Grace Little’s Big Sound Hits New Brunswick

You might say vocalist-bandleader Grace Little grew her musical career organically, the old-fashioned way.

Like so many other African-American singers of note, Little got started singing in church as a young kid, not fully aware of her vocal gift. It wasn’t until she was about 11 or 12 when others urged her to take singing lessons to further polish an already promising young voice.

Little and her band will bring a far more eclectic approach to the upcoming Hub City Jazz Festival, which showcases the talents of a number of “smooth jazz” artists like Kirk Whalum, Pieces of a Dream, Jazz in Pink, and the Aya Smooth Jazz Band. The festival runs Thursday through Sunday, September 29 through October 2, in New Brunswick.

The Trenton-based singer recently talked about her humble beginnings and how as a kid she didn’t even think of herself as a singer.

Little was born in Jersey City, one of seven siblings, but the family moved to Trenton when she was five.

“I went to Patton J. Hill Elementary School. My mother, Lula, was a gospel singer. We all grew up in the church. I had that church singing experience going on as a kid but I never really looked at myself as a singer. As a child you really don’t know what you want to do in life; you want to be so many things,” says Little.

“Being a professional singer was never one of the things I thought about as a kid. At PJ Hill, my music teacher, Miss Steeber, she was the one that saw something that I didn’t know that I had.”

Even in an age of free TV, Little and her seven siblings and parents were more prone to sit and stand around the family piano and record player and sing. “We all had our favorite songs to sing,” Little recalls.

The late Miss Steeber began putting young Grace Little out there to sing in school assemblies. “My mother would come to the school and she began to see it, too,” Little says.

Although Little’s grandmother got her granddaughter some formal voice lessons, they were short-lived. In junior high she began working with singing teacher Rod Blackstone.

“He already was directing a full band, and he heard this gift I had for singing as well,” she says. “So at the age of 13 I just started singing more, going to different talent shows and clubs that my parents took me to. I went to the Apollo Theater in New York and it was age appropriate. You had to be a certain age to be able to perform at the theater. There was a gentleman that was there — and I can remember it like it was yesterday — (and) he told my mother, ‘If someone asks about her age, just tell them that she’s my niece.’”

The 13-year-old won two Apollo talent shows back-to-back and then tied in a third one with another young male singer.

“Finally my mother realized she couldn’t afford having us going back and forth to New York from Trenton all the time, and we realized it would be a lot easier to go back and forth to Philadelphia.”

Little auditioned for a Philadelphia TV show broadcast locally, the then popular but now gone Al Albert Showcase. About a year later, she got a phone call to come and perform on the program. She was intrigued with the program and would watch most Sunday evenings at home in Trenton.

“Going back there to be on that TV show was a big deal and at this point I was still 13,” she says. “It all happened really fast, so with that, moving forward, I began to always sing with a band.”

She began working with small bands in small clubs and one or both parents would always accompany her. This led to some work in musical theater, including productions of “The Wiz,” “Pearly Victorious,” and “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God.”

Little attended Trenton Central High School for a time but also had a daughter at a young age, so that led to her staying in Jersey City to be closer to gigs in New York City.

“Some time after the birth of my daughter, I decided to get back into singing by working in clubs, and I ran across some management people,” she says. “Once I had management, I started going into clubs more frequently, and I started going into the recording studio as well, shopping around for a record deal, trying to land a good deal with a record company.”

All of that club work — in New York, Newark, Trenton, and Philadelphia — led to Little and her bands opening shows for people she greatly admired: jazz singers Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole, Freddie Jackson, Luther Vandross, Ashford and Simpson, and others.

“As this point I was still 17 and 18, really still too young to be signing a recording contract on my own,” she says about her work in 1986-1987.

She began traveling and singing more frequently as her daughter got to school age and began doing off-Broadway shows as well, adding that she performed in productions of the shows “Oh! Calcutta!” and “Dreamgirls” and traveled to Japan for extended club engagements.

She says after “just embracing it all and taking it all in, learning as much as I could in the recording studio, I came back home, continued singing in clubs. That’s how I ended up going to a club in Camden, Holmes’ Lounge. A gentleman there heard me, went back to Philadelphia International Record Company, and spoke to the legendary Leon Huff of (songwriting duo Gamble and Huff).”

Huff came to Holmes’ Lounge in Camden, heard Little, and decided he wanted to work with her. She signed with Philadelphia International. “We ended up recording a song, ‘Somebody’s Gotta Move,’ that went to number one on the Billboard Chart in Washington, D.C.” Originally recorded by The Dells, Little and Huff redid the song their way, and that led to her being a featured performer on shows with The Dells.

She says it “was a big break for me” and the reason she can go on tours now, even smaller club tours of places up and down the Eastern seaboard, and draw good crowds.

“Really, it helped me create a bigger fan base all over the place. Since then, I’ve just stayed true to who I am and passionate about doing what I’m good at doing” she says.

Over the summer, the Grace Little Band played a free show at the Princeton Public Library, and her approach and that of her bandmates is to touch on many genres.

Little is proud of that fact that her band has been working together for more than 15 years now, as it’s not easy to keep an eight-piece ensemble together, performing in clubs, unless everyone’s passionate about what they’re doing. At the end of the night, as she admits, the money is often not that great.

Grace is accompanied by bandleader and musical director Mike Carthan on bass; lead guitarist Joe Jakubicki, keyboardist John Williams, drummer Benji Polk, saxophonist Roy Richardson, percussionist Mike Gist, and backup vocalist Ebony Rogers.

Fortunately for fans around Trenton, Princeton, New Brunswick, and beyond, Little loves her day job, working as a receptionist for the Burlington County Board of Social Services. As such, she is the first person people in crisis will see when they walk in the door. Here again, her church background allows her to be a calming influence when it is needed.

At Delta’s in New Brunswick on Saturday, October 1, the audience can expect an eclectic show touching on many genres, Little says.

“Rhythm and blues [urban contemporary] is my first love, but I think that I’m more of an all-around artist, so we do some gospel, we do some down-home blues, we do some jazz standards, some pop, and some reggae,” she says.

In retrospect, Little is grateful for the upbringing she had from two very supportive parents, Henry, who worked various jobs around the Trenton and Princeton area, and Lula Little, who worked with Princeton University’s food service division.

As she explains it, “I’m basically an old-school singer because I was raised singing in church, surrounded by people who were much older than I was, so being in that atmosphere allowed me to be true to the old-school approach, people like Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Minnie Ripperton, Nancy Wilson, Etta Jones, all of these people made an impact on me.”

The Grace Little Band, Hub City Jazz Festival, Delta’s Restaurant, 19 Dennis Street, New Brunswick. Saturday, October 1, 6 to 10 p.m. 732-249-1551.

The festival runs September 29 to October 2. For more information, visit the Hub City website at hubcityjazz.com.