This page contains a brief overview on the album CAMI THOMPSON: An Evening With Cami. Learn more about the artist and explore the track lists and website. If you find any information that needs to be corrected, please let us know.

 
"A Evening With Cami"
Cami Thompson Live In Concert, Reno, Nevada, June 22, 1992

Originally released in 1992 on cassette only, this new release of an exciting live concert performance has been digitally remastered, remixed and lovingly edited by Cami's friend and personal manager Lizabeth Rogers, and is now available on CD. The concert features Cami at her best: in front of a hometown audience, with musicians she grew up with, singing her heart out in songs that reflect her talent, soul, passion, and witty humor.

Family and dear friends came together to help Cami put on a community concert to raise money for her first album. Hoping for two or three hundred friends and fans to show up, over six hundred seats were filled when the curtain went up. This album is presented as if you were there that night - sitting in the beautiful Nightingale Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada-Reno, having sampled a wonderful array of tasty delights at intermission (donated from family, friends, local caterers and restaurants) the musicians in tuxedos, and Cami swinging, sashaying, laughing and smiling that ever-present smile as she strutted in her beautiful evening gowns.

Sharing the stage with her were long-time friends she had worked with for most of her life while performing around the area - Tony Savage on drums and conducting, Peter Supersano on piano, Richard Ray on bass, Larry Engstrom on trumpet, and Joel Edwards on sax and flute, with guest pianist Jeff Lankof. The arrangements are all Cami's, the musicians played marvelously, and the night was magical.

There are a few imperfections in the later songs of the recording, due to some technical and electrical problems we had that night, but we had to let you hear this amazing artist in her element - live!

1. Lay Down Your Burden/ Common Ground
Cami chose these 2 songs from the Paul Winter Consort for their personal message of welcome with a warm invitation to relax and enjoy.

2. There Will Never Be Another You
A long-standing classic from the pencils of Harry Warden and Mack Gordon, Cami rearranged this standard with a super-speed Latin samba feel and some unusual chords and sizzling scat to spice it up a bit!

3. Skylark
If ever there was a perfect song - Hoagie Carmichael wrote it! Cami finds the hopeful longing in a plea to Mother Nature to help a lost soul find her soul mate.

4. It Don't Mean A Thing
A classic from the Duke Ellington Orchestra, this arrangement lets you hear a little from the guys in the band, and some of Cami's fun scatting.

5. The Dream of Icarus
The music is by Ralph Towner, and Cami had wanted to sing this instrumental since she first heard it. She decided to write her own lyrics. You'll never hear this version anywhere else. Its melody is sure to haunt you, and the lyrics - based on the mythological tale of the boy who flew too close to the sun -- will take you to another world. Richard Ray's electric bass solo is a journey itself.

6. Rhythm in My Nursery Rhyme
Cami first heard this song from Janis Siegel (of Manhattan Transfer) and fell in love with it! She always has a blast singing it for friends, and this was no exception! A bit of gospel, funk, soul, blues, jazz and humor - and that's just in the intro! Although Cami performed most of the songs that would be on her upcoming CD that evening, we decided not to put too many of those on this album -- But this was just too fun to pass up. Get the "No More Blues" CD and compare -- which do you like best?


7. One Note Samba
Antonio Carlos Jobim's famous song provides a delightful samba showcase for Cami's unique scat style.


8. Mr. Paganini (If You Can't Sing It, You Gotta Swing It)
Who can forget this delightfully zany treasure from the Ella Fitzgerald repertoire? One of Cami's most often requested songs, she goes OFF on the intro, and you better hold your sides!

9. Embraceable You
Cami's Dad serenaded her Mom with this lovely Gershwin ballad while they were dating in college (and Cami not even a thought). She performs at as a tribute to their love, and a thank-you for the support and devotion through all the years. Larry's flugelhorn solo is a masterpiece of restrained joy and dignified passion.

10. You Are My Sunshine
The second set started with a quick live "re-enactment" of the family background -- where all the singing began, so to speak - with dad's ukulele, the sisters in harmony ("we really were better when we were younger"), and the humor!!!

11. If He Walked Into My Life
Jerry Herman's beloved tribute to a mother's endless worry and self-doubt comes from the musical "Mame". One year before this concert date, Cami had performed the role of Gooch in the Nevada Opera Company's production of this show, with Toni Tenille in the leading role. Cami had played Mame herself twelve years earlier at UNR. Cami wanted to sing her dad's favorite song as a thank-you for his constant support.

12. Twogether
This may be the only time you'll hear this arrangement, which Cami wrote just for this show. She had written the song years before for her best friend's wedding, and then drastically reworked it a few months later for the recording on "No More Blues". But this version is closer to the simple truth - "I'm the one for you, and you're the one for me."

13. I Just Want To Be Loved By You
Cami wrote this for someone she hadn't even met yet - dreaming of the kind of love that classic love songs were written about! This can be found on "No More Blues" without the sound glitches (... And by the way - she has since found it-- that kind of love!)

14. I'm Tired
The campy "showtune" from "Blazing Saddles" (remember Madeline Kahn in lingerie?) Cami had never performed this live before -- except in the bar she mentions in the middle! This is here to show you what you missed if you weren't in the audience that night-- the laughs were flying! It's sort of a cross of Marlene Dietrich meets Ethel Merman meets Elmer Fudd.
(By the way, the introduced woman -- "Liz Roper" -- is now Lizabeth Rogers, and Cami freely admits she would be nothing without her!)


15. Being Alive
This Stephen Sondheim ballad tells of the agony and ecstasy of love, and it's absolute necessity, and Cami's powerful voice tells her story.

16. I Got the Sun In the Morning
Cami had just finished a week-long run as the lead (Annie Oakley) in "Annie Get Your Gun" (with Broadway veteran John Raitt). This is one of the big numbers from the show, which many in the audience had just seen. Several members of the cast and crew were there as well. The production show pianist Jeff Lankof guested with the band.

17. Over The Rainbow
This is Cami's "big" number, the closer for the evening -- the audience of over 600 was either in tears or on its feet before she even got to the last note of that forever-long glissando ........


A Note From the Producer:
"An Evening with Cami" started out as a single concert to raise interest and finances for Cami's first independent album project, "No More Blues". It has since been turned into a concert series -- every year Cami performs in her hometown of Reno for various charities to help bring them the interest and financing she so generously received that first night so many years ago.

I had the good fortune to be a part of that evening. In addition to helping create and produce the concert, I recorded the entire evening's performance on digital audio tape (DAT). We released a cassette version of this for friends in 1993, but never felt the quality merited a CD release. Now, these 10 years later, with all the right equipment, I have been able to bring back this wonderful recording. I've taken the original tapes and restored and remastered them, to bring to you that great evening in a new and wonderful way. I know it's not perfect, but I had to try to share this magical performance to the best of our ability and technology.

None of us who were a part of "An Evening with Cami" will ever forget that night. It was simply - amazing. Now we can all enjoy it again... and again!"

Liz Rogers

Check out the artist's website:
http://www.camithompson.com

Track List:
1. Lay Down Your Burden/ Common Ground
2. There Will Never Be Another You
3. Skylark
4. It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
5. The Dream of Icarus (original lyrics)
6. Rhythm In My Nursery Rhyme
7. One Note Samba
8. Mr. Paganini (If You Can't Sing It...)
9. Embraceable You
10. You Are My Sunshine (featuring my family!)
11. If He Walked Into My Life (from Mame)
12. Twogether (original)
13. I Just Want To Be Loved By You (original)
14. I'm Tired (from Blazing Saddles)
15. I Got the Sun In The Morning (from Annie Get Your Gun)
16. Being Alive (from Side by Side by Sondheim)
17. Over The Rainbow

Other Genres:

• JAZZ: Jazz Vocals
• EASY LISTENING: Cabaret
• SOLO FEMALE ARTIST