Somehow, I hadn’t heard Jamie Perlow sing until the night she fronted The Florida Bjorkestra, in a concert of Bjork’s unforgettable music. Now, I can’t get enough of Jamie’s powerful, evocative voice and her commanding stage presence. If you haven’t heard her sing with The Florida Bjorkestra, or the Helios Jazz Orchestra, you should check out this video of her doing At Last at the Side Door.
I thought we really needed to feature Jamie in a small band setting in the Side Door, she liked the idea and enlisted her Bjorkestra arranger and leader, Jeremy Douglass, to be part of it. That show is happening this Friday in the Side Door Cabaret. For tickets and information, call our box office at 727-822-3590 or follow this link to our website.
Jamie Perlow
I called Jamie this week to preview the show and discovered why she comes across on stage as a real professional – she comes from a family of entertainment pros. Her grandfather, Lou Spencer, was part of the tap-dancing Dunhill Trio. That group toured the world, appearing on Ed Sullivan and other national TV shows and even some movies. He later produced shows with the biggest stars of his day – like Sinatra, Buddy Rich, Frankie Avalon and more.
Her mother and father – Vicki Spencer and Harry Perlow – were also pros with a track record of film, TV and nightclub appearances before moving to St. Petersburg, where Jamie became a star graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts.
“I had to be in music. It’s in my blood,” she told me. “Besides, I’m a hopeless music junkie.”
She’s calling her Side Door show Love Letters, a title Jeremy suggested when he passed along a song by the same name. I knew it from the lyrics – “Love letters straight from your heart. ”
Jamie liked the groove on that tune – a 1962 hit for singer Ketty Lester – and they searched out other songs that fit the theme.
“Not all are about love letters, but they are all from a one point of view of one person to another, like a love letter,” she said. “And these were songs we wanted to perform together.”
It’s also a bit of a celebration of the lost art of letter writing.
“Love letters used to be the only source you had when you had a geographical issue or someone you were falling in love with,” she said. “It is a very striking moment when Jeremy brought me that song.”
Jamie will be back with the Bjorkestra for Buffyfest on Saturday, Sept. 28, and she’ll be performing with an all-star lineup of Tampa Bay jazz talent at the Clearwater Jazz Holiday on Saturday, Oct. 20.
But I hope you’ll join me to experience Jamie, Jeremy and their band this Friday at 8 p.m. in the Side Door. You’ll be happy you did.
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