NOTE: There will be afree discussion/workshop with Suzanne Vega on
Monday, February 11th from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Widely regarded as one of the
most brilliant songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a
leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying
herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been labeled contemporary folk or
neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release
of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given
sold-out concerts in many of the world's best-known halls. In performances
devoid of outward drama that nevertheless convey deep emotion, Vega sings in a
distinctive, clear vibrato-less voice that has been described as "a cool, dry
sandpaper- brushed near-whisper" and as "plaintive but disarmingly powerful."
Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who "observed the world with a
clinically poetic eye," Suzanne’s songs have always tended to focus on city
life, ordinary people and real world subjects. Notably succinct and understated,
often cerebral but also streetwise, her lyrics invite multiple interpretations.
In short, Suzanne Vega’s work is immediately recognizable, as utterly distinct
and thoughtful, and as creative and musical now, as it was when her voice was
first heard on the radio over 20 years ago.
Suzanne was born in Santa Monica, CA, but grew up in Spanish Harlem and the
Upper West Side of New York City. She was influenced by her mother, a computer
systems analyst and her stepfather, the Puerto Rican writer Egardo Vega Yunque.
There was a heady mix of multicultural music playing at home: Motown, bossa
nova, jazz and folk. At age 11 she picked up a guitar and as a teenager she
started to write songs.
Suzanne studied dance at the High School for the Performing Arts and later
attended Barnard College where she majored in English Literature. It was in 1979
when Suzanne attended a concert by Lou Reed and began to find her true artistic
voice and distinctive vision for contemporary folk. Receptionist by day, Suzanne
was hanging out at the Greenwich Village Songwriter’s Exchange by night. Soon
she was playing iconic venues like The Bottom Line and Folk City. The word was
out and audiences were catching on.
At first, record companies saw little prospect of commercial success. Suzanne’s
demo tape was rejected by every major record company—and twice by the very label
that eventually signed her: A&M Records. Her self-titled debut album was finally
released in 1985, co-produced by Steve Addabbo and Lenny Kaye, the former
guitarist for Patti Smith. The skeptical executives at A & M were expecting to
sell 30,000 LP’s. 1,000,000 records later, it was clear that Suzanne’s voice was
resonating around the world. Marlene on the Wall was a surprise hit in the U.K
and Rolling Stone eventually included the record in their “100 Greatest
Recordings of the 1980’s.”
1987’s follow up, Solitude Standing, again co-produced by Addabbo and Kaye,
elevated her to star status. The album hit #2 in the UK and #11 in the States,
was nominated for three Grammys including Record of the Year and went platinum.
“Luka” is a song that has entered the cultural vernacular; certainly the only
hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy.
The opening song on Solitude Standing was a strange little a cappella piece,
“Tom’s Diner” about a non-descript restaurant near Columbia University uptown.
Without Suzanne’s permission, it was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA”
and bootlegged as “Oh Susanne.” Suddenly her voice on this obscure tune was
showing up in the most unlikely setting of all: the club. Suzanne permitted an
official release of the remix of “Tom’s Diner” under its original title which
reached #5 on the Billboard pop chart and went gold. In 1991 a compilation,
Tom’s Album, brought together the remix and other unsolicited versions of the
song. Meanwhile, Karlheinz Brandenburg, the German computer programmer was busy
developing the technology that would come to be known as the MP3. He found that
Vega’s voice was the perfect template with which to test the purity of the audio
compression that he was aiming to perfect. Thus Suzanne earned the nickname “The
Mother of the MP3.”
Suzanne co-produced the follow-up album with Anton Sanko, 1990’s Days Of Open
Hand, which won a Grammy for Best Album Package. The album also featured a
string arrangement by minimalist composer Philip Glass. Years earlier she had
penned lyrics for his song cycle “Songs From Liquid Days.” Continuing to battle
preconceptions, she teamed with producer Mitchell Froom for 1992’s 99.9F. The
album’s sound instigated descriptions such as “industrial folk” and “technofolk.”
Certified gold, 99.9F won a New York Music Award as Best Rock Album.
In 1996, Vega returned with the similarly audacious Nine Objects Of Desire, also
produced by Mitchell Froom, who by then was her husband. “Woman On The Tier
(I’ll See You Through)” was released on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. Over
the years, she has also been heard on the soundtracks to Pretty In Pink (“Left
Of Center” with Joe Jackson) and The Truth About Cats & Dogs, and contributed to
such diverse projects as the Disney compilation Stay Awake, Grateful Dead
tribute Dedicated, Leonard Cohen tribute Tower Of Song, and Pavarotti & Friends.
In 1999, The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings Of Suzanne Vega, a volume of
poems, lyrics, essays and journalistic pieces was published by Spike/ Avon
Books. In 2001, she returned to her acoustic roots for her first new album in
five years, the critics favorite, Songs In Red And Gray.
Suzanne’s neo-folk style has ushered in a new female, acoustic, folk-pop
singer-songwriter movement that would include the likes of Tracy Chapman, Shawn
Colvin, and Indigo Girls. In 1997, Suzanne joined Sarah McLachlan on her Lilith
Fair tour which celebrated the female voice in rock and pop. She was one of the
few artists invited back every year. Suzanne was also the host of the public
radio series “American Mavericks,” thirteen hour-long programs featuring the
histories and the music of the iconoclastic, contemporary classical composers
who revolutionized the possibilities of new music. The show won the Peabody
Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and is back in production in 2010 with
Suzanne as its host.
In 2007, Suzanne released Beauty & Crime on Blue Note Records, a deeply personal
reflection of her native New York City in the wake of the loss of her brother
Tim and the tragedy of 9/11. But the record is not a sad one, per se, as her
love for the city shines through as both its subject and its setting. In it,
Suzanne mixes the past and present, the public with the private, and familiar
sounds with the utterly new, just like the city itself. Produced by the
Scotsman, Jimmy Hogarth and featuring songs such as “New York is a Woman” and
“Ludlow Street,” Beauty & Crime is that rare album by an artist in her third
decade; an album that is as original and startling as her first. Beauty & Crime
won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2009 Suzanne was invited by Vaclav Havel to perform in Prague to celebrate
the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Joining her on stage were Renée
Fleming, Lou Reed and Joan Baez. Beginning in Suzanne began the release of a 4
disc retrospective called The Close Up Series, on her own label, Amenuensis
Productions. This set of discs look back through her extraordinary songbook and
re-imagines the work in an intimate, stripped down production, grouped as “Love
Songs,” People, Places and Things,” “States of Being,” and “Songs of Family. In
the summer of 2010 Suzanne appeared again on select dates of The Lilith Fair
Tour and returned to Europe for appearances at the Isle of White Festival as
well as the Konzerthaus in Vienna, among others. May 1, 2010 marked the 25th
anniversary of her eponymous debut album and Suzanne performed that record, in
its entirety, at a special concert at the City Winery in New York City. In 2011,
Suzanne premiered her own theater piece, “Carson McCullers Talks About Love,” at
the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Based on the life of the acclaimed Southern
gothic playwright, Carson McCullers was the author of “The Heart is a Longely
Hunter,” The piece included music contributed both by Suzanne and Duncan Sheik,
the songwriter and composer of the Broadway hit musical, “Spring Awakening.”
2012 finds Suzanne touring Asia and performing in the US in a co-bill with
Duncan Sheik, as well as releasing the final disc in the Close Up Series and
beginning work on a new studio album.
Suzanne Vega is an artist that continues to surprise. In 2006, she became the
first major recording artist to perform live in avatar form within the virtual
world Second Life. She has dedicated much of her time and energy to charitable
causes, notably Amnesty International, Casa Alianza, and the Save Darfur
Coalition. Suzanne has a daughter, Ruby, by first husband Mitchell Froom. Ruby,
like Suzanne before her, attends the High School for the Performing Arts.
Suzanne is married to lawyer/poet Paul Mills who proposed to her originally in
1983. Suzanne accepted his proposal on Christmas Day 2005, twenty two years
later. As fascinating as the New Yorkers she has been inspired by, Suzanne Vega
herself is full of stories and surprises: the everyday revelations, the
grabbed-on-the-run wisdom, the strange, random, miraculous stuff that make up a
singular career – or maybe just another life in the big city.
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