Jazz singer Wendy Simon returns to song at Paris Bistro

Anyone who knows jazz in Philadelphia knows Wendy Simon. Throughout the 1980s and '90s - whether as a soloist, paired with local-legendary pianist Eric Spiegel in Tuxedo Junction, or with Mark Shaw's society orchestra - the singer was renowned for her low, delectable voice, her innovative scat-singing, and her delicate way with a ballad. "My vocal range changed, though, and I'm actually singing higher," says Simon, "which is unusual because most singers lower the keys of their songs as they age. What I love most that's changed with age is having the confidence of my experience and the courage to continue to strive to go beyond my self-imposed limitations in all aspects of my life, as well as my art."

Some of those experiences kept her off the stage for 18 years, a spell happily broken when she returns to live singing this weekend at Paris Bistro, with the accompaniment of the Tom Adams Trio.

Simon speaks lovingly of her professional relationship with accompanist Eric Spiegel. "My husband, pianist George Sinkler, and I became adoptive parents of twin baby boys - they are the birth grandchildren of Charlie Parker - in 1985, but with Eric? From the first time we got together as a duo in 1980, we had a musical marriage," says Simon of her Tuxedo Junction partner, with whom she recorded Scrapple to the Apple. "We had a flowing musical conversation whenever we performed, and after I convinced him to sing, we did a lot of harmony and scatting together." Simon credits this collaboration, and the arrangements of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross ("the challenging harmonies; fast, bebop scat-style rhythms; using our voices like instruments") as the biggest impact on her vocal style, even today.

Spiegel had a serious car accident in 1991 that left him with brain damage and other medical issues. "The miracle was that the musical part of his brain was not affected," says Simon, "and after spending months in the hospital and rehab, he was able to play piano and sing, but his playing wasn't consistent enough for him to get steady jobs."

By this time, Simon was taking care of her family and looking toward something with music that was enjoyable and financially stable. She went back to school, got her music certification, and became a choral and drama teacher in 1996 at Springfield Township Middle School in Montgomery County. In 2004, with singer Suzanne Cloud, she cofounded Jazz Bridge, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that aids local jazz and blues musicians in all levels of crisis.

"Jazz Bridge was created," says Simon, "out of frustration over the lack of resources available to help Eric and Eddie Green, Suzanne's mentor and another great Philly pianist, who had been ill and died from pancreatic cancer in 2004." Spiegel died in 2006.

Simon had a family, taught, and was treasurer of Jazz Bridge. That included supporting musicians, helping pay for car repairs so performers could get to their gigs, raising funds for the Jazz Bridge House for elderly and temporarily homeless musicians, or scheduling Jazz Bridge's Neighborhood Concert Outreach Program. She simply didn't have time to sing.

"I was ready to make a change back then, and though I took time off from appearing in clubs, I had a wonderfully productive musical life," says Simon. "It was the hardest job I ever had and the most gratifying, especially seeing young people experience and express their own creativity."

At Paris Bistro, Simon will perform jazz standards, Great American Songbook tunes, songs she performed with Spiegel, some scat-singing, and a few fun novelty numbers.

Simon says: "I promise that it will be a very entertaining evening and the first of many events - singing more in public - to come."