photo by steed media service

In 1993, when the curtains went up at the off-Broadway production of Sophisticated Ladies, a young, struggling playwright named Tyler Perry sat in the audience mesmerized and inspired by Chandra Currelley’s performance.

“One day, he just called. I said, ‘First of all, how did you get my number?’” jokes stage veteran Chandra Currelley. “When I talked to him, he was a very young guy with a lot of wisdom. That got me to be more curious about the play. When I read the script, I thought, ‘something is not regular about you’ and I decided to give him a chance.”

Currelley went on to star in Perry’s first traveling stage play, I Know I’ve Been Changed, and has continued to work with him ever since, even playing herself as the owner of fictional jazz club, Chandra’s in Perry’s 2005 blockbuster, Diary of A Mad Black Woman.

“When I got the song, I didn’t know they were going to play the entire song. It just complemented the scene to the ‘T,’ ” says Currelley of one of her most memorable performances. Currelley recently completed her latest CD called The Real Me, and has coined its sound “UrSpiJazz,” a blend of urban, spiritual and jazz.

“All these people have been supporting me, seeing the plays, buying the CDs; now it’s time for me to meet the people,” tells Currelley. “That’s my whole goal. [To] do the concerts and let people see me in my totality. I’m not necessarily the lady in the play, but not quite the lady in the nightclub. I’m a broad spectrum of an artist.” ”adam jones

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