Jazz Diva Laurel Massé Celebrates 50 Years in Music

This year marks the 50th anniversary of a fateful cab ride in New York, during which a 20-year-old waitress named Laurel Massé got to chatting with the driver, named Tim Hauser. Fast forward a few years, and the Manhattan Transfer, the jazz singing group they formed with Janis Seigel and Alan Paul, shot to international fame and a boatload of music awards for their legendary retro stylings of popular (and often obscure) jazz classics of decades past. In 1978, at the height of the group’s success, a serious car accident led to Laurel leaving the group (to be replaced by the wonderful Cheryl Bentyne). Many fans who may have lost track of Laurel’s impressive solo career can catch up here, thanks to a delightful and lengthy conversation recently, during which she recounted both high and low points of her time with the Transfer, her solo albums and projects, the nature of the music industry, and what separates the greatest jazz singers in history from all the rest. So, then, let’s begin at the beginning… It can be argued that Laurel always had music and singing in her blood. “My grandfather sang for many decades for Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians,” she explained, “and toured all over the country, sang at the White House eight times, that kind of thing. There was always music in the house, our family sang, my sister has a beautiful voice. I think I realized it early on th