Maysa - Smooth Sailing (2004)

Maysa Leak was born and raised in Baltimore, MD and knew by the time she was six that she would be a musician. "It was when my parents took me to see the musical Purlie," she recalls. "The moment Melba Moore took the stage and opened her mouth, I made my decision that music would be my fate." She graduated from Morgan State University with a degree in classical performance, meeting Stevie Wonder while a member of the world renowned Morgan State University Choir . Upon graduating, she moved to North Hollywood to join Stevie Wonder's "Wonderlove", with whom she performed for a year, performing on the Jungle Fever soundtrack and such television shows as Oprah and The Tonight Show. During this time she also met one of her main influences, Chaka Khan, "Stevie took us out to see one of Chaka's shows," she remembers," and during her concert she invited fans to come onstage and sing with her. Most of these singers were trying to out-sing Chaka. So she would heckle them. Stevie asked me to go on stage and sing with her. At first I said 'no' but once I decided to get up I knew I had to do something different. So I scatted. When I did that, Chaka said 'Go 'head girl! The whole audience went crazy. Chaka Khan will forever be an influence. Her power and tone have inspired me to develop my own voice and be unique, sweet and powerful, all at the same time."