LaGaylia Frazier
Siren entertains big following as well as her dreams
by Deborah P.Work - Entertainment Writer, Music
Something special is happening at a Fort Lauderdale Waterfront club. True, Coconuts has a deck where you can watch moon beams shimmer off the intracostal. And the together band, Wooden Ships, is a sure draw. But the main ingredient is a young siren who can work a room like nobody's's business, Lagaylia Frazier.
Lagaylia Frazier warms up the crowd with a soulful sound; she can and does sing anything and everything. She sings Streisand and the Doobie Brothers; Anita Baker and Bob Dylan. And she can mingle. When she leaves your table, you're convinced you've known her for years. So you come back, again and again. "She is rather spine-tingling," says Chris Gaus, who manages Coconuts. "Her stage presence and vocal gymnastics blow you away."
It's Tuesday night and Coconuts is packed. Wooden Ships members Joshua Grau and Dave Roppoplo are on acoustic guitar and keyboards; the crowd is happy and drinking. But when Frazier joins them, gears shift. "People put down their drinks and stop talking when Lagaylia Frazier starts to sing," says Grau, guitarist for Wooden Ships. "We're more low-key. But when she comes on, it becomes a show." Gaus likened the crowd to "a cult following"; food and drink sales are better the nights Lagaylia Frazier sings.
"There is something about her, she sings from deep inside," says Susan Hurst, who frequents the club. "She worth coming back for"
Frazier's secret?
I am just so happy when I sing; I'm mindless," she says, tossing that mane of braids, twists and curls, "Some things just seem so right. It's scary to think of people who go through life without ever being happy or excited about anything. Performing is my passion."
But it was not always that way. As a youngster growing up with her mother in Miami Shores, Frazier says she was introverted.. She was brainy, shunning slumber parties and telephone chatter. "I was extremely withdrawn. No one really liked me much," says Frazier, who never, ever reveals her age. "I was into my school work; I practiced the piano for six hours, then went to bed. That was my life."
Her father, who sings on cruise ships, left when she was 2. She studied the piano for 12 years and began singing once she got to college.
" I inherited my talent from both my parents. When I started out, it was my dad's genes working," she says. "I'm more of a masculine woman than a feminine woman, but the older I get, the more Feminine I get. That's my mom." Frazier enrolled at the University of Miami as a voice and musical theater major, but her passion was jazz. "I love the concept of that music. It's a black American art, and I feel so proud," says Frazier, who fancies everything from Miles Davis to David Sanborn. "It*s not only African music, it originated in this country. It's ours.
At Coconuts, Frazier sings everything but her passion – jazz. "This gig started as a folk music gig. That's what people come to hear," she says. At UM, she sang with jazz bands, musicians who were "totally into the music.
I wanted to be like them." To prove music was her life, Lagaylia says she wore her hair "this long," pinching her thumb and forefinger close together. "I wore baggy overalls and no makeup ever." But she left the university before graduating, opting to sing and travel with Top 40 bands for several years.
A self-confessed late bloomer, Frazier says she floundered. "I knew I could sing, but I had no idea of what I wanted to do. I didn't know what was really important to me."
Gigs in Europe
She sang with the group Bandera; cut a record, Voodoo and traipsed through Europe promoting it. "I loved France. They have a crush on black female singers There. I think it's a hangover from the Josephine Baker days," she says. "As soon as they find out you're black, they love you I felt so welcome there."Dave Caprita, a disc jockey at WLVE-FM (Love 94), still plays Voodoo, which was released almost two years ago. "She's a great singer," he says.
After years of scrambling for record deals, Frazier says she burned out and hit bottom. She traveled through England until the urge to sing came flooding back. She returned to South Florida two years ago. "As soon as I let people know I wanted to sing, doors opened," she says. "Now I'm in control. I'm my own agent; I set my own hours and ask for my own money."
When Wooden Ships landed the job at the waterfront club, they remembered their friend from UM and from playing in Top 40 bands together. The musicians invited her to sit in with them. "We've always had this magic together," says Grau, who describes Frazier as a real virtuoso, a career singer. Grau plays acoustic, bass and electric guitar and programs a bass line while Roppolo masters the keyboards, cello, flute, harmonica and drums. But the duo provide more than backup and vocals. "We're best friends. It's not just a gig. It's a heart-felt-friendship."
Frazier is also recording with Eric Foster White, a South Florida songwriter and producer who has written for Whitney Houston and High Five.
Big-time Potential
Admirers say it won't be long before Frazier is snatched up to the big time. "She belongs on the charts," says Coconuts patron Ted Mallson. "She doesn't belong in Fort Lauderdale, she belongs to the world." Doug Ray, visiting from Seattle, came to Coconuts three nights in a row to hear Frazier and Wooden Ships. "They have a studio quality, with live effects. It's a great combination," he says. "They are worth remembering."Frazier appreciates the attention and acknowledges that it's heady. "It's kind of scary that people come to Coconuts to see me. They come from Germany, saying : their friends, who came here last summer, told them about it," he says. "But it's a good scary, like the start of a new relationship. You know, sweaty palms, no appetite."
Frazier says making it big won't cause her head to swell. "We've all seen performers who become hard to deal with because fame goes to their head," she says."I'd rather be a nice person and not be famous than famous and a real jerk." Still, she hungers for success. "I used to think if something like this [Coconuts] happened to me, I would be happy," she says. "But there is an ego side of me that wants to see how far I can go. I have to try to do it. Otherwise, I'll always wonder. "But even if I became famous, I might realize in the end that the thing at Coconuts was what it was all about, that was when I was happiest."
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49 people rated LaGaylia Frazier as 10 = Music avg. with 10 being the highest |
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