It’s a lot of fun to find a world-class jazz singer who grew up in southern Maine and whose considerable talent is lighting up the national stage as well as the local one. Such is the case of Katie Oberholtzer who will be coming to One Longfellow Square for a performance on Valentine’s Day. She graciously agreed to chat with me. She called from her New York City residence. I told her about seeing the video on the One Longfellow website that showed the performance that won her second place in the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition in 2023. That kicked off our conversation.

Q: In that video, you introduced your backing musicians and the drummer, Alex Ouellette. (He) is the son of one of my former art students from Pittsfield, Maine.
Oberholtzer: Alex and I went to school together at USM. We played and sang together in Vocal Jazz, and Alex’s dad, Mike, would record all of our concerts and they’re all up there on YouTube. Alex is one of my best friends.

Q: It certainly is a small world after all, as they say (laughter). Well, I went to your website and saw three descriptors: Jazz Vocalist/Arranger/Composer/ I understand the vocalist component but could you talk about the other two?
Oberholtzer: Yeah, so that’s just something that kind of comes with the territory of being a jazz musician — I went to school for it, right? I learned how to compose and arrange in school and then I did some of my own music for recitals and whatnot. I haven’t made my own album yet of original music but, certainly, one day that will be coming … it takes a while.

Q: What will your performance be like for this One Longfellow show?
Oberholtzer: Since it’s on Valentine’s Day, I’d like to include a lot of jazz standards, and, lucky for me, a lot of them are written about love— whether in a good way or a bad way. I’m also collaborating with Bronek Suchanek, he’s a bass player, and he teaches at USM and UNH, he’s from Poland and is an outstanding jazz musician, and over the span of a couple of years since COVID he has been writing a bunch of originals; and Les Harris Jr., he’s a drummer and also a professor at USM and UNH, (he) wrote lyrics to all of Bronek’s originals and we’ll be performing some of those, too, at the gig, so that will be really special. A lot of them haven’t been done yet with lyrics live so that’ll be really cool, and maybe I’ll incorporate some of my own originals, too.

Q: What’s the configuration of your backing band?
Oberholtzer: It’ll be a small group, just me and a rhythm section. I might invite a horn player up, maybe a saxophone player, but, yeah, it’ll be really intimate and special.

Q: Now, I know you’ve played at this venerable venue before with various groups, but will this be your first solo performance there?
Oberholtzer: I’ve been singing at One Longfellow since I was in high school so I have a long relationship there. I play there often with the Portland Jazz Orchestra, which is a big band that my dad, Chris Oberholtzer, actually directs, and they have the longest-standing residency that One Longfellow has ever had, since 2006 the Portland Jazz Orchestra has been playing there every third Thursday of every month.

Q: How long have you been performing with them?
Oberholtzer: I have been singing with them since 2016 when I was a senior in high school and just about to go into college. But to answer your question, this is actually my first jazz combo solo gig there even though I’ve been playing there for lots of years.

Q: You know, it never ceases to amaze me the amount and quality of musicians that are making incredible music right here in the little state of Maine.
Oberholtzer: Absolutely. The talent we have in Maine is amazing and it’s a very close-knit community with all of the musicians, which is really, really cool.

Q: What influenced you along the lines of getting into this career?
Oberholtzer: Oh, wow, well, growing up with a jazz musician, that’s probably influenced my choices to begin doing jazz a lot, but my whole family has always been involved with music.

Q: For instance?
Oberholtzer: My grandmother was an opera singer — she no longer sings but she was at New York City Opera; my grandfather, on my dad’s side, was a trumpet player and they both were college music professors. Of course, my dad is a college music professor and my mother was a singer as well as a piano player. I have an older and younger brother — they both play instruments, (but) not professionally, I’m the only one of the siblings who pursues it professionally, but I’ve always known that music was what I was going to do for my career, there was never any other option. So many things along the way have just made me fall in love with jazz and now it’s the only thing I ever want to do professionally, and performing is definitely my first love.

Q: Is there anything, Katie that you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article about the show coming up down in Portland on Valentine’s Day?
Oberholtzer: Well, it will be a magical night. I have some very special musicians joining me — Bronek Suchanek on bass, Zak King on drums and Mike Effenberger on piano. It’ll be joyous and I hope that people would like to join me and enjoy a night of love and good music at a wonderful venue … it’ll be a special night and bring your loved ones!

Lucky Clark, a 2018 “Keeping the Blues Alive” Award winner, has spent more than 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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