Take Five With Elaine Lucia

Meet Elaine Lucia:
Elaine Lucia has been performing and recording for over twenty-five years and has produced three nationally released jazz CDs that have brought her five-star reviews and airplay on jazz station across the country. Her energetic and engaging show has graced stages as diverse as world-renowned Yoshi's San Francisco to festivals, wineries, private events and intimate nightclubs. The band can swing, bossa nova, samba and entertain in large concert venues and small, intimate settings. Elaine's "Lucia Sings Lee" is a tribute show to the late, great Peggy Lee. Her jazz group includes celebrated guitarist Randy Vincent and award-winning vibes player/composer Gerry Grozs. Elaine and her core trio of Jonathan Alford (piano), Pierre Archain (bass), and Alan Hall (drums) have been together since the early 90's.

Instrument(s):
Voice, guitar

When were you happiest?
Right after my daughter was born. I was raising her alone, and had her all to myself. She taught me what Love is. She inspired me to write a lot of music. While raising her I continued to sing, and write. Now, she is grown, and is a fantastic singer, guitarist, and songwriter.

What is your greatest fear?
I don't even want to write it. Why give it any power? As soon as my greatest fear becomes a conscious thought I replace it with something beautiful and positive so that I don't create the very thing I fear most.

What is your earliest memory?
Christmas morning, two years old. I was crying at the breakfast table because I wanted cookies but my mother was insisting I eat oatmeal instead. On Christmas!

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I don't "deplore" any of my personal traits. There are traits that I don't like or that I feel need correcting. As I mention above, I don't dwell on them, or I try not to. When they come to mind, I immediately visualize how I want to replace that negative trait with a more positive one. And feel strongly what that positive trait will feel like and how it will impact me in a good way.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Well, again, "deplore" is a strong word. When I see injustice in our government, corruption, hypocrisy, and especially intolerance, it makes me angry.

What is your most treasured possession?
The fact that I am a mother to a wonderful daughter is the "possession," if you could call it that, that I cherish the most. Everything in my life centers around the love I have been given as a result of that relationship, and the Life lessons I have learned.

What would your superpower be?
To change people's hearts. The power of music is a super power!

Who would play you in the film of your life?
I don't know!

What is your most unappealing habit?
Now why would I tell you that??

Which person would you most like to meet, and why?
Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Sasha and Malia!! Because they are beautiful, brilliant, and radiate love and true positive, family values. I would also love to meet Mozart. And Gabrielle Faure. Ella Fitzgerald. Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, Al Gore because they are trying to help lead the planet to peace and equality and a better environment for us all. I greatly admire Michelle Obama, too as a shining example of a strong, independent, capable woman and mother.

Which living person do you most despise, and why?
I'm sorry to have to use the word "despise," but I can't think of a better word to describe the horror I feel viscerally for Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales and the rest of the criminal cabal that held our country, and the rest of the world, hostage with their crimes against humanity, against our Constitution, and against millions of innocent people around the world. And those who supported, allowed, or looked the other way also have earned my utter contempt.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
To the 1920's, so I could be a singer at the dawning of the Jazz Age.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"I LOVE that!"

Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?
I took out a big loan to record, manufacture, and market my last CD project. When I ran out of money, I sold my car. That project was the most expensive "thing" I ever bought and paid for. And I'm still paying for it, so please buy my records!! :)

Where would you like to live?
Half of the year in San Francisco, the other half in Italy!

What makes you depressed?
The state of the planet...the environment, the wars, the impoverished countries, and peoples terrorized by their 'governments' or dictatorship. Injustice, cruelty and needless suffering really depress me.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Where do I start?! I'm a woman, and unfortunately, hold myself to an impossible standard. I am aware of this but it is so ingrained, as it is with almost all the women I know, that it's impossible to escape. Let's change this subject!

What is your favorite smell?
Popcorn that I cook on top of the stove (NO microwave popcorn, yuck!); fresh coffee beans (but I don't drink it!), and this incredible olive oil soap I bought from The Olive Press in Sonoma, CA. Also, the smell of a little baby just out of the bath.

What is your favorite book?
The Prophet.

To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
To a childhood friend, his name was "Eddie." When I moved away from home, across the country to California, he gave me some money, and I never was able to pay him back. It wasn't a lot, but I've never paid him back, and he doesn't answer my emails, so I assume he is/was angry at me. That makes me so sad. I loved him.

Have you ever said "I love you" and not meant it?
NO, never! What a strange question. Saying "I love you" is an unconscious act, one that doesn't take any thought, because it comes straight from the heart. If it comes from the heart, it is heart FELT, and sincere. How could it not have meaning?? How could one say it and not mean it?

Who would you like to invite to your dream dinner party?
Barack, Michelle, Sasha, and Malia Obama; George Clooney, Charlie Chaplin, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Queen Elizabeth I, Oscar Wilde, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, my friend Anita, and of course, my daughter Gigi. Oh, and Bobby McFerrin.

When did you last cry, and why?
I cried really hard last week when someone I barely know, and who I offered my help to in a production he is creating, wrote me some very hurtful emails. Out of the blue. I think he was having a bad day. Anyway, he passed his bad day along to me and it really hurt.

What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
More money. I already have so much love, friendship, music, art and quality of life that I dare not even ask for anything more. But more money would enable me to give more to my daughter, and buy me the freedom to spend my life creating, rather than working at things other than music so I can pay my rent and bills.

What keeps you awake at night?
Thinking about the world my daughter and young people are inheriting, and finances.

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