Laurel Massé: How Can I Keep from Singing?
Laurel Massé: How Can I Keep from Singing?
World Premiere
Director Reilly Tillman Attending
As a founding member of the Grammy-winning vocal jazz group The Manhattan Transfer, singer Laurel Massé achieved international success in the 70’s and was on track to keep soaring–until she nearly lost everything one tragic night. Overcoming numerous obstacles in an industry that saw her as a product to be discarded, she survived via her vocal prowess and has endured to have a decades-long career that has delighted millions.
This uplifting documentary follows Laurel Massé from her early career in The Manhattan Transfer and the sudden success of that group, through the challenges the music industry wanted to thrust upon her and her bandmates. Fed up, Massé took control of her career and has spent decades singing jazz, folk, blues, pop, pop standards, traditional hymns and spirituals, earning comparison to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Her personality, and especially her performances, will leave audiences spellbound–but will she ever reunite with The Transfer?