In her cramped studio in the music building at USF, Valerie Gillespie picks up an alto saxophone, puts it to her mouth and begins to rip. Her tone is full-bodied with plenty of bite, and the ascending cascade that opens the solo is nigh breathtaking.
In the male-dominated world of jazz saxophone, Gillespie can definitely mix it up with the fellas. "I do get people who say, 'Wow, I wouldn't have expected a woman to be able to play like you do,'" she says. "But, y'know, I can understand that. I intentionally don't want to play in a way that you might imagine a woman would play — if you think of a woman in the typical sense of being gentle."
A Pittsburgh-area transplant who has a music degree from Carnegie Mellon, Gillespie has gone down many paths with her horns: various pop bands; studio work; gigging in pit orchestras for Broadway shows; stints with the Florida Orchestra; playing in the sax section of Chuck Owen's Jazz Surge big band. She's also an adjunct professor at USF who teaches students one-on-one about 16 hours a week. Factor in further private lessons at her home in Dade City, and Valerie Gillespie's only job is as a musician. In these parts, that's a rarity.
Her first love is jazz. In 2002, she formed the Valerie Gillespie Ensemble with drummer Joe Renda and keyboardist Rick Stuart. The group doesn't perform ceaselessly, but has recurring gigs at Della's After Dark in Brandon and Dominic's in The Villages. "When I started my own band, it was so satisfying," she says. "I didn't want the performance to end, didn't want to take breaks. I knew I had to for the other guys in the band."
Family lore says that at 2 years old Gillespie figured out how to play "Happy Birthday" on piano for her aunt. "Everyone was convinced I was a genius," she says with a hearty laugh.
In the third grade, when it came time for kids to pick out instruments for band, she grabbed an alto sax and held it properly with no instruction. She was thus ordained.
Initially, Gillespie took lessons, but played mostly by instinct and ear, picking out the notes that sounded good. Over time, she became an avid student and woodshedder; at Carnegie Mellon, she'd routinely get up and practice two hours before attending an 8 a.m. class.
Despite her talent, folks didn't seem to buy her strictly as a saxophonist. "People would ask me if I was the singer, even when I was carrying all these saxophones," she says. One night, in an if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em moment, she took a request and sang "Bye Bye Blackbird."
"I knew the words, so I sang it, and figured 'I'll probably never do that again,'" she says. "The crowd responded. People said, 'I didn't know you could sing.' I still do it. I can reach a bigger audience with vocals. It's a different entry point."
Latest Release: It Takes a Village/Live!
Key Track: "Cherokee"
Upcomings Gigs: Fri. & Sat., April 13-14 (7-10 p.m.), Della's, Brandon
More info: valeriegillespie.com
Music Issue 2007: Chicks Rock
Tampa Bay's top 10 women musicians — plus 100 must-have CDs by women artists
This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2007.