Upper Lake >> Though all babies babble cute, incoherent nonsense, Jenna Mammina’s mother heard something more in her daughter’s noises. “My mom would say that I’ve been cooing since I was a baby,” said Mammina, who will be performing at the Tallman Hotel this Saturday with guitarist Alex DeGrassi. “I would wake up at night and she would play Nat King Cole and I would sing along.”
From these very first sleepless nights, it was apparent that Mammina would grow up to become a signer. It helped that her family was heavily involved in the music scene as well. “I come from a musical family,” she said. “My mother is a singer and my father played accordion. I had a brother who started playing music when he was young and was a vocalist … We were the church choir, the four of us.”
Musical talent doesn’t just run in her immediate family though; her extended family also has a long tradition of performing. “I’m grateful that I had my family and other cousins and uncles that were musicians. I look back now and go, ‘It’s just genetically what we do.’ I have a nephew that’s now in a rock band called Slim Gypsy Baggage,” Mammina said. “I feel honored to be carrying it on to the next generation.”
When Mammina was 5-years-old she was given her very first records: Carole King’s “Rhymes and Reason” and Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown.” As she grew older, she transitioned to Joni Mitchell and Billy Joel. “I call those people my babysitters,” she said, explaining that after school she would put on their records to entertain herself until her parents got home. “‘Oh Billy Joel babysat me today. Joni Mitchell babysat me today,’” She laughed.
However, her largest influence wasn’t a huge musician with a ton of records under his belt. “My brother Nino was my biggest inspiration in music, always was and always will be,” she said. “He was singing in bars when he was 13 and I was 6 or 7 and our family would go watch him perform. I wanted to be a singer like him.”
Thankfully Mammina got her wish and more. Today, she writes and performs music, runs her own record label, Mamma Grace Records, and teaches. “I’m an educator. I teach music in schools around the country,” she said. “I go into schools, I work with children from the age of 3 to 104. I work in senior centers a lot and libraries.”
Her classes often integrate health and wellness with music education. “I’ve been a certified yoga instructor for 15 years so I integrate my yoga and music together,” Mammina explained. “I specialize in working with Alzheimer patients and special needs [patients]. I’ll do chair yoga with them and sing songs that they’re familiar with, get them to do as much movement as they can do and as much singing as they can handle.”
She often fits these classes in around her touring schedule. “I was in Arizona and New Mexico and we went into a Native American reservation and worked with children and adults,” she said. “If we have a gig I usually try to find a master class.”
It’s clear that Mammina likes to stay busy and she doesn’t seem to mind that she has very little free time. “My downtime is walking, I go on amazing walks,” she said. “I have a dog, she’s my downtime, which isn’t down time because she’s a Greyhound Terrier and she’s nonstop. My friends and family, that’s my downtime.”
She saves her television time for long flights. “I don’t own a TV,” she said. “I fly a lot so when I’m on the plane I kind of pay attention to what’s happening. I like to fly Virgin America and they always have new movies.”
When it comes to music, Mammina is constantly trying to put her own spin on everything. “I’m also a songwriter but I interpret other people’s songs, is what I feel,” she said. “As strongly as I am about songwriting and original work, I like to choose songs that resonate with my heart and make them my own even though they were written and performed by other people.”
She’ll play just about anything, as long as it tugs at a heart string or two. “I sing pop, I’ve been in rock bands, I sing straight ahead jazz, I sing country and bluegrass,” Mammina said. “What I do, a lot of times I’ll listen to a song and if I like it I’ll rearrange it … I choose more heartfelt songs. If something gets me in the heart, I wanna learn it.”
She mentioned one musician who truly speaks to her. “I think John Mayor is a classic artist,” she said, explaining that she just recorded “Stop This Train” for her newest album. “It’s hard for me to sing it, because I love it so much. I love that song and when I sing it, someone will come up and go, ‘Oh my God I want that song. What record is that on?’” People were usually left disappointed because the song wasn’t a track on any of her CD’s, but now she can happily say that it is.
This kind of a response really thrills Mammina. “I like to make someone laugh and cry when I perform. I strive for that,” she said. “And it’s not my ego, it’s that I get to be the interpreter. I’m the vessel of that song. As important as it is for me, I want the listener to be able to get it.”
For her own material, Mammina looks to every moment of her life for inspiration. “Since I travel a lot, I have friends everywhere and so I get to experience so many different people’s lives and loves and joys and sorrows,” she said. “I get inspired by my life and by those I get to be around.”
Music is less of a choice and more of a calling, at least for Mammina. “I believe that with music, you don’t choose it, it chooses you,” she said. “I can be in an audience of three people or 3,000 people and get the same joy … When I get on stage and sing and play with the people that I play with it’s the best feeling that could ever imagine.”
So it’s no surprise that she encourages amateur musicians to pursue their passions. “Just do what you love because this life is so precious and so short,” Mammina said. “If that’s what you want to do I say do it and do it to the utmost … If it’s what you love, do it. If not find something that gives you the passion that completely blows your mind.”
Come Saturday night, Mammina will be performing with guitarist Alex Degrassi and she’s excited to be sharing the space with a very talented musician. “If you Google him you’ll be blown away with his accomplishments. It’s beyond an honor for me to play with Alex Degrassi,” she said.
Mammina said that she and Degrassi share “high vibrations” when they perform together. “That’s why I love playing with Alex Degrassi and we get it,” she said. “And we communicate on a higher level, which in turn makes your lifestyle on a higher level.”
Some of their song selections are sure to surprise the audience. “The stuff I’m gonna be doing with Alex, we’re gonna be doing Sting,” she said. “It’s gonna be a once in a lifetime show with Alex. Again, I’m honored to perform with him in any capacity.”
The informal setting of the Tallman Hotel’s Meeting House, a space for about 40 people, is the perfect platform for Mammina. “Sometimes a crew of 10 people can be more intimidating than a larger crowd,” she said. “I love intimate settings. Last night we played for a room of 30 people and it was perfect. It doesn’t get your music heard by as many people but it’s special.”
Mammina performed in the Meeting House previously and she’s thrilled that she’s been invited to give another show. “To perform at the Tallman Hotel in this special room, to be asked back again, I’m giddy about it,” she said. “I’m so excited to be there again.”
The show is at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at the Tallman Hotel Meeting House. Tickets are $25 plus tax and can purchased by calling the hotel’s reception desk at 707-275-2244. Coffee and cookies will be served.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
