A supreme voice
Spend an evening under the stars with Mary Wilson of the Supremes and the Edison POPS orchestra Saturday
BY NANCY _STETSON Florida Weekly Correspondent

Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson is the quintessential singer who can do it all: pop, jazz, R&B, standards, Broadway tunes.

Wilson, of course, is a founding member of the Supremes and the only one to stay with the group for its entire lifespan. She was there from the beginning, before they were called the Supremes, before they even had a contract with Motown, and continued with the group after Diana Ross left to go solo.

Wilson is now a soloist too and equally at home performing with a rock band, symphony, or jazz trio.

Saturday, Oct. 27, she'll perform with the Edison Pops Orchestra at the fifth annual Edison Pops at Sunset concert. The concert takes place at 7 p.m. on the Fort Myers campus of Edison College, with gates opening at 5 p.m.

"I do a lot of different types of shows," Wilson says from her hotel room in Atlantic City where she was in the midst of a three-night run at Harrah's. "I just finished a run of jazz shows, with no Supreme songs, just jazz standards. With the jazz, there are only three musicians up there, three instruments."

She enjoys performing with symphonies too.

"It's wonderful. I remember (the Supremes) used to do some of the big variety shows and they would have symphonies," she says. "It was more of a higher end feeling. With a conductor and all the different instrumentations, it adds a different excitement to it. It also changes the music around a bit; you have someone else leading that music than what you're accustomed to."

Wilson will sing songs the Supremes made famous. The most popular girl group in the '60s, the Supremes had 12 No. 1 hits, including "Come See About Me," "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "My World is Empty Without You" and "Stop, In the Name of Love." The supergroup was known for its harmonies, choreographed moves, and elegance, influencing numerous groups who came after. They made history when their album, "The Supremes A' Go Go" hit the top position on Billboard's U.S. Pop Albums Chart, the first time a female group had done so.

Because she's performing with an orchestra, Wilson will also perform standards such as "Love is Here," "Body and Soul," and "Strange Fruit." And expect to hear "I Am Changing" from "Dreamgirls."

"It's a rather strange phenomena," she says of the Broadway musical and movie, "because it's loosely based on us. I'm very sure that the writers of the play from the beginning were inspired by the Supremes, but if you look at the story verbatim about the Supremes, there are many, many differences. They use our legacies, our histories. I have to be the first to say, 'It's not our story.' Look at my book, you'll see the differences. They rewrote our lives and wrote the story."

When Wilson began performing solo, "it was very scary," she says. "I hadn't done it since I was a child. I had started out doing it, and then the dynamics changed. I had to re-learn everything. It took me quite a number of years, 10, 15 years, since I felt comfortable performing out front," she admits.

But she doesn't consider her role in the Supremes as being a back-up singer.

"Everyone in the package is important," she says. "I felt like I was a star where I was. I thought I was just great."

So did America. And even more so, England. As popular as the Supremes were in the U.S., they were even bigger stars in the U.K.

"England was for us the way America was for the Beatles," Wilson says. "I don't think people here understand that. They were here, so they didn't see it, they only saw what the Beatles did. Even today, Supremes are huge in Europe and the U.K. Some of our records that were B records here were hit records over there. It was a great, wonderful time. We were reading all the press, and we were on the front page of every paper. And I remember one article said, 'Three black negresses have landed on the shores of Great Britain.' And we said, 'Who's that?'

"We did a command performance for the Queen Mother. We weren't Prince Charles's favorite group though. He liked the Three Degrees. But we were there more than we were here. Our initial success was probably bigger there than here, and it was huge here!

"It was just a grand experience. We were still living in the projects. It was a Cinderella story."

Over the course of her career, Wilson's performed for royalty and presidents and in 1988, shared the stage with Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr and George Harrison when the Supremes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But when asked what stands out for her, who impressed her, she names her mother and Mr. David Boone, a high school English teacher.

"My mother couldn't read or write, but she was a great human being," Wilson says. "Extremely intelligent in terms of life. She really taught me how to live life. She was smart, lovable, kind. I know I can say a lot of things about people who are very powerful, talented people we met, royalty. My mother can stand up there next to any of them. It's not what you get in life that makes you a great human being, it's who you are in life."

And Mr. Boone, her English teacher, told Wilson she should consider becoming a writer. She was singing as part of the Primettes then, hanging around Motown, and doing record hops. She kept a diary. Later, Wilson went on to write two books: "Dreamgirl...My Life as a Supreme," and "Supreme Faith...Someday We'll Be Together." (The two books were later released in a combined volume.)

She's working on a coffee table book now about the gowns the Supremes wore, and an exhibit of the gowns is traveling around the country. Currently at the Stony Brook Museum in Long Island, it'll go on to Grand Rapids until the end of the year. In 2008, the exhibit will go to Europe for three years.

Wilson also made a live CD of her jazz show, recorded in San Francisco. "Up Close" is available exclusively through her Web site. And she's finishing a new CD she hopes to release in January. She's working with the Holland Group, the two brothers who wrote many of the Supremes's hits, along with Dozier, as Holland-Dozier-Holland.

"I did allow them to read some of my diaries, just to get a feel of me," she says. "We wanted the songs to reflect my life. All of the songs are reflective of my experience. It's been five years in the making. I'm very pleased with it. It's probably the best recorded work I've done in my life."

Wilson's undergone many professional and personal ups and downs during her life, though she feels that "most people see my life as much more tragic than I've seen it. I look at life as fabulous," she says. "I'm just thrilled to be here."

She lists the death of fellow Supreme Florence Ballard, the death of her son Raphael and an abusive marriage as the most devastating things she's had to grapple with.

"Everything else in life, I really have been able to get through, because I love life," she says. "You just have to wake up and keep going. The death of Florence was my first real wake-up call. Really made me realize that in life, you have to dig your heels and keep breathing.

"Florence's death showed me how it's important for one to do. You can't be blown away by life's challenges. You've got to wake up and be conscious."

Many people reached out to her after her son's death, and that, along with having dealt with Ballard's death, helped her get through.

"I had never had that kind of loss in my life," Wilson says. "You have to keep going. It might not be easy, but just put one foot in front of the other and keep doing it."

l If you go

>>What: 5th Annual Edison Pops at Sunset, starring Mary Wilson of the Supremes and the Edison Pops Orchestra

>>When: Saturday, Oct. 27; gates open at 5 p.m., show begins at 7 p.m. >>Where: Edison College Fort Myers Campus >>Cost: $20 in advance, $25 at the gate; reserved table seating: $40 per person, $400 for table of 10

>>Information: Call 489-9085 or visit www.edisonpops.com. The event will be held rain or shine.