Renowned vocal coach on authentic talents and his commitment to preserving African American Spirituals
Every year since the Taste of Soul has been featuring the StarQuest Singing Competition, Mr. Willie Ray Norwood, a highly respected vocal consultant in the entertainment industry, has been a participating Celebrity Judge and lent his professional expertise to numerous newcomers interested in pursuing there dreams in the music industry. In addition to his own success as singer and musician, millions recognize the respected Mississippi native as the supportive father and vocal trainer of R&B singers Brandy and Ray J. When Willie Ray Norwood sat down with the Los Angeles Sentinel it was like getting schooled on life by your favorite uncle and walking away with a pocket full of life lessons. He reminds us to examine the important things in life and the power of your influence.
Los Angeles Sentinel: What do you look for when searching out winning talent?
Willie Ray Norwood: What I look for and how I define a person as being a winner is someone who comes from a very honest place when it comes to his or her talent. Being not fictitious or trying to do something out of your immediate identity as to who you really are. I look for people who are being themselves. It’s very divine when you see someone being themselves. They are showing you what God made not who they made up in their own mind. I don’t believe in image. I believe in identity. Be honest with that and come from an honest place with the talent that God has given, that’s a winning formula.
LAS: You have been a Judge for StarQuest Singing Competition since it began, why is this event so important to you?
WRN: Well being from South L.A. and working in the immediate area for over 10 years, I felt this was such an esteem position to be able to see some of the community talent. Being as though I do work with artists and those who are trying to get in the business or establish themselves in the business, the StarQuest Singing Competition was something very special and eye opening for me.
LAS: You’re a strong proponent of mentorship, what effect do you think mentors have on mentees?
WRN: I think it is extremely important that we mentor one another. Growing up in the south, the village mentality was much apart of the way I grew up. I went to segregated schools. There was a certain sense of pride and struggle we had together. No one was better than the other. People did not look down on you. Everybody was in the struggle and we all won. There is something we all can do a little bit better than someone else and sharing it is important to me so we can bring each other along.
LAS: Not only are you a vocal coach and recording artist, you host an annual conference called Sing-A-Rama, what is it?
WRN: Sing-A-Rama is a music conference that we started eight years ago. It is a joyous time singing, fellowshipping, learning new songs and honoring each other. We feature acappella singing, workshops and we encourage people to do greater work during the honors banquet. Sing-A-Rama is a good place to start the year off. Think of it as the aftermath of the New Year that takes you to the end of the year. It’s good down home hallelujah hand clapping music with nobody putting on pretenses or being super religious. You know, the Bible says the greatest of you will be servants of all and that is the mentality that Dr. King taught. Having Sing-A-Rama on MLK weekend for the past eight years has been a dose of good energy.
LAS: Is Sing-A-Rama performance based or competition based?
WRN: Even though everyone wants to out-do one another (laughs), it’s performance based. People come from all over the country to see the singers.
LAS: Has singing acappella become a lost art form in the digital revolution?
WRN: I applaud the internet. I do not scorn it at all. The playing field is open and leveled for all kinds of singing. At one point it was dying. The electronic sound of music depends on the style of music you want to sing. I think the spirituals still sound great. And what’s so beautiful about the acappella music is you still get to hear the bass voice. Whereas, in most gospel choirs, you really don’t hear the bass voice you hear tenors, altos, sopranos and the bass guitar. When it comes to the spirituals and acappella, you gotta have strong bass voices.
As a side, Vesta Harriston, before he passed heard my children’s choir sing acappella and as I was breaking from directing them he said to me, “Promise me that you will always try to keep the Spirituals alive”? I don’t like to make unknown promises but I said, “Yes”. It was ironic because the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles awarded my children’s choir of 94 voices an award for the Preservation of African American Music. From that day on, I always wanted to preserve and keep alive our heritage and our music, which are the Spirituals.
LAS: As a parent, what type of core values did you and Mrs. Norwood set as your foundation when raising your children?
WRN: I think that is a great question and each time I am asked as I get up in age the answer changes. However, today, the best thing a parent, single or whatever family structure is, best thing you can give your child is an abiding faith. If you can raise your children up in a faith based community it changes their paradigm. It gives them a chance. We all mess up at some point. I just want them to be able to find their way back home. I think a lot of young people commit suicide because they feel no hope. With God in there life, it instills hope and it can deter a child from thinking it is all over. Raise your child to have an abiding faith, a belief in themselves and in something greater because if you can’t handle it you gotta have some other place to turn.
LAS: How important is the role of trust in maintaining family business?
WRN: Trust, it is the main ingredient because you can’t do anything when where is mistrust. And if you can’t trust your family who can you trust?
The way we work is really a family business. God blessed each of us individually and in the confines of our family, we have grown to do something significant with the gifts God has given us.
LAS: You grew up in the south and in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, 50 years later, how can music positively uplift and impact the overwhelming discontent of today’s social justice struggles?
WRN: I really don’t think music has taken a hold in the way that it had during ‘the day’. I am part of the struggle. I came up during the Civil Rights Era. I got a chance to rub shoulders with Dr. King, Stokely Carmichael and Muhammad Ali. God has brought me in contact with so many people that are world changers. I think one of the things that it shows to the young people today when they say they don’t understand the struggle or what it means to be black is that we got a wake up call. When you see the kind of stuff that happened in Ferguson and the atrocities committed by the police—the music will come. It’s not a lot coming out now but it will.
I think the struggle is at the tip of the iceberg. Music is a way we internalize what we are doing and how the expression comes even in the marches, hands up don’t shoot. It’s not the end and it is not going to go away. When young people see how we can use the political process to bring attention to things like they did during the civil rights struggle by enlisting people and using the process, democracy works. The world is not small like it was. You can mobilize people so quickly and make people aware of what’s going on right now online. Send a tweet. Social networking is the main driver in organizing people. Once we start to realize the dynamics of what we are doing, that is when the music will come out. It will manifest and be world changing.
LAS: Thank you Mr. Norwood, any final words?
WRN: I’d like to thank Danny Bakewell, my missed friend Rayva Harrell, who told me about StarQuest, The L.A. Sentinel and the machine that puts something together like Taste of Soul. I hope it continues to grow, foster and meet the challenge of being relevant to our community every year. Anytime you need me to come and share my gifts, I will be there to do it.
For more info on Willie Ray Norwood go to: www.sonjanorwood.com
