Ingram's new music tuned in with Y2K
JAKARTA (JP): It seems that pop singer James Ingram has developed a slight case of the millennium bug these days.
He is fond of using the hyped Y2K jargon, concerning the predicted digital apocalypse at the turn of the millennium, when referring to his new best-of album.
"This is my Y2K album, just in case we won't have electricity. (We said) let's release this before the lights go out," he told a room full of journalists last week during a promotour in Southeast Asia.
It sounded like a joke, but Ingram grew more serious.
"In the U.S. they say don't worry, no problem. But then all of the sudden, three airlines are not flying on December 31. In L.A., a sewage company once did their Y2K tests -- 20,000 tons of raw sewage ran into the street."
Is he afraid?
"I'm not afraid at all, I fear God, I don't fear men, I don't have none of the political problems you guys have. But the reality of what may happen, none of us know. I tell you something, if you were coming to the mountain with me and said 'James, should I bring a jacket?', my answer to you is you have to ask a question whether not to have and need, or need and not have."
It is one lengthy diatribe for a man who is most remembered for soundtrack-ish pieces with other artists and for pop hits with sappy love lyrics.
But this king of duets, the winner of three Grammy Awards, is not overwhelmingly grave.
In person, he is informal with a wry sense humor. He becomes intense on some subjects, including his music and the Y2K frenzy, but quickly snaps backs to his lighter side.
Ingram admitted that he was taken aback when he found out that his music actually sells here.
"I had no idea that Southeast Asia really embraced my music before I came here," he said.
"In 1994, I was singing Just Once at a concert, and the crowds started singing the song louder than me. I was so overwhelmed that I stopped singing. I really wanted to cry when I saw that. I just dropped my microphone, and forgot my place in the song when I came back in."
Musically, Ingram has always been intense. Born to a musical family of six children, he started his career soon after graduating from high school and left his hometown of Akron, Ohio, for Los Angeles.
He toured with Ray Charles, the Coasters and Leon Haywood, before hooking up with singer-cum-producer Quincy Jones.
Just Once was his first hit and the one that won him the Grammys. He has also worked on duets with the likes of Kenny Rogers, Michael Bolton and Linda Ronstadt, in addition to his solo albums.
Some of the duets have been used on soundtracks for films (Somewhere Out There with Linda Ronstadt) and the soap opera General Hospital (Baby Come to Me with Patty Austin).
But it might work to his disadvantage that to his audience in this part of the world, his music never passed that very first hit.
"When I do a tour I check with promoter in each region in terms of what songs the audience are up for. For some strange reason, you guys are still into Just Once," he said.
He told The Jakarta Post in a recent phone interview from his L.A. studio that he was constantly searching for a song that would outlive him.
In doing so, he was willing to deliver a cover of R. Kelly's I believe I can Fly for the album Just the Best, a compilation mostly featuring his love song hits.
Ingram's involvement in music extends to the stage. The father of six worked with choreographer/producer Debbie Allen on a number of musicals, including Brothers of the Night.
"Part of my dream is to put this stuff on Broadway, hopefully in the new millennium." He added that he also hoped to earn an Oscar for his music after being nominated twice.
With Debbie, his manager and wife for 25 years, he said he will work on a next album next spring.
Ingram said he would retire "when Southeast Asia doesn't want to hear me sing anymore".
For the time being, however, only a handful of people in the region, mostly journalists, can see him wonderfully and expectedly singing yet another rendition of his Just Once. (das)