True music legends may be rare but they certainly are easy to recognize. Just listen to them. Not their songs, but the way in which they express themselves during a conversation. There’s a breathtaking sense of humility and grace present.
Think of it as a different kind of music to the ears.
To be sure, nobody could argue Martha Reeves’ place on a legends list. The powerhouse talent of Martha Reeves & the Vandellas delivered marvelous Motown hits, such as “Heat Wave,” “Dancing In The Street,” “Jimmy Mack,” and “Nowhere To Run.” But in conversation, it is vividly clear that Reeves’ success also has a great deal to do with unpretentiousness. She’s wise. She’s calm. She’s aware that she’s in possession of a precious creative gift.
Reeves, who is the recipient of the Dinah Washington Award, (among others), and has been inducted into the Alabama, Soul, Rock and Roll, and Vocal Group halls of fame, will be joined by her sisters (current Vandellas, Delphine and Lois), at the 24th annual Evening Under the Stars May 6 in Palm Springs.
The event benefits AIDS Assistance Program- Food Samaritans, which helps the most at-risk members of the Greater Palm Springs community, including low-income individuals compromised by HIV/AIDS, and other illnesses such as cancer. The 2017 Inspirational honorees include: Dr. Timothy Jochen and Lee Erwin (Jeannette Rockefeller Humanitarian Award); Gregg Selleck (Gloria Greene Inspiration Award); Laurie Weitz (Herb Lazenby Community Service Award), and Bob Pollock (posthumously – Joanna Jakway Community Hero Award). The Corporate Angel Award will be given this year to Eisenhower Medical Center.
In between chatting up emerging from Detroit’s vibrant music scene and making her way into record producer/songwriter Berry Gordy’s Hitsville USA, Reeves reveals what lies behind her joy of performing and more.
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas have notched more than a dozen hits.
PSL:Evening Under the Stars is a stellar event for a good cause. Why is it important for you to give back?
Martha Reeves: For me, it’s not so much the cause, as it is the spiritual gathering that happens whenever we perform the songs that I have been so grateful to record over the years. There’s a happiness in the music, and a cure, for me, that allows me to be free.
PSL: Your attitude is upbeat. You’re also incredibly deep. Is that the secret to longevity?
MR: I think the “new” talent, those that came in the 1980s and ’90s and so on, they have not been schooled or studied the past performers. Back in Detroit, and Hitsville, we had the best professors teaching us and training us, and I guess that’s why the music is legendary. That’s why we are performing after all these years. We trained to be the best performers we know how to be. When we get off that stage we are exhausted, but it’s a blessing because we know we have done our job.
PSL: So what happens to you on stage when you sing? Describe that sensation?
MR: I am always excited. I get butterflies. But I’ve learned how to use my nervous energy. I am grateful that I can retain the lyrics, because our stories are heartfelt. We have been trained to know that the audience is the royalty, so to be able to get up in front of a crowd of music-loving, peace-loving, lyric-loving people, is just incredibly joyful.
PSL: What are some of the best bits of wisdom you’ve learned in life?
MR: Mama said to me: “Don’t sing a song unless you can feel it in your heart.” And she gave me advice about show business: “Do the very best you can so that you don’t ever have to be sorry or have to do it over.” So that erases a lot of things like fear and doubt. Don’t sing unless you can feel it.
PSL: Inevitably we all have hardships in life. What helped you get through some of yours?
MR: I don’t want to sound like I’m not real or that my feet aren’t on the ground, but I haven’t had “hardships.” I’ve considered them lessons learned. I’ve had a lot of things happen to me and I don’t want to blame other people, but I had to overcome a drug addiction when a dentist had prescribed a medication for some dentistry he performed, but the Valium was just as dangerous as any heroin for me.
Martha Reeves on singing: “It’s like an elevator. You can push the button and you will rise.”
Later it went from Valium to Librium. I’m sharing this because you really don’t need anything to add to God’s talent. You don’t have to be high. You just have to deal with the “spirit,” and to know that it’s up to the artist who is the host of this “talent” in this wonderful temple called your body, to protect it, to nurture it, so that you are able, when you are called upon, to return the gesture — to come and sing. And to know that it’s right, and real, and that you can count on it. It’s like an elevator. You can push the button and you will rise.
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas at Evening Under the Stars, 6 p.m. May 6 at O’Donnell Golf Club, 301 N. Belardo Road, Palm Springs. Tickets, visit aidsassistance.org. For more information on Martha Reeves, visit missmarthareeves.com.