Delightful Diva

The term "diva" has all sorts of negative connotations that bring to mind imperious, self-absorbed superstars, with the voices of angels but the personalities of gargoyles.

Andrea Jones-Sojola, currently one of the rotating divas in the touring production of 3 Mo' Divas, now at the Winter Garden Theatre, laughs at the image.

"It's had bad connotations in the past, like your divas like Kathleen Battle or Maria Callas", she says, naming two famous operatic figures, "but we're the friendly divas, we're the kind of divas that are going to 'bring it'. We say the show has class, sass, and style, and that's where our diva personalities come from, not the nasty self-absorbed diva."

Jones-Sojola has performed in numerous operas both in North America and abroad, and won First Place in both the National Opera Association Voice Competition and the Pro Arts Society of Philadelphia. She has also had the privilege of performing in the Kentucky Opera's production of Muhammad Ali: Outside the Ring as Lonnie (Ali¹s wife), singing for no less than Ali himself.

Her music CV reads like a "how to" of high art achievement, but 3 Mo' Divas is, she says, the most unique singing experience she's had in her career.

"It covers the gamut," she says, referring to the range and history of Marion J. Caffrey's work, "you can look in our eyes as we sing and see this history -and when you hear the music as an audience member, you go back to the time you remember hearing that song, or hearing your mother sing it, or hearing it on the radio. So it's our job as a performer to kind of take the audience member down memory lane."

Jones-Sojola performs a variety of different pieces throughout 3 Mo' Divas, including Daddy's Son from the musical Ragtime, the gospel song City Called Heaven, plus the well-known Puccini aria O Mio Babbino Caro.

While those pieces don't requiring great technical adjustment, one piece presented a whole different challenge.

"The one I never thought I'd sing is the jazz standard, Solitude," she says with a laugh, "I've never done jazz in my life!"

She does have a history with the genre -it just doesn't involve singing.

"As a child, my parents used to play jazz on the radio in the car and I used to complain, 'Please turn that elevator music off', and my parents would say, 'We're trying to expose you to something different'. Now here it is, coming back to me, twenty years later!"

3 Mo' Divas has helped her in expanding her own range, and not just in terms of singing either.

Asked about challenges and surprises, Jones-Sojola says moving onstage has provided a bit of a learning curve.

"Opera is usually just a park-and-bark situation," she explains, "so we've had to do a few little step touches here and turns there -you don't normally do that in with a classical background -but it's been good, it's opened me up and let me be a little more loose, which is good."

"We, as trained singers, can really do anything once we learn how to sing -it's like, wow, we can do any style of music. Our job is to be as true as we can to each genre. It's powerful, this show, especially now that we have a female leader of the band."

Jones-Sojola calls Musical Director Anastasia Victory " the fourth diva", exclaiming that "she's an amazing Russian woman -fierce beyond words! I've never seen anything like it. It makes a difference to have a woman leading the band. It really is all about girl power in the show!"

That, she says, and a rediscovery of roots.

"It's really an honour to be able to sing this type of music. It's purely American music, and it's great to be able to sing something I know all these famous people sang in the twenties and thirties. I feel more connected to my culture. Being African-American, it feels like, wow, this is a show that is about my people."

3 Mo' Divas runs at the the Winter Garden Theatre through March 16th.
For more information, go to www.dancaptickets.com.