HEY! LISTEN: Turn On and Tune In to Jazz Pioneer Jane McNealy’s “One Day at a Time”

“One Day At A Time” is the title track from Jane McNealy’s upcoming album. Written and recorded in 1980, Judy Karp’s evocative vocal performance lends an earthy post-modern twist to the conventional narrative of city life, chronicling one woman’s interior monologue amid the sights and sounds of a bustling metropolis.  The soul/jazz track was written by Jane McNealy, featuring Henry Butler on piano and Andy Simpkins on bass. McNealy herself is a veteran of the jazz world of the ’70s, and her new project Lo-Flo Records seeks to preserve her catalogue and introduce it to the audience the music deserves.

Photo of Joyce Dunn. Credit unknown.

I’ve come to enjoy McNealy’s music — a nice refresher on the podcast with McNealy’s questing instrumentals, seeking ever to push the envelope a little further and a little further. On “One Day at a Time,” the Latin-tinged bass in the song’s first bars gradually collapses alongside the relationship McNealy describes in the song, though the band ultimately finds freedom in the solos that punctuate the song.

Explain the title of the song.

“One Day At A Time” was written at a time when I was very heavily influenced by dissonant and progressive jazz intervals. I was working with New Orleans great, Harold Battiste, Jr., who gave this song to Sarah Vaughan who performed it, and four other songs of mine, a year before she died.


Tell us about the first song you wrote.
The first song I wrote was called “I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” which my mother translated into French.


Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
When I compose, the music and lyrics come simultaneously, and generally the music inspires words feelings and thoughts.


What’s the first concert you ever attended? What do you remember about it?
The first concert I attended was in 1963. Joan Baez was performing in Berkeley at an anti-Vietnam fundraiser.


Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off?

I would like “Turn Away From Darkness” to be performed by Jennifer Hudson. 


We launched Lo-Flo Records with this song last August. Though originally released as a B-side in 1969, sung by the incomparable Joyce Dunn, it is a moving testament to the reckoning America faces today. It’s a gospel tribute to triumph over adversity, and we made this fitting video with poignant 2020 BLM photos from photographers all over the U.S.

Jane McNealy — Official, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram