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Interview with Linda Daiber

May 7, 2008

Linda Daiber

Linda Daiber was born to sing. Her parents say she was “chattering melodies” before she could talk. Her dad was a trumpet player and her three older brothers were musicians, as well; trumpet, drums, and saxophone, respectively. Linda remembers sitting in front of the stereo console with headphones on, memorizing and singing along with, the music of June Christy and Stan Kenton. And on long car rides, listening to 8 tracks of Nancy Wilson, Singers Unlimited, Four Freshmen, Buddy Rich (her drummer brother’s choice) and “Ella, of course!” Linda is only in her early 40’s, but she has absorbed a rich jazz musical history.

Linda sang all through school, and in high school she was in the swing choir and jazz vocal ensemble. She loved the road trips her school took to Idaho, California and Canada. At Clackamas Community College she wasn’t planning on majoring in music, but “fell into it” and was in the vocal jazz ensemble and enjoyed traveling to competitions. During college she fell “head over heels” for her husband, got married and settled down to family life.

It wasn’t until 2005 that she started pursuing singing jazz again, with an invitation to sing with the Jazz Express Big Band for a holiday show. She loved it and has continued singing with them. The Jazz Express Big Band was started about 15 years ago by Maury Hippenstiel and Herb Kost, and includes music teachers and professionals. Their intention was to play just for fun, but their mission has become jazz education, and giving back to the community, so they do many fundraisers and benefits.

In 2006, wanting to get into the jazz scene more, Linda responded to an ad from Steve Kullowatz to become a writer for the Jazzscene online Clubscene feature. She also sat in on a jam session with Ron Steen at Wilf’s and was hooked. Steve introduced her to Mitzi Zilka and Linda started attending Mitzi’s singer’s jams and quickly became part of her Singers Showcase. For the holidays Linda performed at the Newport, Oregon, Jazz Festival with the Portland Jazz Singers Revue and said she felt like Cinderella. Since then she’s had a 10 month gig at Pasta Bella, performed 3 or 4 gigs a week in December, and Art on the Boulevard in Vancouver for New Year’s Eve. Through an interview with Art Abrams for Clubscene, Linda was invited to sing with The Art Abrams Swing Machine Big Band and will be singing with them this summer and fall.

Linda is a lovely person and that shines through in her singing. She is seeing her own daughter off to college soon, and can feel proud of being there for her, and Linda’s excited about pursuing her singing career. She says, “It’s been a whirlwind, just like a party.”

Pam Jones