Pam Laws
By Natoya Alee
Posted: 4:49p.m .est, October 08, 2006

 

If you have lived in Tallahassee for any length of time or follow jazz music at all you have undoubtedly seen beloved Jazz singer, Pam Laws signing autographs after a performance spent wowing her audience with songs made famous by jazz icons such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. But don’t let the image fool you, the celebrity has not gone to her head but only served to ground Ms. Laws in her faith, culture and community.

 

"I don’t see this as my voice," she says. "I am not in control of it, nobody can have the affect on other people that I have when I sing without God."

 

This statement epitomizes the person behind the voice – devout and full of purpose and love for what she does on stage and in the classroom.

Pam Laws earns her ‘bread and butter’ teaching English and Jazz History at Tallahassee Community College. She has been a member of the faculty for almost 30 years. Education as a career is as much a natural fit for Pam Laws as music. She grew up on Florida A & M University’s campus in the 1950’s; her father was the university’s registrar for many years. A self described "campus brat" Laws gives the lifestyle she experienced growing up at FAMU credit for who she is today.

 

"Life revolved around campus," she says. "We attended school, went to brownies and ballet lessons all on campus."

 

The university’s culture had a tremendous impact on the free time of the children who lived in the homes located on the perimeter of campus, exposing them to aspects of life children of color outside their world could not even imagine.

 

"On Saturdays from 8 to 12 we all attended children’s theatre, dance or foreign language class. If you were a girl, in the afternoon you attended charm class."

 

Literature and the arts were the video games and television shows of the day for Pam Laws and her neighbors. It was during a performance at Lee Hall that she decided music was more than something you listened to but something you experience.

 

"I remember Rebecca Walker Steele organized a concert of spirituals one hot summer day and the doors of Lee Hall were open because there was no air conditioning," she says. "I stood in that doorway listening and just knew that it [music] was what I wanted to do."

 

Not yet aware of the magnitude of her talent Ms. Laws was invited to join the choir at FAMU High although she was only in 7th grade. The school choir was where she made her first musical performances.

"At that age I was more excited about wearing stockings than about singing," she said.

 

By the time her own high school days were behind her, her parents realized the gift she had within and encouraged their only child to study voice as an undergraduate at FAMU.
It was not until she had been married, divorced, become a mother and earned an advanced degree in English that she began to pursue music professionally.

 

"I started singing professionally in 1982 because I needed the extra money," she said.

 

Teaching was barely enough to make ends meet while raising her son as a single parent and trying to maintain the family home after the death of her parents. Moonlighting in a local jazz club for $90 a week was an answer to prayer and very intimidating.

 

"I would carry a notebook around with the lyrics to jazz standards written in it so I could memorize the words of the four new songs I was required to learn each week," she says. "I thought I was going to get fired."

Ms. Laws’ fears proved unfounded, she continued to sing in various clubs around the area for a number years increasing in popularity and eventually traveling to the former Soviet Union to represent Tallahassee as apart of a sister city program.

 

The City of Tallahassee and its people have played a major role in the growth and success of Pam Law’s musical career. The album that launched her as an international jazz artist, Sweet Fire, was recorded at Opperman Music Hall at Florida State University in 1996.

 

"FSU gave me the use of Opperman music hall to record my CD," she says. "They cleared the schedule for three days while I recorded."

 

A fan and local patron of the arts, Margaret Van Every, organized a fundraising effort with support from Florida’s First Lady, Rhea Chiles, local elected officials and jazz lovers in general to finance the album’s production. Sweet Fire garnered good reviews and led to another recording, Let It Shine, a gospel album.

 

"I believe God has moved other people to help me do what he wanted me to do," Laws said.

 

Although she has not recorded again since Let It Shine was released, Ms. Laws continues to perform locally but has slowed down because of a knee problem. Despite her abbreviated performance schedule fans can be certain she will continue to entertain them with her voice for as long as she because in this stage of her maturity singing is no longer just a means to earn extra money but a calling from God.