The Los Angeles Chapter, in partnership with the GRAMMY Foundation, recently hosted GRAMMY SoundChecks with recording artist Corinne Bailey Rae at Santa Monica High School during her North American promotional tour.
After a brief guitar tuning session by Rae and her accompanying guitarist, 37 members of the Santa Monica High School choral group were treated to an intimate performance of two songs from Rae's GRAMMY-nominated, self-titled debut CD.
Following the performance Rae answered questions from the students with an honesty that was remarkably inspiring. She spoke of her musical influences as a child, how she started out as a songwriter and how that ultimately led to a recording contract, her own personal songwriting process and her humble admission that the students in the choral group probably knew more about the technical side of singing than she did. She did, however, make sure the students knew that she was always working on her craft and always learning.
Rae created a refreshing dialogue by turning the tables and asking students about their own personal aspirations and interests. The responses were enthusiastic, with a young girl passionately expressing her desire to continue singing in both her rock and jazz bands, to another student inspired to get home and start working with ProTools on her new computer.
The session ended with Rae playing one last song, which was met with excited applause. As a surprise, Capitol Records representatives handed out copies of her CD. She then took the time to sign every CD and talk to each student individually. It was clear by the looks on the faces around the classroom, that the interaction with Corinne Bailey Rae was very insightful.
"Extra!" was on hand and interviewed Rae prior to her meeting the class and ran the segment the following Monday. The event was also covered by AOL.com, Rolling Stone, Premier Radio Networks, The Santa Monica Daily Press and the Santa Monica Mirror. In each case Rae was gracious and enthusiastic about her inclusion in the GRAMMY SoundChecks program.