Jazz singer uses every octave to touch audience

We should all have Novembers like Dee Daniels'.

On Nov. 8, Daniels will leave for a weeklong Caribbean cruise on the 2009 Holland America Jazz Cruise departing out of Ft. Lauderdale.

On Nov. 20, in her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, she is producing and soloing in Duke Ellington's Sacred Music Concert -- the most ambitious and controversial project Ellington ever pursued, fusing Christian liturgy with jazz. It will be the first time the concert has ever been performed in western Canada.

First up, though, on Nov. 2 she'll perform for an adoring Salt Lake City crowd in the JazzSLC series presented by the local GAM Foundation.

Daniels, a flexible singer with a four-octave range, sings jazz that

draws upon classical training and her childhood experience singing in her stepfather's gospel choir. She's a Utah favorite who has performed --- for free -- in two recent benefits for the GAM Foundation.

"She has a good grasp of what we're about," said Gordon Hanks, head of the GAM Foundation, which presents the annual JazzSLC series.

Daniels said she believes in Hanks' mission: keeping jazz alive in state that normally places more importance on the Utah Jazz than Utah jazz.

For her Salt Lake City concert, Daniels will lead a trio of seasoned musicians who were her backing band on her most recent album, "JAZZINIT": bassist Russ Botten, drummer Greg Williamson and pianist Tony Foster.

Daniels will prepare for the show with a preconcert meditation session. That personal ritual has sustained her for 18 years, ever since she had a near-religious experience calming the anxiety she felt when asked to open for Al Jarreau at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho. "I focus my energy and tell myself what I want to accomplish in each concert," she said. "I want to be a catalyst for 'the source' to touch people."

She explains "the source" as her belief in the life force that surrounds everybody, whether it's defined as God or the universe or any other kind of divine power. Only the source knows how each individual in the audience needs to be touched, she said. Which is why, before she takes the stage, she focuses her mind on being able to connect to each individual in the audience, more a form of contemplation than a prayer. And every time, in the past 18 years, she has achieved her goal for the concert.

Since Daniels plans to perform her preshow ritual on Monday, Salt Lake City concertgoers should expect to be touched.

dburger@sltrib.com