is the voice is probably the best represented instrument on the twin cities jazz scene there are a lot of darn good singers here but probably the hardest working hard to swing and most popular is debbie duncan so i'm not blessed with the same kind of voice and sarah had debbie compensates for that with an bio and an energy and an obvious joy of you not to like or here's debbie duncan sophisticated lady and for me at least it's nice to hear her in a more subdued way singing more softly for one thing you hear the bottom range of her voice much  better on this so here is debbie singing sophisticated lady if you're a singer in the twin cities you like to sing songs about warmth and warm places and places that are freezing cold like the twin cities of minneapolis and st paul are for much of the winter and we're going to hear a charming tune that i bet you don't know it's written by another local performer of note singer and pianist and composer judy donna he and in the twin cities there's quite a nice community of artists that help each other out and who go to each other shows and who provide each other with material so it's only natural that debbie duncan would sing something from judy donna he's book and just as current alice and the she's right here from the old well she lives here in the twin cities and she wrote this song which is actually an award winning song called not that south of the border so i'm always explaining this title when she first started playing and she actually named it south of the border because you really are forgive me judy she really didn't know about the other south of the border so every time she would say ok south of the border the band would you know play have to go so far away to find a little warmth and companionship and a little the good stuff right here as my interpretation i don't know if she feels that way but hey that's what it's going to be tonight thank you very much here we have another ballad by debbie a classic a classic torts very sad saw a song popularized pretty much i believe by frank sinatra it's called where are you and listen to this and i think that you'll be impressed with debbie's growth as a ballad singer with her flippant personality and her upbeat humorous nature i think it's difficult for dent debbie sometimes to allow herself to be more serious and to express deeper emotions hurtfulness pain whatever i think she succeeds quite well here where are you all my life debbie duncan seems totally at home on stage it's almost as if you're in her living room and she's given a private performance so easy going no swept well she sweats but she's just so comfortable and that's a hard thing to achieve it's much harder than it looks it's an art it's the art of entertaining that's a separate thing from singing well and taking musical chances it's just being comfortable and making everyone around you feel comfortable quoting your fellow musicians and nobody does it better in the twin cities and debbie duncan that natural quality and another thing that w as well is the art of vocal b so you're going to hear an example of that now vocalise is when you take a saxophone solo a trumpet solo a flute solo what have you and you take that solo which is an invention on a familiar tune and you make a new tune out of it that he doesn't make tones like the innovators of the style did like eddie jefferson or john hendricks or dave lambert or king pleasure but she certainly interprets them well here's one of the most famous vocalise pieces of all time probably the most famous it's called moody's mood for love and it's james moody solo on i'm in the mood for love with new  became a big hit for king pleasure and it's a test for singers and debbie passes the test with flying colors so if you have somebody you've been trying to talk to for a  and they haven't been here you know it happens i know i'm the type of person you can give me over my head i never sorry you just got to tell me if you have somebody like that you could turn to deal with for a minute this song find yourself a nice cold sea place to be you know darling i've been trying to talk to you for a bit and it seems to me that you've not been really hearing what i've been saying to you so i thought that since we were here together jazz musicians and jazz singers have been making hay with broadway show tunes and tin pan alley as long as there's been jazz just about and one of the tunes the chew here now and again is from my fair lady done in a jazz style on the street where you live here's debbie duncan and she's going to swing it like crazy the street is happen in street where she lives this is a funky street this is a little blues to it we're going to end this program in quintessential debbie duncan style with us stopping shouting belting talking rousing blues called i'd rather drink muddy water and you'll notice that miss duncan gives everything she's got and leaves absolutely nothing on stage the blues say if you want to rock a house you do it with the blues we told you that debbie duncan was a hell's a pop an entertainer at the beginning of the show and she's going to prove it for a now she's going to raise the roof with a medley of blues tunes one called in the evenin gets it go on nice and slow and steady and then she moves into i'd rather drink muddy water and by the end of that she's a whale and i'd rather drink muddy water sleep in a hollow log a couple of tunes that you may have heard by the great joe williams or the great j make shannon crowd pleasing entertainers like debbie duncan people who really connect with their audience and they do it with the blue so let's drink a little muddy water let's get down and dirty with the queen of the twin cities jazz vocal scen see i used to get a little bit lo you know