Looking Sharp
Not long ago, local jazz-pop siren Sarah Sharp found herself in one of the most hallowed locales anywhere in the music world: Studio A in Capitol Records‘ Hollywood headquarters, behind the same microphone used by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and the Beach Boys, and with legendary Capitol house engineer Al Schmidt at the controls. While playing a friend’s party in Pacific Palisades in August, Sharp met former Rufus drummer and producer Andre Fisher, who took a shine to her the same way he had Chaka Khan and Dusty Springfield. After her next L.A. gig, Fisher introduced her to Schmidt and publishing tycoon Ronnie Vance, and “the next thing I knew we were in the studio,” she says. (Even better, her neighbor in Studio B was none other than Poison.) Sharp admits to feeling flustered upon entering the “enormous” studio, but relaxed enough that of the five songs the three decided to mix down into demos, four were recorded that first session. “There’s something about being a little bit timid, that I love the way it translated,” Sharp says. “I’ve never heard myself back like that.” Her high-placed friends plan to shop the songs to several labels – Capitol first, of course – while Sharp readies for a European swing later this month. “So far everything they’ve said has happened,” she says. “That’s the only reason I don’t feel like a complete dumbass for talking about it.”This article appears in December 2 • 2005.