Ms. Toscha Comeaux

Toscha Comeaux talks with Nasshan about her life, education and career.

What is The Morning Groove w/ John Nasshan?

Highlights and extended interviews from 91.5 Jazz and More's morning show.

0:00:00
Hey, this is Nashen from The Morning Groove and we're hanging today with Tasha Como. She is a vocalist, is a fine entertainer, and you may have seen her at local establishments like Gatsby's and where I originally met her at the dispensary and other places, and she is a UNLV student. Hi Tasha. Hi John. How you doing?

0:00:31
I'm good. Can we just kind of clear up the dispensary

0:00:35
lounge. Okay. I like that. Okay, so we'll clarify that one. But that's where I met you. I was playing in there one night with Uli Geisendorfer and a trio and you sat in with us. Yes.

0:00:51
That was a long time, well it was it was a while ago. It depends on how old you are. I don't see it as a long time ago. A long time ago to me was like high school. Oh, no, that's a long time for me as well. So where were you born? I was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Born and raised with Jackie McClain. Yes, that's where he was. I never met him though, but I knew where he lived. Okay. And I knew where he taught. He taught at the Hart School of Music, which was right behind my high school, Weaver High School. Anyone else in your family in music? My mother. My father was of music. He had an array of music styles that he would play and he also used to get, do you remember the real mixtapes? Mm-hmm. Yes, he used to get those. I mean he had cases of them made. But my mother went to Morgan State. Mm-hmm. She started out, I have a picture of her singing Something for an event at the school, so I got it from both ends well

0:02:10
That's great. My background is also in music, and it was kind of like I didn't have a choice

0:02:15
It just kind of happened. Yeah, well I probably had a choice with my parents but I think the arts called me and I still love music. I love the arts. So yeah. And I play trumpet too.

0:02:34
I didn't know that.

0:02:35
Well, I played trumpet. It wasn't my first choice. However, after being made to play the trumpet because that was the last instrument left.

0:02:51
You're starting to date yourself now. I know. I remember that when I was in the school band. Yeah. Because you know me as a drummer and percussionist. My first

0:03:01
instrument in band was baritone sax. Oh see I wanted to play saxophone. The teacher said, I don't even remember his name, he said they're already gone. I said, well, can I play clarinet? They're gone. I was like, well, what about flute? No. You know what? Your lips will be good for the trumpet. And I have full lips. Now, I didn't know. He was just, he was just pulling my leg. But I realized, because I played from fourth grade to high school, there was an opportunity for me. I auditioned for a new performing arts school that was opening up in Hartford. And it was the Greater Hartford Academy of the Performing Arts. Now it has its own corner. We barely had a building. And before that, we didn't have a building. We used the Hartford Library. We used a church across the street and made it work, but I didn't realize until I started learning more about the voice how much the trumpet helped me. So now I'm picking it back up and it's more like...

0:04:18
I said, no, you're big enough.

0:04:20
We need a baritone sax player. You're it. Take this home. Here's the book. Figure it out. Man, he put you out there. Well luckily I had people in my family that are musicians.

0:04:31
So they could help me along the way. Well did he know that?

0:04:34
Yes, he did. Oh, and that's why he did that. Matter of fact, he was a trumpet player in my grandfather's big band.

0:04:40
Oh, so that's why he did that.

0:04:42
And then about two years later, they made me play tuba.

0:04:46
And I said, why are you doing this to me?

0:04:48
And he said, because you want to be a percussionist. If you want to play timpani, we have to train your ear for low pitches. So take this tuba home. And it worked. Really? Yeah, I love it. That's cool. You know, and I know that I, you know, like I said, I was called to music. And I'm sure you were also internally. The spirit gets you.

0:05:14
Yes.

0:05:15
And once the spirit's got you, it doesn't give you up.

0:05:17
No, it doesn't. But I also played piano. That's good. Well, it would have been, had I stuck with it. And I tell this all the time because it really cracks me up. Because this shows how much of a community and family. People were, even though they weren't a part of your family, well, this was my church family. My piano instructor, Miss Richardson, was a member of my church. And I used to do recitals and all of that. I mean, I was good. And then I stopped, became a preteen teenager. And then I stopped for two years and went back. And when I went back, I wasn't serious. And she knew I wasn't rehearsing, I wasn't practicing. And I would try and cram, well anybody out there that practices or you have children that practice, you know that they, if they have a lesson coming up, they will cram the whole week of practicing into either three hours before they have their lesson or the day before. It doesn't work. They know. They know. But one day I went to her door and she just opened the door and said, just sing baby. Just sing. Don't waste your mother's money. And I was hurt. I think I have a phobia because of that.

0:06:55
But, I mean, so I did sing. I have a pianophobia that comes from studying piano with a nun in Catholic school. She slammed the lid of the piano keys on my hands one day. Well, she used a brush. And I'm like, no thank you. Now, I had a drum teacher when I was a kid that taught my grandfather and my uncle. He was an older dude. And he would use the ruler if you weren't ready. You know what? We're only cheating ourselves if we don't prepare.

0:07:22
If we don't prepare, it's true.

0:07:24
Now, you sang in church?

0:07:26
I did. I went to an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. And I wasn't raised on a lot of gospel, like a lot of, you know, You know your african-american Singers might tell you Or might share with you if they've had that background We did and there was we did gospel It was hymns So that's what I grew up on. How ever however There was a studio around the corner from where I lived used to hang out there all of the time and they had connections with the Sugarhill Gang. I think one of them was in it or it's all a blur now but I used to hang out there and it's and again it's crazy how you don't realize those experience that you have as a child are honing you and Weddings, I even played taps on the trumpet at the Not the Capitol, but it was the it was City Hall. Mm-hmm, and That was so nerve-wracking I Mean, it's just open, you know, you don't have to touch any valves, but you better not mess up. And it's taps. So, I sang with bands when I was younger. I was a young teener just singing with bands and they'd say, look, whatever you do, don't you pick up a drink, don't you tell nobody how old you are.

0:09:07
Yeah, I was doing clubs before I was old enough to be in them. And it was a great experience. I also spent a lot of time around studios when I was a kid My grandfather was the percussionist on things like the Superfly soundtrack Mmm, and all the chess records and Brunswick records dates

0:09:26
That's awesome. Yeah, man. I mean just thinking about Even singing with you know my friends there was a friend of mine whose aunt had a record out, Barbara Fowler is her name, and she had this record out in the 80s and I was like, oh man, I love that song. And my friend said, that's my aunt. I said, what? So then I would sing background with her or for her, not with her, and even recorded. Like, there weren't tracks where you go, okay, we're just gonna separate you, your track. No. We were in the middle of a room, around, and the music was playing, and we had to sing into one mic, and if one person screwed it up, we had to start all over again.

0:10:25
You know, in a lot of ways, that was really a great learning tool for so many people because now I can fix one note because of the digital realm when we record. Right. I can go in and take out one bad note or I can fix the pitch on one note and it just makes people lazy I think sometimes. Yeah I think with a lot

0:10:45
of people one person who is no longer here and I was shocked. Irene Cara. I went in the studio, I met her and she was so talented. She didn't get the credit that she should have gotten. She was a musician. Yeah, I backed up a

0:11:06
singer that never got the right amount of credit. She was David Ruffin's sister Dodie. Oh what an amazing singer she was. She sang better than David. Really?

0:11:17
Yes.

0:11:18
Yes. What brought you out to Las Vegas?

0:11:21
Well I was in Florida. I was in Sanford, Florida just living my life. Well actually I drove from, well I went to school in Daytona Beach, Florida. That's how I ended up in Florida. Okay. Bethune-Cookman, now University, then college. And just made a life, moved to Sanford, Florida, and started working at Disney from 2002 to 2006. And in that time I had another friend who had a studio where I did a project for someone else. And he said, hey, there's auditions coming up for Cirque du Soleil. Back then you had to get an invitation to audition. And I was able to get one because they were doing, I don't know if it was because of that, but it might have helped. They were holding auditions in his studio. And I got the invitation, auditioned, and then they had me go to, at the time, La Nuba was a show in downtown Disney, and my friend was singing in that show, Sessandra Lewis, and they are very particular about their profile of their characters, and I was, you know, I was generously proportioned, and, but it was myself and another young lady that worked at Disney. We were in the same show together, the Festival of the Lion King show in Disney. And her name is Mika King, and she's out there doing her thing. But she and I auditioned on stage, and at that time, I was swallowed up and there in Aries it was just a whole different experience so anyway after we auditioned they said you know Cirque du Soleil is always coming up with you know creating new shows so you know if you're not called for this one don't worry we'll keep you in our files. Well, they did keep me in their files. And what the crazy thing is, also which might have helped, the director at the time, I think his name was Benoit, he used to hold these events at his home, which is so cool, I want to do here. This is the concept. He had entertainers, both visual and musical, in all different styles. Every Sunday there would be a different type of concert and in his living room wasn't anything fancy just where you can find the seats some hors d'oeuvres were brought in people bought a bottle of wine and then everyone shared that and then the visual art was just hung up around the house and however it brought the entertainment community together. He was also looking for new talent. Maybe, maybe, but he had string quartets, he had classical jazz, I did my CD which had jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, just all of these different elements and it was just nice to see everybody come together and network that was another key thing with that. Okay getting back to the story so I drove I was driving now we're 2009 they didn't call me in 2006. 2009 I drove from then I was living in Jacksonville that was my last place I moved to before coming here. Drove to Connecticut by myself came back laid that's Canada? I said, but I don't know anybody from Canada but Cirque du Soleil. And then I go, hello. And the guy goes, hello, this is Andre. I was like, hmm, alright Andre. So anyway, he said, um, we're creating a show in Vegas and would like to know if you want to audition. I was like sure and that's the story in itself It'll have to be a to be continued. However, that's how I got here. Okay, but the story to get here was Something yeah, it was I mean, yes, I mean my sons I don't know how they got a hold of my passport. They lost it again this there's a lot of moving parts because even during that time there was an event that occurred it was something about around the world and there were these fake passports that they had and I knew the person that was hosting it putting it on well I had some fake passports I think my son's got a hold of my real one and thought it was but I needed my So I think I had to fly to Louisiana to get another passport to get it expedited. And nobody was in that one. I was so glad. I mean, I walked in. It was like God was, he just laid it out for me. I got to Louisiana, picked up my rental car, and I'm looking for the place, downtown New Orleans. I said, there's a parking space right in front of the building where I need to go. Perfect. So my appointment was at 12, the last appointment of the day. I go up before 12 and I give them the letter that I need this expedited. They go, oh, just walk around the French Quarter, you know, come back at about 2.33. I said, okay. So I go and I get me some chicken gumbo. I get me some regular gumbo cuz my father's from Lafayette, Louisiana You know, I'm used to my father's gumbo But I went around and then I was walking down the street picking in the clubs and seeing all these Tiny venues and just imagining the musicians and the music that goes on but I go back and they go here you go I got my passport in less than what, three hours? I called and let them know. I flew out that weekend. My audition was August 3rd and my birthday is August 23rd.

0:17:51
Oh, there you go.

0:17:52
I finalized the contract over the phone on August 13th. I had to be here in Vegas by August 25th. So that was my birthday gift.

0:18:04
And that's how the music business works sometimes.

0:18:07
And I had friends from Florida that sang here. They came here singing. I remember when they were leaving and we wished them well. It was a group by the name of Mosaic. And they opened up for George Wallace. And one of my friends was in that group. And they moved out here.

0:18:27
Which show were you in?

0:18:28
Where? At Disney?

0:18:30
No, with Cirque.

0:18:31
Oh, with Cirque? Viva Elvis. We opened when the Aria opened. I remember the sound of the show. Yeah, it was something. I wished, oh man, I mean, first I want to say the whole cast and crew are phenomenal. Just beautiful people. Not just extraordinary at what they do, but they are beautiful people and found out that some of the people that work there just all they did was just transfer to another position but they worked as circus performers with their families. There was a lady we had this walk the wardrobe we started out where anyone could create a piece or whatever dancer you know the seamstresses and all of that. And one seamstress, she got on the floor and showed us she could, with her feet, she could roll a log or something. It wasn't a log, but it looked like a log. But well who would have known if we did not do this. And then you know we had dancers and all we did was some of us just wore their pieces and we walked from one end of the wardrobe room through the wardrobe room and out. That was the stage and then it moved on to the stage. Then it became something else. But just some of the most beautiful people, even the cast at Disney World, I mean, they are my family and our acronym for the Festival of the Lion King is FOLK. So I always say, those are my folk right there, and I mean it.

0:20:09
See now, I worked at Disney in California, but a long time before you did. I was a member of a group in Florida.

0:20:17
Well, I was in Florida.

0:20:18
Well, I know, but I was in California at Disneyland, working in a group called the Kids of the Kingdom in 1974. And we were hired via videotape audition and what I remember is they had requirements for your hair and the women's fingernails and they wanted the right look and the right this and the right that and you had to stay that way while you worked for them which was interesting because we didn't get a second haircut the guys in my group just slicked it down with water and went to work with hairspray you know it was crazy but we had a lot of fun. I learned a lot working for Disney. Because they're so efficient and things run so well. Yes. And then you moved into Cirque, which is even another level of the same concept. Well, here's the thing.

0:21:02
In orientation, I believe I was the only entertainer. But the gentleman that was in the orientation, he was in the show. I didn't know it at the time. But they had all these rules oh you're here and I had locks my hair was locked didn't have braids right and my hair was shoulder length so they said well you you can't have this you can't I would raise my hand I go um this is my hair I have locks then she looks down and she goes, oh, you're in entertainment. This doesn't apply to you. So I said, it's funny because that's what I felt like when I was having my twins and I went to Lamaze class and I was the only one having multiple births. I would go, well, what about a single birth? I mean, what about twins, multiple births? Oh, that doesn't apply to you. And I'm thinking, well, why am I spending money in this Lamaze class if nothing applies to me. So everything didn't apply to me in the orientation and however when I came, when I got the, and I tried to get them to make me cut my hair, Cirque du Soleil. I said so do you, do you, would you like for me to cut my hair or my locks or anything? Oh no, no, no, no, no, just we want you to stay just the way you are." And I was like, oh gosh, I wanted to have her.

0:22:32
You know, I have some Disney trivia that a lot of people may not be aware of. Back in the early, early 70s, there was a group working at the Tomorrowland stage that had Richard and Karen Carpenter in it. What? And they were fired because Richard wouldn't get a haircut and Karen wouldn't trim her nails.

0:22:51
Oh well.

0:22:53
They had a quarter inch nail rule and they had an ear showing hair rule.

0:22:57
They had a length of nail rule?

0:23:00
Yeah. And the Carpenters recorded an album with a tune on it called Mr. Guder and it was telling the guy in the song about you shouldn't have let us go because now we're big stars and that was his real name. I worked for the same supervisor in 74, Victor Guta. It was funny. But that's my Disney trivia. It's a crack-up. So you did the Cirque thing and then you went out doing your single thing with bands and singing tunes.

0:23:27
Well, once I got here, I'd always been singing with bands. Yeah, once the show closed, I also substitute teach. However, being in school now, I haven't been able to kind of work that schedule out yet, but I've always taught, even in Florida. Since 90, I've been substitute teaching. So I went, I applied for CCSD, worked for CCSD, and now I'm with the charter schools. Oh cool. Academica, and I hope I'm still with them, but I substitute teach. Then I said, well, you know, I'm used to doing bands. I mean, small venues. I don't have to be on a huge stage. So I went back out, and I put myself back out there and said, you know, can I sing? And I knew Uli from Cirque du Soleil. So I went to the dispensary lounge and then sang. And somehow, at some point, became a regular performer.

0:24:25
Well, I remember the first time I heard you sing, I was playing and you came up and sang in tune and you walked away from the bandstand and I looked at Uli and said, this girl can sing. And he went, I know, with his German accent. Thank you. Now what brought you to enrolling at UNLV?

0:24:42
and I said I would be an idiot if I didn't take that opportunity. And what are you studying at UMD? Music, arranging, composition. Cool. Yes, but it's a whole other beast. A lot of music theory involved. Oh, yes, and that's another phobia. But I'm determined to do what has to be done. And the final step, as far as I'm concerned, with arranging and composing

0:25:05
is something that Duke Ellington did better than everyone, and it's knowing the rules but knowing how to break them. Yeah. Yeah. That was Duke's thing and one of the things that Duke always said to people was, in fact he wrote a book called Music is My Mistress and his whole philosophy was music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one. Hmm. And Duke broke all the rules. That's why his music was so different and got so popular because he just broke the rules. Yeah. So you're

0:25:40
studying for which degree? Master's. Yeah. Cool. You know trying to bridge the gap between undergrad and now grad after being out and I know out of school for a minute. Yeah more like an hour. And you're using Finale and all the good software and all that stuff. I'm working on MuseScore. That's what I'm trying to work on. That's a starter. I'm telling you, I didn't think of that part of the music, but it's great. And then one of my instructors teaches a film scoring and I've always been interested in that. You know, I would look at movies and go, why did they choose choose that or I'd say oh that's good, that's a good feeling right there that they're portraying in the music. And I would go man I could do that and who knows maybe I will be able to do that. It's the kind of industry where you never know what can happen next which is a great thing and you can make things happen. Yeah, another friend of mine Todd Hunter he's Dionne Warwick, musical director, and we did something. He said, hey, you want to write this song? I said, sure, for what? It was for a Brazilian biography about a woman who ended up in Chula Vista, California. This was a backdrop he told me, he gave me, because I needed to know what the premise of the documentary, I'm sorry, it was a documentary this woman it was a snake charmer in Brazil singer actress you know performer well somehow she ended up into La Vista and she got married she and her husband lived in a trailer and he left her and she never fit in you know she's very eccentric and she stands out like a sore thumb and everybody thinks she's a little cuckoo but she isn't she's just who she is and she had pictures of her back in the day and da da da well she died in the trailer oh my so that was the premise of the song there's actually a video of it on YouTube and they put us in the video it was really cool of them to do that so we wrote a song called the trailer which reminds me do you have a website okay so listen where do they find you online you know I wish I could just give my number out but I'm not gonna do that but if you go to if you email me or you can go to Instagram or email me under Tasha T O S C H a como C O M E A U X on my email you can email me at C-O-M-E-A-U-X-T-O-S-C-H-A-2-3-at-gmail.com. Oh and also I studied voice in undergrad and this is how crazy things are. I did a competition for Southern regional MET competitions and they cut me right before break. So I called out the tempo and it was supposed to go back to the coda, the accompanist, she didn't go back to the coda. So instead of letting me just do it right then and there, they go, okay, we're going to go on break. And then when you come back, you can. So I was already a nervous wreck. believe, the first pianist at the Met and she knew her stuff. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah. No, did I see? No, I didn't see her there. That was another audition. Not another audition. It was another competition. When I was driving to Connecticut from Florida, I stopped in Philly and did a competition. That's where I met Sylvia Oldenlee and she said, child you need to, the word is, the word is, is ooh, you need to know your syllables and how to pronounce them when you're singing French, German, and Italian. You don't say ooh for ooh and you know and it was just those little nuances. But then I saw her again years after that at the it was the National Black Opera Association in Boston and that's where I saw Robert McFerrin, the father, yes and he sung with Sylvia Olden Lee and that was a there were so many black opera singers it Interview that he had and he said well, what do you you know what this is when Bobby McFerrin came came out? What do you think about you know your son and did it? You know you in the interview. He goes. I don't know what he's doing. You know I You know whatever else he said it's a different musical. Yeah, it is and but he was older too and his world was classical music but when I tell you he walked up there like it reminds me of Carol Burnett, you know, what's his name that goes? He was really so Conway Tim Conway and his character is the Swedish guy Yes. Yes. So that's how he walked up. He started to sing this song. Now, mind you, this is 200 plus people at a dinner and they're performing. She's at the piano. First of all, she's not even looking at the big score. She's just playing and turning just for us because she's, but she knows the music and she had to have been at that time, whoa, like 80 something and she still had it. So he had the music in his hand and then it just stops and goes, I don't want to sing this song. I said, what? Well, they just they just act like nobody else is here but them. So she goes, well what do you want to sing then? So he sings this song about Jesus and the window and when I tell you, even now I'm getting chills, because music is so, so absorbing. You know, no matter what you can be going through, how you feel, your age, it can take you back to a point where you are just weightless. Because when he started that song and it had so much intent and so much experience in it. I was just, I said to myself, well I'm glad he didn't want to sing that other song now.

0:32:35
Oh yeah, sure.

0:32:36
Oh man. So I like to ask people all the same question at one point.

0:32:42
And I would like to ask you, if it hadn't been for discovering music and it being in your soul, what would you have done? I probably would have done something, not that I don't do it now, but I probably would have concentrated even more with helping people. But in a way I think that's what music does. It absolutely does. It's therapeutic.

0:33:04
I hope we play together soon. I know. We gotta do that.

0:33:08
You know, oh and I can't, what I'll say is, now that I'm a little older and things are changing I'm trying to get used to my new self and that means my voice as well and sometimes it can be so

0:33:37
frustrating and I hear it the way that

0:33:43
other people don't and when other people tell me you know that the gift is still there you know like are you just

0:33:39
Well my advice to you in that in that way is to just take the blessing and smile smile and say thank you

0:33:46
That's right, and know that it's not I always say you know what we have is not for us anyway It might sound corny. You know because you hear all the time. Well. You know your gift is not for you It's it's for everyone else, and it's true when you make it about yourself then that's when it's worthless I think and when you truly share it regardless as to what it is you receive so much more from it and you receive what you're supposed to receive you know

0:34:15
what I think that's where we should give this up yeah because I'm so glad you came in today I'm so glad you shared so much and we maybe will do this again in the future I'd love to and I want to thank you and I want to thank all of you for listening. This is Nashen from The Morning Groove. I'm here today with Tasha Como and it's been a very interesting time and you'll be hearing this soon. Have a beautiful day, and it's been a very interesting time and you'll be hearing this soon. Have a beautiful day, be blessed and keep listening to your favorite radio station 91.5 Jazz and More. Thank you.

Transcribed with Cockatoo