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If You Go: Paige Wroble & Special Guests
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: The Fairbanks, 315 Mohican St., Knoxville's Bearden neighborhood
HOW MUCH: $10
CALL: 982-6834
ON THE WEB: http://www.bolling.af.mil/band/units/babn.htm
By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff
Serendipity has been a friend to Paige Wroble since
childhood.
It's the word she uses to describe how she stumbled upon the career opportunity of a lifetime -- featured vocalist
with the U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note, singing jazz and Big Band standards for one of the most prestigious touring
groups in the country.
It led her to Maryville, a place she now considers home, at a time when her whole life seemed set in Schenectady,
N.Y. In high school, it led her to her genre of choice -- jazz -- after the jazz band director first turned her
down, saying he didn't want ``a classical singer trying to sing jazz.''
Serendipity -- a gift received for stumbling upon something good accidentally. But Wroble's life and subsequent
singing career have been more that just gifts she's stumbled upon. They've all come through hard work and determination,
something the 30-year-old has plenty of. She knows what she wants, and she doesn't back down until she obtains
it. It's a trait you can hear in her voice, see in her eyes and feel from the self-assured way she carries herself,
on-stage and off.
And what she wants is to sing.
``It's the only thing I've ever done,'' she said this week, after a long drive home from New England, where she
attended a friend's wedding over the holiday weekend. ``I can't do math and I can't do computers, but I can carry
a tune.
``When I was younger, I was a little uncomfortable with singing in front of crowds -- you look out there and see
all these people, and you start losing focus on what you're doing and the joy of what you're doing. But there comes
this breaking point when you suddenly notice you're getting to each and every person there -- they're smiling,
and you're connecting with them.
``That's huge,'' she added. ``For whatever reason, they've come to see you. And that's one reason I'm always bummed
when someone comes and asks me to sing a certain song and I don't know it. It's my job -- there's something to
be said for knowing your craft -- so I'll go home and learn it. You have to know your craft and do your job.''
Musical background
It may be a job, but it's also her passion. Wroble
has been singing for more years than she can count, and with good reason -- musical roots run deep in her family.
Her mother sings, and her father is a bass player. Her grandfather was a guitarist and a teacher, and her grandfather
on her father's side was a saxophone player and a public school teacher.
As a child, she remembers listening to James Taylor and Janis Ian. She recalls Joni Mitchell singing ``Twisted,''
a bebop tune that Wroble includes in her repertoire even today.
``It's just a fun, fun song,'' she said. ``You can spit out the lyrics.''
Like today, she sang everywhere -- including recess, during which she used to sit atop the monkey bars on the school
playground and sing ``You Light Up My Life'' to her teacher. Today, however, she doesn't sing along to the radio
-- she sings over various jazz standards and tries to improvise along.
When she was 13, she began taking professional vocal lessons. She'd always been in school choirs and earned the
ire of her fellow students, because from the beginning those around her noticed that something was different about
Wroble's voice. A clear, powerful soprano, she earned more solos than any of her classmates.
After graduating high school, she took a year off before attending Schenectady Community College, where she studied
classical voice. It was there that she attempted to join the school's jazz band.
``The professor told me he didn't want a classical singer trying to sing jazz,'' she said. ``So I had a solo at
a concert he attended, and I did a Manhattan Transfer song. He came up to me after the concert and said, `Your
solo was the best part!'
``I said, `So now can I sing in the jazz band?' And he just nodded his head yes.''
Her remaining time in Schenectady was short-lived, however. In 1996, an old boyfriend who had attended Maryville
College persuaded her to move to East Tennessee with him. He asked on a Wednesday, out of the blue. By the following
Saturday, Wroble was a resident of Maryville.
``I had no plans to come to Maryville -- I'd never even heard of it,'' she said. ``I had auditioned at the New
England Conservatory, and being young, that was the only school I auditioned at, because it was the only one I
wanted to go to. They called and wanted to know when I would attend the school, but I couldn't afford to go.''
After arriving in Maryville, Wroble was eager to continue singing. She sought out Maryville College music professor
Larry Smithee, inquiring about singing Big Band and jazz with various campus bands -- and the faculty took her
interest as an indication she wanted to attend college there.
``The next thing I know, I'm getting a call from the chair of the music department, wanting to get me an application
[for enrollment] and set up an audition,'' she said. ``They thought I wanted to go to school there, and I didn't
argue with them. I never wanted to go to Maryville College; I just wanted to sing. But then I decided it would
be a good idea to finish my degree.''
She toyed with the idea of a career teaching music, but in the end, a six-month stint giving vocal lessons persuaded
her against the idea.
``I majored in vocal performance, and I never kidded myself about teaching or thinking I could teach,'' she said.
``I really enjoyed my students very, very much, but I don't have it in me to teach. I know other people would beg
to differ, but to me, there's a lot of monotony in it.''
`Singers are athletes'
Over the past seven years, Wroble has made a name
and built a reputation for herself as one of the best female vocalists in the area. She's performed with every
conceivable campus musical organization, as well as with various bands in the Knoxville area (a stint with The
Streamliners springs to mind), both popular and professional (the East Tennessee Jazz Band frequently features
her as a guest singer).
Her name is a stamp of excellence on an otherwise solid musical program, and her reputation as a sterling soprano
have made seasonal performances, from spring concerts to annual holiday productions, even more spectacular. And
over the years, she's made herself a home here in East Tennessee.
``Coming back here would be coming back home for me,'' she said. ``I go to New York, and I'm visiting. I don't
have the same connection to that place as I do here. Up there, my friends are the kids of my parents' friends.
``With the friends I've made here and the people I've met -- I own it. Everything I've done here, I own that.''
The most important thing under her ownership is her own voice. With a wide vocal range and a radar-like ear for
pitch, she can pull off a ballad, launch into an up-tempo swing tune and follow it up with some scat-singing. But
while she's written her own material in the past, she's much more comfortable singing jazz standards.
``Doing my own stuff makes me nervous, so I stopped doing it,'' she said. ``I prefer to do things that are tried
and true, and that's probably why I gravitate toward jazz. You're just so responsible for your own material --
people are either going to like it or not, and there's that 50-50 chance they might not like it. And we wouldn't
want that!''
It's not that she's afraid of her voice letting her down -- although she does admit to indulging in the occasional
cigarette, martini and late night, three things that are all bad for the voice. Her voice is a well-trained muscle,
just as the biceps or quadriceps might be for a football player.
``Singers are athletes,'' she said, citing her first college vocal teacher. ``We do a lot of the same things that
athletes might do -- strength training, conditioning for the voice -- although it's a different kind of training,
because you're strengthening a different apparatus. And you try to avoid the same things as other athletes -- smoking,
drinking and late nights.
``But I'm a social smoker, and I love martinis, and they both just dry the voice out. With smoking, I quit about
three days before a big gig, and I've had to cut down on going out so much. Sometimes, when I'd come home from
just going out to hear somebody play, I wasn't able to speak, just from breathing in all the smoke and trying to
talk over the music.''
Flying high
The cigarettes, however, will be gone soon enough.
Wroble leaves for basic training on July 15, the day her entire life changes. And it all came about through E-bay
-- and a little serendipity.
Wroble first came across mention of the Airmen of Note when she logged onto the online auction site to purchase
some jazz charts. The seller was a singer who had just turned down the featured vocalist position with the Airmen
of Note, and after exchanging several e-mails, she sent information on the band to Wroble.
At that point, the stars seemed to align. Wroble was out of college for the spring semester, trying to earn enough
money at Chesapeake's in Knoxville to go back to school and obtain the 12 credit hours needed for graduation. So
her time was free to pursue an audition.
The band itself didn't need much of an introduction. After auditioning for the Singing Sergeants, another military
performance group, about eight or nine years ago, she turned down an alto position the group offered. Shortly thereafter,
the U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note performed in Schenectady, and Wroble was blown away.
``They're just an amazing band, and I remember thinking at the time, `If I'm going to do this at all, that's what
I want to do,''' she said. ``They're one of the few touring Big Bands left, when you think about it. It's an opportunity
to travel with this great band, and I can't put into words how great they are. It's just absolutely amazing. The
very first chord they played in my audition, my knees just buckled.''
That audition took place March 21 at Bolling Air Force Base, in southeastern Washington, D.C., where the Airmen
of Note are stationed. The following Tuesday, she had just pulled out from a friend's house, on her way back to
Maryville, when the band's commanding officer called and asked her to stay for another round of auditions.
As it turns out, they weren't needed. that evening, she was awakened with a phone call, notifying her that she'd
landed the coveted position.
``They did a national search, and they only picked one, and they picked me,'' Wroble said, still sounding like
it's a bit of a dream. ``The audition went great -- for the very first time in my life, I was just there, in the
moment. and I did it.''
The job comes with a four-year enlistment in the U.S. Air Force, however, followed by four years on inactive reserve
status. And when she leaves on Tuesday, her first stop will be at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where she'll
undergo six weeks of basic training.
``I'll get to run a lot, get yelled at and learn to shoot an M-16,'' she said. ``I'm not worried, and I'm not dreading
it. It's like childbirth, man -- millions of people have made it through it, and I can, too. But I am looking forward
to Warrior Week, where we go camping and shoot stuff!''
`Chick Singer'
After basic, she'll return to Maryville briefly, pack up her things and make arrangements for the Air Force to
move her to her first duty station. An accelerated program will move her up more quickly in rank, and after basic,
she should be an E-6.
In addition, she'll get the opportunity to perform gigs on the side. But while the ``Chick Singer'' -- an affectionate
nickname given by a former Schenectady professor -- may continue to garner accolades and praise, she doesn't see
much reason to be making grand plans for the future beyond singing for the Airmen of Note.
``I waited eight years for an opening in this band, and I'll probably retire out of this band, unless something
better comes along,'' she said. ``But for right now, I can't think of anything better than singing with the Airmen
of Note.
``If there's one thing I've learned from my time here in Maryville, it's that life is not as serious as we make
it out to be sometimes. Life is not an emergency situation. On the other side of that, you only get one chance
at this lifetime -- so you might as well just do it.''
Because hard work and perseverance, as Wroble will testify, goes a long way.
And when you throw in a little serendipity, the sky is the limit.
