By Ted Waddell
CALLICOON — December 13, 2002 – Lumiri Tubo, an accomplished and talented actress/singer, recently released her first compact disc titled “Touch of Your Love.”
“It was on the plate a long time, but this is my first disc,” she said. “It’s about going to the next level. ... If you want to perform in the big rooms, you need a CD.
“It’s sort of like a calling card,” added Tubo. “It tells them you’re serious.”
Lumiri’s inaugural CD was produced and arranged by her pianist, Rob LaRocco. It was recorded and mastered by John Hegner at JHM Studios of NYC. The haunting cover photograph was shot by Agahuda Khanii.
According to Tubo, the CD started out in the studio as a demo recording of eight songs, but things went so well they decided to cut a 12-selection disc.
“Touch of Your Love” kicks off with “Test of Time” by David Prescetto, runs through Count Basie’s “I Caught a Touch of Your Love,” “Hallelujah, I Love Him So” by Ray Charles, “The Ballad of Pearly Sue” and wraps with “Lost in the Stars” by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill.
Adding to the musical mix: “The First Time on a Ferris Wheel,” “Somebody Made Me Laugh,” “Deep in the Night,” “You Put a Move On My Heart,” “My Handyman Ain’t Handy No More,” “A Child is Born/If I Could” and John Madden’s “Love to Last.”
Tubo said her next release will be called “Rainmaker,” based on the title of an original song written by LaRocco. It will feature all-original music.
The diva-in-the-making began her cabaret career at the Bradstan Country Hotel’s Nancy LaMott Room in White Lake.
In October, she presented a one-woman musical tribute to the great Ethel Waters before a packed house at the Bradstan. A long-time fan of Waters, Tubo started writing songs in her honor several years ago.
“This vivacious performer is a charmer with a diverse vocal style that at times ranges from Anita Baker to Alberta Hunter,” said John Hoglund in a recent review for “Backstage.”
As she developed into one of the most notable and eagerly sought after performers in the Big Apple, Tubo was awarded the prestigious MAC Hanson Award for Outstanding Newcomer to the Cabaret Scene by the Manhattan Association of Cabaret Clubs.
For the last several years, she has performed at the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Conventions in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.
In February, Tubo will return to the Windy City as a featured performer with the Mabel Mercer Foundation. In March, it’s off to Palm Springs for another foundation cabaret convention.
In recent years, Lumiri Tubo began to reach out to larger audiences by working the local hotel circuit as the Charles Rapp Agency lined up bookings at the Villa Roma Resort Hotel, Kutsher’s, the Nevele and Raleigh Hotel.
“Cabaret is sort of obscure,” she said. “I like ‘hotel-singing’ because it’s like going from a box to a big room. . . . It’s not as intimate, but it’s not as confined.
“I can be bigger in every sense of the word – speaking, singing and movement,” she added of working the hotels. “It exposes me to more people, the chance to go somewhere else.”
Tubo got her high school diploma from Helion Hall School in Long Eddy. She went on to receive degrees from Miami Dade Community College and Florida International University.
She has utilized her theatrical background by offering drama workshops for children of all ages and has starred in such productions as “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “The Rainmaker,” “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” and “The Amen Corner.”
“I’m totally a people person, I love the interaction,” said Tubo.
Her long range goal?
Broadway, of course!
“Eventually, I’ll get there,” she said.
Tubo’s “Touch of Your Love” is available at the Bradstan Country Hotel (White Lake), the Villa Roma Resort gift shop (Callicoon), the Oracle Bookstore (Liberty), Steve’s Music Center (Rock Hill), the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (Narrowsburg), www.cabaretscene.com or call Tubo at 887-6714.
Her next CD signing will be at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, December 20 at the Oracle Bookstore.