Jazz singer Morgen Stiegler sees herself as a storyteller, and the story she tells on her debut recording
" "Reaching for the Moon" is her own.
The songs on the CD, a collaboration with guitarist Chris Buzzelli, are "snapshots" of her
musical development, she said.
There’s a Mr. Rogers song, "It’s You I Like" that she remembers singing as a child growing up
in Bascom. The version on the CD also speaks to her present. Her daughter Mahaska’s voice is heard
opening the track, and then answering her mother’s in the closing chorus.
Her presence was a surprise to Stiegler, cooked up by her husband, Theo. He recorded Mahaska, who
demonstrates she’s already absorbed jazz phrasing from hanging out with her parents, then he overdubbed
it onto the track Stiegler had already recorded.
"I didn’t know they were doing it," the singer said.
Stiegler’s own first musical inspiration was her grandfather who played swing clarinet. Through him she
became fascinated with the music and culture of the 1940s. "Reaching for the Moon" opens with
his favorite song "Dancing in the Dark."
She especially attracted to the music of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. The whole album is modeled on the
recordings Fitzgerald made with guitarist Joe Pass.
The CD includes an unlikely cover of "Last Train to Clarksville," a hit song for The Monkees.

The first professional concert she ever attended, Stiegler explained, was a reunion show of The Monkees.
"I really connected with it."
The track gets has a world music groove that reflects her later training in ethnomusicology. Stiegler
attended Tiffin University where she received a liberal arts degree, and performed in Up in the Air, the
university’s premier a cappella vocal ensemble. The group tours extensively. "You were treated like
an athlete," she said. "It was really intense."
After a few years off, which included a period working in a duo with her husband, she decided to return
to get a graduate degree. She was attracted to Bowling Green State University’s ethnomusicology program.
She said her interest in the subject was piqued in part by her Native American heritage.
Kim Nazarian, a professional singer and member of the New York Voices, drew her attention to the vocal
jazz offerings. She joined the jazz singing ensemble, directed by Buzzelli and started studying jazz..
Nazarian is a guest artist in the university’s jazz program.
Nazarian, with whom Stiegler worked while an undergraduate, is both a musical and a personal influence.
"I don’t even recognize the singer I used to be," she said of Nazarian’s impact on her work.
Nazarian’s influenced her outlook on life as well. "She’s so uplifting."
They, along with Fitzgerald, share the same approach to jazz singing, Stiegler said. "It’s not just
improvisation," she said. "It’s the ability to communicate the text, being a storyteller and
being a good musician and being able to hang with the rhythm section."
"When she sings a lyric," said Buzzelli, "she sounds sincere."
He’s worked with her over the past few years and was glad to collaborate on the CD. "I like working
with singers," the guitarist said. When playing with instrumental ensemble "I miss the
lyrics."
Buzzelli also savors the flexibility afforded by having just two musicians interacting.
"Tea for Two," Stiegler said, is the first standard she played with Buzzelli, and "Whisper
Not" by Benny Golson was the first jazz composition she tackled.
Nazarian’s husband Jay Ashby produced the album, and also added his fluid trombone and some percussion to
several tracks. Olman Piedra, who Stiegler met at BGSU, adds percussion to "Last Train to
Clarksville" and her original "Better Than This," written in the wake of the Virginia
Tech shootings.
Theo Stiegler also assisted with the production and adds bass and cello to a couple tracks.
The session was recorded in Pittsburgh in the same studio Nancy Wilson has recorded in. "I was just
so happy," Stiegler said.
"I never thought I’d be able to get all these great players," she said. "I was all so
dream-like."