And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Gloria stephan has been making hit records inter debut with the miami sound machine back in 1995. She is one of the first to cross over to bring latin music to the mainstream, on her latest cd shetled the standards, sings in english, spanish, portuguese, and italian. Lets take a look at gloria singing the great gershwin song, how long has this been going on. How long has this been going on on long has this been going a long, how long, how long has this been going on i love him. I love him. He is a sweetie. Tavis i didnt believe this, and i read this, i did not realize that youre very first carson, youn actually sang a standard. I did, good morning heartache. Conductedg arranged, am a did everything on the record. He asked me to sit in with him and i told him that was one of my favorite tunes. I did it on carson back in the day. There was a pnr right there where i was sitting, and i got the whole idea for the record edges pulled me in. Tavis what was happening in your world that made good morning heartache what you sang on your first carson appearance although singers, they were songs i listen to, records that my mom played for me in that later i bought. They wanted us to do two songs. They were a brandnew band, hadnt even hit the top 10 yet. They said we want you to do a second song, but we dont want to lose the audience, just in case. I said my piano player and i can do good morning heartache. People can see that i do sing ballads as well, that we love serious music, and it worked out , because when we came out with ballads later, it wasnt that much of a shock. That is one starts the record, that song. Tavis im curious, how did you go about choosing the material . Anyone who has performed as much as you have, you have 17 tracks on here, that is a lot of whittling. You are not kidding. I looked at over 1000 songs. Tavis i figured as much. Then i picked titles that i love. By the time i went over to shelley, i had whittled it down to 50. To say i loveg this tune, but when you go to sing it, youve got to have something really personal. Then down to 25, and then i just picked the ones that are more personal, that had something to do with my life. At the dupont plasma hotel, we and good disco, morning heartache, you know the story. Song, the one we danced to, a big song of brazil. Everything has a very significant meaning, personal. Tavis you are singing in multiple languages. These are all romance languages. My new family, i have an italian family because my son married a girl, and they had a baby, we have a grandbaby. Im so happy, shes got me crazy. Im so in love with that baby. But their teaching him italian, so i wanted to do an homage to my new family. Spanish. Miling it just all fit. I wanted to focus on my global audience, which is something i could do, and i know spanish very well. A hop, skip, and a job. I have done portuguese before. Given all the seismic shifts and changes, to put a project out that does play globally. It always does domestically. The numbers are crazy. One of my albums would ship 2 million the first week. Its not that people dont have dont buy they just the way we were used to selling it on cds. For me particularly, im a global artist. I have been lucky enough to tour the whole world and have a lot of fans all over. All our latin american countries are very different. You gave a shout out to your son. I dont want to leave your daughter out. She is in the booklet, her picture. She was at the studio every day. I was holding my grandbaby when i sang our wedding song. She is a killer drummer. Berkeley, the college of music. She is a drummer. This summer, her and i started writing together, and the first songs we wrote, produced them for an artist that emilio is produce. Eady to she is really an amazing singer. She loved the tracks. Tavis i really do want to dig into the album, what this means to the depth and breadth of your career. When you walked in, the first thing i ask you was, how are you doing . Where is emilio . He is an artistic genius in his own right. Tell me more about what it has meant to run this race with emilio, to have that partner, that artistic genius be the person you spend your life with. It is really given me the opportunity to have that balance that everyone would love to have, which is family, your career. Very tough for a woman in the music business. He really was such a motivator from the beginning when i was super shy. He saw a lot in me on a personal level that could carry through on the stage. Music in your life is such a beautiful thing. On anythingffer business oriented our music oriented. We are still so excited every time we put out a project. He has not lost that, getting up every day really excited to be alive. We have been married 35 years, and ive been with him 38. He was my boss for a year before we hope to. Long i to such a swear to you, and seems like the blink of an eye. I look at him and i see that 20 yearold boy. Tavis now you have a grandbaby. Project, what is it the lyrical content of this stuff that holds up . What, for you, make such a great song . I am a songwriter. To me, the stars have been the songs. I loved Stevie Wonder and elton john and carol king, but because of the songs, the songs they wrote really got me to the core. To me, music was a healing thing. It was a catharsis. I would like myself in my room with my guitar and play. I have a great deal of respect for it. , the standards between 1920 and 1949, a lot of broadway, songs from movies in place, they were very musical. The arrangements were amazing. What is great about a good song is that anyone who sings it can make it their own. It still going to be a great song whether you play just on a piano or you make a huge big band arrangement. They stand the test of time, and its fun to do something with it that is your own. Tavis pick a couple of them and tell me in your own words what you give this thing your own flavor. You,s take embraceable a standard. To me, it was about my baby girl. She was about to go to college. Every word in that song was about her. I can say it wholeheartedly. We wanted to do Something Like arrangement,he just pn o and strings. Shelley outdid himself. He was sending me demos throughout the summer and i would say this is really cool, what about if we try this . We wanted to make each song very intimate. Its almost like a lullaby. We created an arrangement for ive grown accustomed to his face. For me, its emilio through and through. He whistles when he is upset, he whistles when he is happy. Everything about that song, because he has been with me every step of the way, night and day. When we were in the studio, he but we didnt live. I recorded four songs a day in the studio. It was like you could hear a pin drop. I said baby, this ones for you. The musicians, these hardcore guys, were crying. They were really moved. It was just very real because i sang it for him. It was so easy to make it my own, because it was my own. What is it over the years you have loved so much about this live thing, recording live, that has worked so well . That is what music has been for me. Dad, or i am like sealed. Hermetically i felt like i needed to be really strong for my mom, and i am a strong person, but i took care of him for a long time. I didnt want to cry in front of my mom. I didnt want to seem weak, a music would allow me to express, in my room, i would sing and the tears would come and i would cry. I would hear a melody and it would just twist my heart into a ball. It allows me to get out all the emotions that were tough for me to deal with. Music has been that for me. When you perform live, that is communication with your audience, with the musicians. A capture something very different. This you have been on artistic journey for quite some time now. I wonder whether or not you could have done this 20 years ago. No way. I could have sung it, because i did sing good morning heartache on tonic arson, and people loved it, but i think you need to feel very secure and very good in your own skin to let go enough of everything to. Ust emailed in the songs if you listen to the words to how long has this been going on, it could apply to so many different things. Theres a lot of subtext. At the time, there was a lot of things written and hidden in lyrics. I think that makes it really interesting. Now i feel good in my own skin. I am confident. I have lived so many things and i can understand a lot more. Tavis so your experience helps at a certain stage. For example, 23 years ago after i had that accident, that changed me. It made me realize so clearly that in two seconds, everything could be over. I thought, im not going to waste one second expressing to the people i love that i do love them, expressing more throughout my music, letting myself go, just singing more free, being able to just jam and try different things. Before, i just sort of stuck with the program, because i am a rule follower. A lot of my musicians tell me they are happy i didnt study music because i would follow the rules. You learn the rules, and you break them. So it has all worked out great. Tavis a lot of your fans remember that horrible accident, and we wondered whether or not you would ever be the same again, where the you would sing again. I raise that because you raise it, and because another great artist, bb king, was in this chair just a few days ago. He just had a birthday, he is 88 years old now. He had a horrible bus accident many, many years ago. Sitting in this chair just a week or so ago, it was like that accident had just happened to him. Readilytill so available to him, in terms of he he tours, in terms of how rides uncomfortably on his tour bus. He yells at the driver, dont take that turn so fast i raise that only to ask how has any experience has it in sort of way stuck with you e of course. First of all, the power of prayer. I felt an electric current, and i used it. Me. As very clear to i learned that i had a lot of discipline i didnt know i had. And how much we can affect our own health and wellbeing, and how much power we have within ourselves to heal and to go beyond. Ill never forget that. I wouldnt want to go through it again, but i wouldnt change it. Because it turned out so well. Maybe if it would have been a different outcome, i might not think that way, but i do. I wouldnt change it, because it really did enrich my experience of life and gave me a lot of tools that i didnt know i had. Tavis dont tell him you i said this, but you look amazing. Why wouldnt i tell him e i dont want him to get mad at me. Cover, inside, these photos are amazing. You have the glam on the outside, but inside its all real. Everybody in the studio, all the musicians that were part of the experience. I like that mix, because that is what this work is about. I actually reach back to old 1930s and 1940s pictures of hollywood glam, how they focused the light. They use a lot of shadows and simplicity in the things they used on the set. Miami f marys ofries miami and the time the songs. I wanted to present physically the pictures, still, like modern, you have the dolce and the modern and very beautiful dress. Tavis since were on it, you reach back historically to get this using to do this project, the standards. History is written backwards, but our lives are lived forward. You have been at this for quite some time. How are you as an artist managing that, this aging thing . As my grandmother would say, you are becoming more chronologically gifted. [laughter] i take it a day at a time. I really have never felt better. As a woman, i feel so great in my own skin. Its yourly years parents, your boyfriend, your husband, your kids. Everybody is usually before you. Haveour kids are grown and their own lives. I have been fortunate every step of the way to have my family with the. I really cannot complain. I feel great. Your mortality is closer. You know even if you live a long time, its not going to be that long. I just make every day count and dont worry about it. You are either older or dead. I will take over any day of the week, for sure. My mother always says the only way you dont have to get old is if you die young. We talked earlier about the musical arrangements, on how you wanted to give these standards your own sound. How do you think your voice marries with this kind of music you go just because you can sing doesnt mean you should sing. This is such a happy thing for me. The reason i wrote ballads in my career is because i love this kind of stuff. I already had that in my psyche. I always like to keep learning and evolving. About a year and a half ago i found a new vocal coach. Years,after all these you are still using a vocal coach . You have to keep your tools sharp. He took me to another level. I had a wonderful italian coach, he passed away already, but if you want to evolve and grow, you always can learn to the end of your days and keep getting stronger. I wanted to be stronger vocally for this record, to give me the ability to go places that i might not have gone. You are naked in this kind of thing. The arrangements are there and everything, but its all very quiet. Its not like you have horns sections and percussion blaring. Tavis its like im inside the musicians studio, a what did you feel like this music required you to do with your voice that you need to work at e you need control. I wanted to be able to really wrap my voice around these, just be able to caress the songs. Even though i have done that with my ballads throughout time, i just wanted to be better, and just keep evolving. I like to keep growing. I always like to learn. Until my lastn day on earth, learn something new. Especially in my craft. I never learned piano, because with could not afford it. If i had time, i would take piano lessons. I really dont have time for that, but i want to keep my tools sharp. I want to be free to go anywhere i want with these melodies. Tavis i was thinking of all the persons i have been fortunate to talk to in this chair who at some point in their career decided to do a standards project. Everybody from rod stewart to glenn frey. I have never talked to a Single Person who did this once and didnt think they were going to do it again. Which raises the obvious question, might you do this again e i would love to. It was a wonderful experience. Legit and raw and organic. The guys came in, they were top of their line. The drummer played with ella fitzgerald, whitson dr. With sinatra. Got meime i did this, it chomping at the bit, i really want to do this project because i just feel very comfortable in that genre. Maybe because my mom raised me on this, nat king cole. I used to watch dean martin as a kid and andy williams. Its just very much what i love. Tavis i dont want to put you in an uncomfortable spot of making comparisons, is there anything better than doing duets with sinatra or tony bennett . In my own life, to be able to be singing with these great musicians is a privilege and an honor. It was really a wonderful experience. We went to dinner with mr. So a. T trust mr. Sinatr i brought my mom to the dinner. Nowas a chef, and he had qualms about telling everybody exactly what he thought of the food. And mr. Bennett, what a gentleman. I had run into him on the road several times, and he was always the nicest guy. But to sing with him live in his studio, it is a wonderful thing to see somebody in their 80s that is still on top of their game. Atra is the chairman of the board and he said that bennett was the best thing he ever heard. Name is gloria estefan. The new project is called the standards. I highly recommend you adding this to your collection. We are always honor to have you with us. Thank you so much. I love being here. Tavis thats our show for tonight. Until next time, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a winneration with oscar Marcia Gay Harden about her new movie, parkland. Thats next time. We will see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Pbs