"I now know that every moment,
good and bad, is a gift and a lesson that has helped me be clear about who I am
and what I do -- what I do is who I am."
Jane Dexter grew up in Garden City, Long Island, New York, the daughter
of a dermatologist and a college physical education teacher and actress whose
name was Jane Dexter. Thus, when little Jane needed a stage name, she became
"Baby Jane". From her earliest days, Baby Jane was a performer, an
imaginative little five-year-old who hiked her crinoline up under her arms and,
inspired by The Jolson Story, sang "April
Showers" into her hairbrush.
She did not have the usual educational
progression, and moved from school to school. "I even went to a girls
finishing school. I got an 'incomplete'," she jokes in her show. It was
her desire to be a singer that motivated Baby Jane to begin working at age 14
in a local theater group. After school, she learned her way around sets and
lighting and selling tickets. She wanted to perform and at this point became
"Baby Jane Dexter". Still a student, she auditioned for, and got a
job in the Broadway cast of Hair, which didn't last too long when she
asked the director to hold her job while she went to Spain to get her teeth
capped.
"Life is basically a work in progress. It's about
moving forward and finding out what's going to be."
"I know that my strength and my power are in the
music and in the connection between me and my audience."
Adolescent Jane came home, went
back to school, got a job driving a taxi on
In the next few months, she
zoomed to nightlife stardom, headlining in
But while Baby Jane Dexter's
career was blossoming, inside she held a secret. In the early 70's, she met a
handsome guy who paid her a lot of attention, and although she had been warned to
stay away from him, he made her feel desirable, pretty, and sexy. This was
before the term "date rape" was even coined, but that was what
happened to Baby Jane Dexter who, like many other young women, tried to push
the ordeal from her mind. It wasn't until 1979 that she told songwriter Drey Shepperd what had happened
to her, and he convinced her to write the music to, "Fifteen Ugly
Minutes", a haunting song about the ordeal.
Despite the satisfaction from writing the song, Baby Jane began a downhill slide resulting in a ten-year hiatus from performing. At this time, in the late '70's, music tastes were shifting, and record companies were not comfortable with Baby Jane's personal style of music, revolving around songs that spoke to her. They were interested in disco and punk.
"I was different and didn't fit
easily into any category. Although my audience was there, the label guys didn't
know how to market me."
Baby Jane only meant to step back
for a couple of months, not a decade. In 1981, she found herself on a wagon
train, traveling with VisionQuest, a
correctional covered wagon program for teenage criminals as an alternative to
prison. She was asked to join because Bob Burton, the executive director of VisionQuest, had seen one of her
His comments proved true, not
only for VisionQuest, but in her later
counseling and motivational programs. But first she had to go camping,
something -- to put it mildly -- she resisted. "I hated camping. To me,
camping was going to a motel," says Baby Jane. "Camp food meant
getting stuff from the deli." But she gave it a try. They traveled 20
miles a day by covered wagon. They slept in teepees and cared for the pack
animals and did general chores. Hopefully the young offenders would learn they
could succeed through hard work, and they could respect themselves.
"I was the one riding a mule
in velvet pants," she laughs. But Baby Jane had it just as hard as the
kids. She cried every night for the first week. Then, as she slowly became
involved with the kids, talking and listening, singing with them and laughing,
she realized that they were connecting, and she had a valuable purpose there.
Baby Jane stayed with VisionQuest for two
months, but the experience of learning she had an ability to help people
remained with her.
Still, without music as the focus
of her life, Baby Jane's life continued unraveling. She fell in love and was
caught in a long tumultuous relationship. She lost belief in herself. Instead
of applause, she faced severe depression. She was hospitalized and finally
helped with medication. She had a close friend, film historian and AIDS
activist, Vito Russo, who stood by her during all her advance-and-retreat
attempts to perform again, but then in the mid-80's, Vito was diagnosed with
AIDS.
It was now Baby Jane's turn to
help him, and while doing so, he urged her to go back to her singing career.
She finally agreed to sing at the two benefit concerts for the unveiling of The
Names Project Quilt, A National AIDS Memorial. On the stages of
She took another step forward in
late 1990. Vito was dying, and Baby Jane decided to sing a full show for him.
She chose Eighty-Eights in
But Baby Jane did perform, and a few months later, in 1991, she was back in business at Eighty-Eights. She shaped together a show and a album called, I Got Thunder, powerfully reflecting her experiences, her grief and caring for Vito, the depression, her counseling of teens, her doomed long-term romance, the sadness and self-hatred that can damage a life. She included two songs Vito had indicated in his will that she sing at his memorial. Baby Jane, with accompanyist Ross Patterson, was carving out a new career.
"What became important was the
value of life. There is no more time that is not important."
She continued the story in a
second show and a second album, Big, Bad, and Blue -- Live, now
stressing healing and new self-confidence. Every song is part of the story,
some new, like "Big Body Woman", and others are old, like "Blues
In the Night". Some are fun, like the Depression-era song, "One
Meatball", which has become an audience sing-along. Because through it
all, Baby Jane Dexter never lost her wit and humanity. Her third show, The
Real Thing - An Intimate Opera, ran at Eighty-Eights from November through
June, and returned in the fall. This show brought in all the
"I want the audience to leave
with more than they came in with."
She also developed a motivational
workshop program. " "Healing Through Entertainment -- A Motivational
Performance Art Experience For Women". Baby Jane emphasizes being
positive, talking through problems, loving and not hating, using a powerful
communication of personal stories, songs, love. She has taken her workshops
through
"Through my music and what I
choose to sing about, I take them down the path of entertainment. I also take
them -- if they want to go -- to that place that's safe to be, to hear what a
person might want to hear, what a person might need to hear."
Since her return to performing,
audiences and critics alike have been quick to see that connection. It is what
makes her such a riveting performer at venues like Eighty Eights, The Russian
Tea Room, The Village Gate, the Seaport Jazz Festival, The Blue Note in
Manhattan, Blues Alley in Washington DC, and King of France Tavern in
Annapolis' Maryland Inn. She has appeared at the Cinegrill
in
In September, 1997 and May 1998,
she took part in a prestigious gathering in
She has won the Backstage Bistro Award and she is a multiple winner of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Female Vocalist Of the Year award. In 1998, she won the MAC Award for Best Major Pop/Rhythm & Blues Performer. In 1999, she won that award for the second time.
On
She continues to appear in major
rooms around the country. In April 2002, Baby Jane won the MAC
Award for Major jazz/Pop/Rhythm & Blues Vocalist of the Year.
-Elizabeth Ahlfors
© 2005 Elizabeth Ahlfors. All
Rights Reserved World Wide.