By Jann Darsie
Like many music lovers, Margie Pérez ended up in New Orleans because she attended Jazz Fest. She is known as a spirited singer and songwriter specializing in a blend of blues, pop, and Latin music — with a funky New Orleans sound. She is also as serious about the business of music, and the Ella Project has helped her with legal advice along the way.
Born in Washington, D.C., to parents who had emigrated from Havana, Pérez’s first career was as a travel agent. On Fridays after work, she and her co-workers would go to a karaoke bar to unwind. One time, unbeknownst to her, a colleague signed her up for a solo.
“It was my first time singing in front of an audience,” she recalled. It just so happened that a coworker in the audience was in a band called Then There Were None. They were looking for a backup singer and asked Pérez to give it a try. The band played original songs, and soon Pérez was writing backup parts.
After about six months with that band, she also joined Big Village, again as a backup singer. “As it turned out, three of our band members were going to the 1994 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, so I tagged along,” Pérez said. “I have to tell you, I was blown away!”
In fact, it was that trip to New Orleans that launched Pérez as a songwriter. Inspired by the festival and her New Orleans experience, she wrote her signature song, “Ooh Baby La La.”
Photo by Katja Livingston
Thinking that Los Angeles was the place for songwriters, she moved there soon after. Although she licensed a couple of original songs, they didn’t get placed. Discouraged, Pérez returned to her native D.C.
But in 2004, things changed for her. She had a friend who had moved to New Orleans, was in a band, and happened to have a vacant rental unit. “This was too good to pass up,” said Pérez. “I really enjoyed a ‘soft landing’ in relocating to New Orleans.”
The band had a weekly gig at the Blue Nile, and Pérez got her introduction to the city’s Frenchmen Street music scene. After Katrina, she was among the artistic forces that helped bring the city back. In addition to playing music, she worked for a contractor cleaning the restored houses before the homeowners moved back in.
She put together her own group, the still-active Margie Pérez Band. She writes much of the band’s playlist, and she relies on the Ella Project to get the rights she is due.
Ever versatile, Pérez sings in a number of other bands. She played with Lynn Drury in The Honeypots and was the lead singer in the Goodnight Show Band (later called Spotlight New Orleans). She is currently in the all-female trio Lady Parts with Lynn and Tiffany Pollack that blends blues, funk, and Americana music styles.
Her versatility is on display in two African influenced bands. One is Fatien Ensemble, with the likes of Ivorian percussionist Seguenon Kone, Dr. Michael White, Sunpie Barnes, and Jason Marsalis, among others. Pérez is also a singer in the Kumasi Afrobeat Orchestra, which combines West African rhythms and 1970s Afro-funk with original Afrobeat inspired songs.
True to her Cuban roots, she formed a Latin band as a tribute to the acclaimed Cuban singer, the late Celia Cruz. Muévelo (Move It) debuted at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music on what would have been Cruz’s 90th birthday. The band was so well received that festival bookings and a residency soon followed. And when the gig calls for a group smaller than the 10 musicians in Múevelo, Pérez performs with Margie Pérez and Her Trio Latino as well as Quimbo Quimbumbia with singer Elijah Hartman.
Pérez remembers meeting Ashlye Keaton at Tipitina’s when The Ella Project had space there. “So when I released my first CD ‘Singing for My Supper’, I contacted The Ella Project to get all the legalities set up correctly,” she said. “If you don’t get it right, you can make a big mistake.”
The Ella Project helped Pérez with BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.), which operates as a bridge between artists and performance venues. It protects copyrights, collects licensing fees, and distributes royalties. “If it weren’t for the Ella Project, I would have made mistakes!” Pérez said. “They had the legal advice I needed for royalties and copyrights.”
Pérez has also attended sessions of The Ella Project’s Crescendo Program. This free, seven-week workshop series is designed to help independent musicians navigate the contemporary industry. It was at one of the Crescendo seminars that Pérez realized that she, in fact, did not have the correct publishing credentials. “The Ella Project helped me correct it. I had not realized that I had to register myself as a ‘publisher,’ ” Pérez said. “This is a slow process that is still in the works.”
Margie Pérez can regularly be found performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (some 32 years after she was first wowed by the Fest), the French Quarter Festival, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, and many other local stages such as d.b.a. and the Broadside. She maintains such an active performance schedule, she must need an Excel spreadsheet to keep it all straight.
More information, including an updated gig calendar, can be found on her website www.margieperez.com, and you can follow her on Instagram @margieperezmusic and Facebook @ margiepereznola.
