 Stacey
Knights
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When asked, "What kind of music do you play?", Stacey Knights
has to pause to find the words. She would love to be able to categorize
it, but that is difficult to do when there is so much variety in her
sound. "Since I love both jazz and pop music, I wanted to find a way
to blend the two. We combined elements of Adult Contemporary, Pop, Jazz,
and a little R&B to create the sound we have today." This saxophone and flute player is also a skilled vocalist, and is in demand for the overall diversity she displays on stage alone and with her band. Backing groups like The Women’s Blues Revue (Winners of the 1999 Virginia Slims Dueling Divas Contest) or opening for the Baja Men and internationally known flutist Nestor Torres, Stacey has shown the ability to please any crowd. Currently, Stacey is working to promote her first CD with her new band. The CD, which is entitled Through The Window, is a refreshing, well produced adventure. The band is a five piece, including guitar, keyboard, bass and drums complementing her horns, flute and vocals. "We are persuing venues that can get our sound out there to the right audience," says Knights, "like pop jazz festivals. We like being outdoors; not in smoky bars." Stacey would love to see her band be an opening act for the likes of Sting, Harry Connick Jr. or even Cassandra Wilson. "I think we have a good blend of music to open adult contemporary or smooth jazz events." Stacey Knights began her musical career when she wrote a song to commemorate the name change of her elementary school in Massachusetts at the age of 10. The next year she started on saxophone in her middle school band. "I wanted to play the clarinet, and I cried when my Dad brought home a saxophone, but I took it anyway," comments Stacey on her musical beginnings. She quickly found herself at the head of the class and practicing was a fun diversion. "I tried to teach myself piano with some old books that my grandfather had laying around - they were piano lessons by mail, I ended up more often than not just making up little songs than trying to gain information from those mildewed publications. The flute was my first doubling instrument. I took it up because I had a boyfriend that played flute, and so did my music teacher. I was just your typical teenager with an alienated attitude, so I decided to learn the flute over the summer break. I played every day from 9 am to 12 pm, and then from 12 am until 3 am. I liked that I could play anytime of day because it was a quiet instrument, unlike the saxophone." By the new school year she was first chair flute, and by the time she was sixteen, she knew music was going to be her life. "I remember coming back from my second year at a music summer camp, sitting my parents down and informing them (with tears in my eyes) that I was going to be a musician. I don’t know what I was so scared of - but I knew my parents to be practical in nature, so letting them know I was going to be an artist - I guess I thought I might be disowned or something! They’ve come around since then!" Singing in choirs through high school, she performed in a semi-professional accapella touring group on the weekends. "Oddly enough I didn’t think I had a good voice - the only compliment I can remember receiving is that I had a nice ‘blending’ voice. I figured that meant I wouldn’t be doing much solo work." I was in my late twenties when I realized that people would "pay" me to sing, which was wonderful, because secretly I always wanted to sing and play." She attended St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN on a music scholarship and then she transferred to University of North Texas after three years. "I was self-supporting, and even with the financial aid I received I couldn’t survive. By then my whole family had moved to Florida so I packed up my stuff in two suitcases and two cat carriers and moved to the Tampa Bay area." Stacey is also an experienced instrument repair tech. Although very good at it, judging by her pro-clientele, repairing horns was just a way she supported herself while developing her skills for the stage. "I worked with any group that I could, but I was always hired for just sax or flute, so when the budget got tight, I was the first to be let go. The last time that happened, it was with my very close friend Chris Foster. We had an experimental group that existed for the sole purpose of creating original music. We were really jamming, and then he got a job offer in Texas. I was devastated, and out of a job again! But Chris just said that it was time for me to go solo. He had tremendous faith in me, and he would call and say ‘Hey, this PA is on sale, and get that microphone", and so I bought a sequencing device and started working." Her solo act flourished, and she started planning a CD project with her husband JR Sanson, a producer and recording engineer. "At first it was just going to be a lot of cover tunes, but then one night a record label owner was at one of my gigs, and in his enthusiasm, he called a producer to hear my sound. After our talk, I was on fire to get a CD out, but not one full of covers. I wanted to show off my (and Chris’) songwriting talents." The culmination of that meeting is her CD, Through The Window. It’s on Bonsai Records, a small but well-connected Indie label. "We wanted to have control of the creative process because we are quite sure of the direction that we want to go. There is a whole generation of people out there who are too old to relate to the over-saturated teenage icon music. They have the desire to hear something that speaks to them, with more contemporary ideas that relate to their adult lifestyle... with all its commitments and concerns. I’m sure of that, because I’m one of them - I have a family, and a home, and I want to hear new music that reflects experiences common to me and my peers.
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