| Ava Logan is an accomplished jazz vocalist
in search of a gig.
The Frankfort resident has performed on and off at clubs and hotels
in Chicago the past few years; she sang with an orchestra for a number
of years and portrayed Ella Fitzgerald — one of her favorite singers
— in a musical. Hoping to land more steady appearances, she's
sent out a demo CD of her work to club owners around the city. "They're
(club owners) not so much interested in your musical ability but rather
how many people you can bring in the door," Logan said.
She's not depending on singing to pay the mortgage, but there was a
time when Logan considered music as a career. Since September she's
worked part time as a regulatory veterinarian at Northwestern University,
ensuring the school is in compliance with state and federal laws governing
the use of animals in research. She previously spent several years working
in the pharmaceutical industry. "Working part time leaves room
to take advantage of musical opportunities as they arise," Logan,
46, said.
Lately, those opportunities have been few and far between.
Logan said she hopes soon to record a full-length CD of jazz numbers,
and will sing later this year at a fundraiser in Los Angeles for the
Lorraine Jackson Foundation, which raises money for breast cancer research.
Logan has been married for about two years to Earnest Millhouse, a senior
pharmaceutical sales representative for
Pfizer Inc.
As a girl growing up in Washington, D.C., Logan listened to records
by legendary singers such as Fitzgerald, Nat "King" Cole and
Frank Sinatra that her father played. She took voice lessons starting
in the sixth grade and performed in stage plays in high school. However,
she enjoyed biology so much that Logan thought about pursuing a career
in medicine. Logan then attended Yale University, trying to decide between
medicine and music. "In college, I decided I didn't want to be
a starving artist," she said. She kept her voice active, though,
and helped organize an all-women's senior singing group, Whim 'n Rhythm,
which was a musical reply to the Whiffenpoofs, Yale's singing group
for senior males. "I really began to cultivate my love for jazz"
in college, Logan said. Instead of practicing medicine on people, Logan
opted to study veterinary medicine. After graduating from Yale in 1981,
Logan studied at the University of Pennsylvania,
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one of the nation's top veterinary medicine schools,
and graduated in 1985. Rather than work in a vet's office, Logan pursued
a career in the pharmaceutical industry.
Singing took a back seat to studying and making a living, and it wasn't
until 1993, when Logan moved to the Chicago area, that she resumed
voice lessons. Logan studied with a Chicago jazz pianist, Gene Esposito,
who played a key role in Logan's maturation as a jazz singer. "I
learned a lot about the music and about jazz singers," she said.
Logan performed with a number of jazz trios, then in 1996 responded
to a newspaper ad for a band, the Wayne Michaels Orchestra, that was
looking for a vocalist. During the six years she spent with the orchestra,
Logan's repertoire expanded to include not only jazz but pop tunes,
R&B and country music.
In 2001 she landed a role in a Black Ensemble Theater musical biography
of Ella Fitzgerald. First presented in a workshop production at the
South Shore Cultural Center's Festival of the Arts, the musical was
expanded in 2002. Three different performers portrayed Fitzgerald
at different periods in her career, which spanned six decades. Logan
played a middle-aged Fitzgerald, singing numbers such as "Someone
to Watch Over Me" and "The Man I Love." "It was
my most thrilling performance experience," Logan said.
On the career front, however, mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical
business would ultimately leave Logan jobless.
She worked with lab animals in the Skokie offices of drug company
Searle, which at the time was part of Monsanto Co. Logan survived
Monsanto's merger with Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc., but shortly after
Pfizer Inc. wrapped up its acquisition of Pharmacia & Upjohn in
spring 2003, Pfizer said it would close the research center Logan
worked at.
Finding herself out of a job in December 2003, Logan considered a
music-oriented career tack. Despite her solid resume, however, Logan
found herself in a crowded field of singers competing for a limited
number of gigs. "It's rough out there," she said. "It's
a challenge to enter an entirely different arena." Despite her
lifelong love of music, Logan said she has no regrets about the career
path she took. "Things happen the way they are supposed to happen,"
she said. "I'm really grateful I have the opportunity to do a
little of both."
By Mike Nolan
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