DL AND GAY ICON Toni Tennille makes a A BIG DECISION.

Toni Tennille

Hello again, everybody. So many of you have asked when or if I would be singing in concert again, and I have a decision to share with you.

I recently read an announcement by Robert Redford that, at age 82, he has decided to retire from acting. I had been thinking along those lines myself the past year. I always vowed that I would not continue singing when I knew I was no longer at the top of my game. I know too many singers who continued to perform and record long after their voice had lost its strength, range and luster. Now that we have YouTube and other outlets for old videos, I can look at and listen to the kind of singing I did back in what I consider my prime, and realize for SURE that I can no longer sing like that. It is sad, but inevitable.

I have always reminded singers of this fact…your body is your instrument and you MUST take great care of it throughout your life and career. But the truth is, I am 78 years old now, and though I am healthy and strong for my age, my “instrument” is old. I know how I want to sing, but I just can’t anymore. Maybe some of the simpler things like Muskrat Love or Do That To Me One More Time…..but the big blues, jazz and power ballads are beyond me now.

Most of you know that I was a classically trained pianist, and classical music has always been a part of my musical life. And throughout my life I have sung with choruses and chorales whenever I had the chance. Ever since I sang with Merle McCorkle’s Glee Club when I was a teenager in Alabama, I have always loved singing and harmonizing with others.

So here’s what I have been doing…it is a transition really. I have been singing with the Yavapai College Master Chorale ever since I returned to Prescott. So far we have done Mozart’s CORONATION MASS, Vivaldi’s GLORIA and other great choral works. This season we will prepare and perform Gabriel Faure’s gorgeous REQUIEM. I started out singing tenor, which I could do entirely in my chest voice…the one I used during my pop career, with few exceptions. Our Director, Darrell Rowader, asked me to sing one of the Alto solos in the GLORIA, but I was afraid, because it would require me to use classical technique, which I had never used. I told him I would only give it a try if I could take some vocal lessons with him.

That was about seven months ago. I am making really good progress towards my goal, and have added several notes to my range at the top….ALMOST close enough for MEZZO SOPRANO territory!! Right now I qualify as a pretty darned good CONTRALTO with a reliable high F. In this voice, I can contribute to the excellence of the Master Chorale by singing in the Alto section! I have been brushing up my sight-reading and keeping my brain active by studying, rehearsing and practicing all of music we are assigned.

I love dropping back into a group. I had my time in the spotlight, and it was exciting. But now I prefer to be one of the team. And I will continue to contribute to our Prescott Arts community. Right now I am one of the Founders Group for Prescott’s new all-professional orchestra, ARIZONA PHILHARMONIC, or “AZ PHIL” as we like to call it. We have our premiere concert this month at Yavapai Performing Arts Center on August 26th at 5PM. If any of you live close to Prescott, we would love to have to attend. You can buy tickets through the Yavapai College Box Office.

If you have a chance, please go to AZ PHIL’S website at AZPHIL.org, and/or our Facebook page at ARIZONA PHILHARMONIC. I am AMBASSADOR for the AZ PHIL, and will be at the concert to greet the audience. My sisters Louisa and Melissa will be there too!

One more thing…..I just performed as one of six soloists for a fabulous performance of the music of COLE PORTER, featuring the PRESCOTT POPS SYMPHONY AND CHORUS (more than 160 singers and musicians onstage)! The audience loved it…gave us several standing ovations, and we had a wonderful time!!! I decided that would be the perfect way to end my pops solo career. I was proud of what all of us accomplished in that concert, and that’s the perfect “note” for me to end on!!!

And remember….”Keep a song of joy inside your heart!” AND……from SONG OF JOY by Billy Preston…..

“With every note I play, I play with love With every word I sing, it’s coming from my heart And so I sing a song of joy for you With all the happiness this melody brings!”

Thank you!

[quote]So here’s what I have been doing…it is a transition really.

She's transitioning!

LOL, R4!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU !!!!!!!!

[quote] I know how I want to sing, but I just can’t anymore. Maybe some of the simpler things like Muskrat Love or Do That To Me One More Time…..but the big blues, jazz and power ballads are beyond me now.

Devastating.

[quote] BIG DECISION

No addressing of the "muff diving"rumors from this post?

Sad day.

Why did she divorce the Captain? It seems like couples at their stage in life who grow apart don't bother with divorce proceedings, property separation, etc. It can be exhausting at that age. I recall speculation that he had dementia or some type of progressive illness and the divorce was a matter of protecting assets so she wouldn't be left penniless. I [italic]have[/italic] heard of elderly couples with a declining partner do this as means of protecting themselves. I also know of a couple of cases of middle aged couples who divorced officially, but didn't split once a partner was diagnosed with cancer, knowing that aggressive treatment would eat up mortgage payments, kids' kid college funds, and ravage their finances.

"Why did she divorce the Captain?"

Do you really give a shit, r9?

Love her, classy broad

Jane Fonda said to her, "You certainly are a good interviewer."

I thought she was going to come out

Why do you ask, R10?

R9, maybe it was his scary eyes?

Gay Icon? Since when?

Me, too, R11.

She dumped the Cap when he got ill. Love did not keep them together.

If you attend the Arizona Philharmonic, she will greet you! With her sisters!!

Jane Fonda and Toni Tennille would make a cute couple.

Amazing song!

She lives in PRESCOTT? Was just there about 8 months ago.

It's like Gods Waiting Room.

Its so full of retired people couples. Its like a Boomer parades of commercial chain restaurants and retail stores in the dessert. There is one tiny street in down town that has significant historical value, but when I was there I didn't see any one hanging out there in big numbers. Most of the town is generic condo senior living. What a boring place to die.

I can't imagine retiring to desert heat.

You can CLEARLY hear Toni Tennille singing the background vocals. It's one of the greatest backing of any song ever, IMO. Iconic and she was apart of it. Amazing.

Prescott Az

[quote]I can't imagine retiring to desert heat.

Old people LOVE the heat for some reason. Arazona is almost ground zero. Prescott, Peoria are shady pines of the dessert. The areas are actually nice in terms of dessert nature goes, but everyone has gray hair and depends. Florida just as hot, full of old folks.

She is a big fish in a small pond there in Prescott. Cant imagine anyone would know who she was if you lived in a big city like New York.

Old people hate the cold. Nothing new here, people. Duh!

Old people are also the first to go in heat waves. I know they get colder and can't feel the heat as well as younger people, but it still taxes the system. They must never step out in the summer.

Do that to me one more time, I can never get enough, when you fuck my ass....whoa-oh-oh!

How is that not appropriate for a woman with a 78 year-old instrument, R30?

[quote]Old people LOVE the heat for some reason.

Not me. I'm 65 and have hated heat all my life. I live in Southern Calif. (not the desert part) and it's too hot here for me. I love Palm Springs, but wouldn't go there in the summer if it were free.

Oh God, I'm just sitting here thinking of when she sang these immortal words for Queen Elizabeth at the Ford White House in 1976...

Muskrat, Muskrat, candle light Doing the town and doing it right in the evening It's pretty pleasing

Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam Do the jitterbug out in Muskrat Land And they shimmy... Sam is so skinny

And they whirl and they twirl and they tango Singing and Jinging a Jango Floating like the heavens above Looks like Muskrat Love

Nibbling on bacon, chewing on cheese Sam says…

Betty Ford may have been drunk but still....

Singing and Jinging a Jangle.....HOW CAN THIS BE OVER?

Prescott is in the mountains.

I'm presently located about 7 mi. from Ms. Tennille. It's typically about 15°-18° cooler here than Phoenix.

Aside from her dumping the hubby, she seems like a very nice person. She regularly visits nursing homes with her therapy dogs. She stays away from the far-right local political scene in Prescott, which is a magnet for the nutty.

She deserves some happiness at this point in her life

I didn’t realize she was still alive

How was she in "Victor/Victoria" years ago? I heard she toured in it. Did she look reasonably persuasive as a man? Did she sing (at least once for playback) the high notes?

R38, I saw her in that when it was on tour. I don't remember much, but I think she was fine.

R38 she sang everything live except one high note which she pre-recorded.

Most of the other questions posed here outside the muff diving ones are covered in her memoir from two years ago. Great and easy read. She left the Captain after spending years trying to get past his hard shell to experience true intimacy. She admits they spent nearly 40 years in seperate bedrooms. The health issues he had are mostly in his head.

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Do That To Me One More Time.

Ok

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Toni and Dionne Warwick cover Hall and Oates' "She's Gone" and they're really fantastic. Standing ovation at the end.

I notice she decided to keep the same hairstyle forEVER.

Love her. Always have, always will.