to Judy Wexler.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Judy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Los Angeles, and my parents always encouraged me to play music — piano studies began at age five. By the time I got to high school, I was acting in plays and musicals, continuing with piano study well into my college years. I attended the University of California at Santa Cruz as a double major in theater and psychology and appeared in more plays and musicals. After graduating, I focused on acting and moved to San Francisco. I formed a theater group with three college friends called Caught in the Act: a Theater Collective of Four Short Women, where we combined comedy, music and juggling with political theater. I also continued to act in plays and musicals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I met my future husband in San Francisco, and shortly after we met, we moved to North Beach — just a short walk from the storied jazz club, Keystone Korner. My husband was a huge jazz fan with a large record collection. He exposed me to all the greats, and we were fortunate that we could walk down the street on any given week and see a jazz luminary perform at Keystone. Although I didn’t know it at the time, this was the turning point in my life.

We decided to move back to Los Angeles, where I continued acting. I booked several TV shows, among them a guest starring role on “Frasier.” After several years of acting in L.A. while also completing the Groundlings Improv school, I decided to focus on music. I started with jazz piano lessons with the late jazz pianist/vocalist Joyce Collins and completed all of the advanced jazz harmony classes at the Grove School of Music. I began studying jazz singing, and I took private jazz piano lessons for several years with renowned pianist Terry Trotter.

I sang my first jazz gig in 1999, and after several years of studying singing and piano, I decided to focus just on singing. There were so many exceptional jazz pianists in L.A., and I was especially lucky to work with the late Tom Garvin. By 2004, I felt ready to record my first album. I hired Barbara Brighton to produce the album, and Barbara teamed me up with piano great Alan Pasqua. We recorded my debut CD, “Easy on the Heart,” in 2005. The album was critically acclaimed and received wide national jazz radio airplay, charting for six weeks on the JazzWeek radio chart.

The success of the album created many performing and touring opportunities, and since then I’ve recorded four more CDs, all of which have enjoyed similar success. I have sung at international jazz festivals, including Montreal, Tel Aviv and Dubai, as well as at major jazz venues like Scullers in Boston, Jazz Alley in Seattle, Blues Alley in Washington, DC., the Blue Note and Birdland in New York City, and Nardis in Istanbul.

In late 2017, I teamed up again with Alan Pasqua to begin work on my 5th CD. In June 2019, I released “Crowded Heart,” a compendium of “jazz standards for the 21st century” — all songs that sounds like modern standards, composed by current-day jazz artists/songwriters, including Gregory Porter, Fred Hersch, Luciana Souza, Alan Broadbent and more. “Crowded Heart” received critical praise and wide national jazz radio airplay. Noted jazz journalist Ted Gioia, author of “The Jazz Standards,” wrote: “What a joy to listen to this album, both for the exquisite music-making of Judy Wexler and Alan Pasqua, but also for their astuteness in finding and featuring outstanding songs by current-day jazz composers. Highly recommended!”

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
A performer’s life is rarely, if ever, a smooth road. Obstacles include frustrations with booking gigs and not being paid enough to make a tour worthwhile. Even with successful recording projects, it’s difficult to recoup all the money spent on making the recording.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
This recent quote from JazzTimes Magazine says it all: “Since 2005, Judy Wexler has carved out a jewel-like niche as a gracefully swinging singer who brings penetrating insight to American Songbook-adjacent material often overlooked by her colleagues.” My goal has always been to seek out quality material that’s a bit off the beaten track and expose audiences to songs they may not be familiar with. To present these songs in the best light, I’ve been privileged to work with great arrangers including Pasqua and also Jeff Colella, with whom I’ve performed since 2006.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck played a huge part in my life in meeting my husband, who was my upstairs neighbor in the Haight in San Francisco. We’ve been together 41 years and recently celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary. His exposure to jazz inspired me on my current path.

I feel pretty lucky, and don’t assign bad luck to any of my obstacles — it’s just the challenging nature of the jazz music business!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.judywexler.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judywexler
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/judywexler.music
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/judywexler
• Other: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/08/730251133/something-to-hold-why-this-self-produced-jazz-singer-made-a-physical-cd-in-2019

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