It’s an annual Christmas Concert in Los Alamitos that continues to grow each year, along with other monthly in-home concerts.
“In Music there is Harmony and in Harmony there is Peace,” reads performer Joanie Jay’s invitation to the “Joanie Jay and Ron Kobayashi Trio” concert.
“I’m so glad you share your lovely voice and love of music with your friends,” say some concert goers.
It’s an annual Christmas Concert in Los Alamitos that continues to grow each year, along with other monthly in-home concerts.
“In Music there is Harmony and in Harmony there is Peace,” reads performer Joanie Jay’s invitation to the “Joanie Jay and Ron Kobayashi Trio” concert.
“I’m so glad you share your lovely voice and love of music with your friends,” say some concert goers.
“When I first heard about Joanie’s home concerts a few years ago, after meeting her at Studio 770 in Brea, I thought what a good idea to share your love of music with friends and neighbors in a cozy environment,” said Cami Black, who now makes vocal guest appearances at Jay’s home concerts. “Joanie’s years of experience in the music industry and her love of performing make a perfect combination for a wonderful afternoon of entertainment while sharing a buffet after the concert amongst other fine musicians in the audience who themselves have great stories to tell of what particular songs mean to them,” said Black.
“Joanie’s patter in between songs, shows off her delightful personality. These concerts are the only time my husband will forego a Sunday football game in order to hear Joanie sing, accompanied by the Ron Kobayashi Trio,” Black continued.
Joanie Jay was raised in a musical family in Galesburg, Ill, which is 150 miles south of Chicago, along with her twin brother singing harmony with her from the age of 3. “With my older brother and sister, the four of us would sing together, so vocal groups have been what I’ve enjoyed the most,” said Jay.
Jay said she would ride the train from Galesburg to Chicago to receive singing and dancing training, later having her own dance studio in Galesburg while in high school. “My mother, Esther, taught piano and so we had a studio together, known as the “Joan Esther Studio,” where she taught piano and I taught dancing and after high school I attended the ‘Shillinger Music School.’”
After college, Jay returned to Galesburg and auditioned for a touring dance group and through that group, was able to dance all over the Midwest. “We performed at the Fairs and that’s where I met my husband who was an acrobat on a trampoline and he was on the Ed Sullivan TV show and the Perry Como Show as well as many others,” said Jay. “My husband and I met in Chicago when we first started rehearsing for the tour; he was from Long Beach, Calif. and grew up in Long Beach, so that’s how I got to Southern California,” she smiled.
And because her husband was in show business, Jay worked in Reno, La Vegas and Tahoe as a singer and dancer in-line and was on the same show with her husband. “That was really fun being on the same show and working with my husband,” Jay said.
“I traveled with my husband who was on tour with the Roy Rogers Show as ‘The Rydells’ trampoline act and I met ‘The Sons of the Pioneers’ who introduced me to the Gene Autry “Melody Ranch Show” that was on Channel 5 for a season where I sang,” said Jay.
“My husband and I got married and started a family; I have a grown son and daughter who live locally,” said Jay. “Having children, I needed to stay home and raise them, so I began singing with local dance bands that played the 40s music. We played at the Queen Mary for 12 years; it was called The Little Big Band,’ with Big Bands having 16 instruments and since ours had 10 musical instruments, we were a Little Band,” she explained.
“I also sang with the Tracy Wells Band that was well-known in the area; I just couldn’t give up my love of singing; the most recent location where we performed as a Little Band, was the Phoenix Club in Anaheim and we also played at the Long Beach Senior Center and are still performing there,” Jay said.
Wanting to change things up a bit, Jay went to a recording studio in Brea and that’s where she met the trio she currently performs with in her monthly home concerts.
Ron Kobayashi plays piano and hails from the City of Orange; Sam Montooth is string bass and lives in Los Alamitos and Isaac Sanchez is local and plays the drums.
Jay said she just had to keep singing and so she made a solo CD, recording some original songs, some of which she recently performed at the Printmasters of Los Alamitos Christmas party, where she performs each year.
“Now, I do my ‘Living room-home Concerts’ in my own home, which started out by my inviting a few neighbors on a Sunday afternoon and when I started making fliers at Printmasters, more people started attending my concerts,” she shared.
Jay doesn’t charge for her concerts because she feels it’s just a way to share the talent she was born with. “Now, people are even bringing their friends and so I’m getting to know more new people,” she said. “The musicians I perform with in my home are normally paid to perform but they and I do these concerts because we have a love of music,” she explained.
The group does accept donations.
The group plays a wide-range of music; this time, of course, the concert had s lot of Christmas songs and an opportunity for those attending the concert to sing along and some joined Jay for a duet.
And never to be idle, Jay also sings as a soloist at the “Inner Christ Church,” and teaches there. “I’ve always wanted to sing and that’s why I was sent from Heaven to the family I was born into,” she said, explaining that her father played the trumpet; older brother was on the string bass and her twin brother is at Disney World in Florida and also plays the string bass and the tuba.
With her current music group, she says, “I’ve got the bases covered,” with one musician on a Fender Bass and one on the up-right bass.
What would she like the people to know? “Everyone should follow their feelings that bring them joy; no matter what. Always follow that inner feeling of ‘Love’ for yourself so that you can share love with others.”
On a plaque in her living room, it reads: “You make my heart sing.”
