Jazz vocalist Eboni Fondren learned to scat the hard way

“I was like a deer in headlights,”says jazz vocalist and bandleader Eboni Fondren, remembering the first time she took a scat solo on the bandstand. Fondren’s mentor, the late Everette DeVan, knew that she was hesitant to scat. DeVan was always pushing Fondren out of her comfort zone; that’s how you grow. “We went over improvising in lessons,” she says, “so I knew that at any moment he was going to make me scat.”

Fondren stood on the stage at the Drum Room inside The President Hotel. While going down the steps to enter the former speakeasy, patrons got a bird’s-eye view of Fondren and the band as they played in the back of the busy room. DeVan’s band was one of the first bands to have a steady engagement at the venue, and he always brought along his regulars. DeVan’s band had played through the form of a tune, and it was coming around the time to take solos. Fondren knew she was the only one who hadn’t taken a solo yet that evening. DeVan started a groove, not soloing. Nobody else in the band was soloing either. DeVan looked over at Fondren with a smirk: “Scat!” “I couldn’t leave it open like that,” Fondren says.

Fondren recounts an awkward scat solo with choked “shoo be doos.” It forced her to go home and find her own, distinct style. “That is one of those lessons I’ll never, ever forget,” she says.

Now, a decade later, Fondren is making her solo debut at The Folly Theater with her band, Eboni and the Ivories. The performance takes place in the lounge of The Folly, an intimate listening room that’s perfect for Fondren’s lush, sultry voice.

Fondren is a jazz vocalist, but she has a wide variety of skills in her arsenal. She’s also a voice actress and wedding band singer, and she’s been involved in professional musical theater productions across town with both KC Rep and The Coterie. She is also a professional stylist—she put on the American Jazz Museum’s first-ever fashion show in July. Fondren recently left her day job to go all-in on her creative pursuits full-time.

When it comes to gigs, Fondren is focusing on “quality over quantity” since reemerging from the pandemic. She will be a featured artist with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra in their upcoming season, in addition to other specialty shows that are in the works. She is also focusing her energies on her emerging styling business, JzzySTYLE. Fondren does have one regular weekly engagement: Tuesday night jam sessions at Soirée Steak & Oyster House. Her career, like those of many jazz musicians, began at jam sessions like these. She took lessons with DeVan in the daytime and then cut her teeth at his jam sessions in the evening. Now, Fondren has come full circle. “You just learn so much from being on the bandstand,” Fondren says. “I’m happy to be that caveat for my students because that was there for me when I was starting out.

“I wanted to bring a consistent jazz project back to the Vine,” Fondren explains. “Some of the other places do a lot of R&B, a lot of soul, but not a lot of jazz. I wanted to make sure there was something consistent down on the Vine.”

GO: Eboni and the Ivories, The Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th St., KCMO. Thursday, September 9. 7 pm. $22. Seating limited to forty-five.

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