Again partnering with pianist-arranger-music director (and husband) Mike Greensill, Whitfield's 15-track recording is independently produced and released, and available on CDBaby (www.cdbaby.com).
The new album's tracks include "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress," "Give Me the Simple Life," "Sail Away," "It's Fate, Baby," "A Woman's Intuition," "Message From the Man in the Moon," "Why Did I Choose You?," "I'm Way Ahead of the Game," "Moonlight Saving Time," "That's Him Over There," "I've Found My World in You," "A Woman's Prerogative," "Some Other Spring," "My Ideal," "Will You Remember Me."
Whitfield sings on her home turf in San Francisco, as well as in cabarets and concert halls around the country. Her following in New York is rooted in her 1993 debut at (and subsequent returns to) the Algonquin Hotel.
Her recent albums have been on the High Note label.
Primarily a cabaret artist, Whitfield is known for her mellow, swinging and often optimistic vocals. She sang in her own Off-Broadway cabaret show, the autobiographical Life Upon the Wicked Stage, in 1998. *
New for the singer starting in 1998 was the spelling of her first name, which used to be spelled "Weslia" and was always supposed to be pronounced "Wesla" — as it is among family and friends. But after years of people calling her Wes-lee-uh (because of the obvious spelling) she finally changed it to "Wesla" to avoid confusion.
Most of her dozen or so recordings bear the name Weslia Whitfield. She is now officially Wesla.
As early as 1990, Whitfield was opening for Michael Feinstein concerts, singing a hip, sunny version of "The Trolley Song." Her early independent recordings are harder to come by, but such discs as "Lucky to Be Me" and "High Standards" are common in record stores' cabaret or vocal sections, particularly on the coasts (or on the internet).
Whitfield's Off-Broadway debut, Life Upon the Wicked Stage, played Oct. 13-Nov. 1, 1998. Among her tales in her Off Broadway show was the rarely-discussed, 1977 random shooting that left her unable to walk.
Whitfield rose from singing waitress to singing for San Francisco Opera and then to cabarets and boites around the country.
For more information, visit www.weslawhitfield.com.
