Ramona Collins and Cliff Monear at the Blue LLama
Went to hear Toledo’s Ramona Collins sing at the Blue LLama to ring in March. Cliff Monear on piano. We were seated right next to the piano, which was great for watching Monear’s hands on the keyboard. And a front row for Ramona.
She was dressed in black fitted pants and a white top with musical clefs all on it. Perfect for moving around the stage and highlighting the fitness of her 77-year-old body (she told us how old she was). And Collins definitely moves around, sitting, standing, circling her stool, dancing to “Dreamer.” With her full voice and wide range, she lives her songs, in a style so very natural that it’s as if she could no more not sing than not breathe.
Although she’s a jazz singer, her repertoire that night wasn’t just jazz. Some songs were on the cusp, such as Glenn Miller’s “Tuxedo Junction” (she likes to sing songs that were originally just instrumentals, she explained). She even sang the Bee Gees (“How Deep Is Your Love”) and the Beatles (“Imagine”, “Hey Jude”).
As for Monear, he not only had both hands going on the keyboard and the right foot on the piano pedals, but also had a bass pedal he played with his left foot. He kiddingly called it “Ron,” knowing I ran the Bird of Paradise for bassist Ron Brooks. At another point he quipped to the audience, “Here’s where the drums should come in.”
As it came time to close out the set — and the evening — and with Monear playing background, Collins talked politics, regretting the pandemonium we’ve been seeing on TV but hoping things would calm down because there is still good in the world. And to underline that point, she sang “Wonderful World:”
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying
I love you.
And it was indeed an evening of love.