Lizz Fields

Lizz Fields is one of the brightest shining stars we have on the horizon. DJ Jazzy Jeff/ A Touch of Jazz

When who you are meets who you want to be, the occasion is sometimes unexpected. The journey to this point may elude you but when you think about it for a moment, it all seems perfectly clear. For Lizz Fields these are both true statements. Her own journey to becoming a singer/songwriter has been just that. On stage or in a living room on a sofa, Lizz Fields has an energy about her that is infectious. Most would say it is her girlish charm or down right silliness. Others would mix that with her sexiness or is it her sensuality? Regardless of either or and both, her smile does give much of her away but in the end it is her voice that makes you gasp. By Day By Night is the title of the independent album by a very independent singer and songwriter by the name of Lizz Fields. It is also the process she took to become this person.

By Day By Night is an album made up of instrumental sounds, rhythms and strong vocal riffs that are at once extremely jazzy but at the same time original in tone and cadence. As Lizz relates her own tales to the listener, you feel at once a part of the song and also realize that you haven't heard anything like this with a voice so sultry and smooth. You might suspect this to be a Billie Holiday and A Tribe Called Quest collaboration but no, you just heard Lizz Fields' debut album, which is to be released October 26, 2004 via ABB Soul, a division of ABB Records. The North American October release will feature four new compositions and remixes of favorites like "I Gotta Go" by DJ Spinna (Beyond Real Productions) and "When I See Love" by ColdFusion (G-Unit, Skillz, Musiq). The new songs will be added to crowd approved composures like "Star Gazer", the bass heavy "Hey", and favorites like "Say the Word" and "Selfish Tendencies". These twelve tracks will be new to most but, loved by all.

To begin to understand By Day By Night, you should understand what Lizz Fields likes musically. "I like big heavy beats, dark heavy bass. I like crazy ambient ethereal sounds. Sometimes I liken it to these crazy sounds you hear from Tricky, Bjork, or Portishead with hip-hop beats [but] at the same time I like it to be musical [with] changes that aren't always expected", Lizz notes, "I like minor chords and challenging music, music that's difficult to sing [like] "Say the Word". That song is hard because I am the only one singing what I am singing. The melody I am singing, no one is playing that".

But to truly understand her as an artist, you have to understand her position on being an artist. She envisions herself as a quintessential artist judged not on one mega hit but a body of work that improves and grows as she does as an artist perfecting her craft. Her music is an original blend of jazz over dark hip hop beats and has been capturing hearts, dollars, euros and yens with songs like "I Gotta Go", "Selfish Tendencies" and "Say the Word". Even as she brings forth these melodies and phrases, Fields smiles to herself because these songs that are selling are the same songs that established producers and record labels questioned and didn't think would take off when she sent them as her demo.

Before becoming the artist known as Lizz Fields, she had to first conquer her fear of singing and find her voice as the student, teacher, set designer and thespian known as Lizz Fields. She was a vocal major at the Philadelphia Creative & Performing Arts High School. Her soprano voice, which we know now to be strong, jazzy, and well controlled, was the same but in high school; she knew that her voice wasn't like the voice of the shining stars in her high school like Boys II Men or Amel Larrieux. She opted to become the charismatic individual that we see on stage - infectious, silly and honest. Fields knew she loved jazz; Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" was her anthem. "The song was real smooth and kind of sensual. I thought songs like that were cool. Why doesn't everybody sing like that? I never forgot the song, that was the Lizz song, but I sang it until I wrote my own songs" Fields recalls. When she found her voice in the church choir it was an epiphany. Lizz made the song fit her but she had other struggles to conquer before she was ready to be who she is now.

The evolution from trepid singer to full-fledged artist wasn't as clear and paved a path as one might think. By Day By Night began as a demo that was never intended to be an album. It was intended to showcase the singing and songwriting talent. It became an album when she realized that the patrons of her part time job liked, commented and asked if what they heard was for sale while she played her demo songs. Lizz Fields evolved into the independent artist when she began to sell her music and fans bought it locally, nationally and internationally 60 CDs here, 50 there, 20 over here, license to distribute in Japan, license to distribute in the United Kingdom and so on. She struggled and persevered learning the entire independent business after she was a selling independent artist and has yet to stop. This is her life, her music, her struggle and her love by day by night. Every vocation she has had from high school to present has prepared her for it. Be it performing for friends, students, crowds at the theatre or the crowds listening to her sing her own songs on stage, Fields continues to grow by day, by night.