COVER STORY
“She was a stickler
on music and a stickler on
singers,” Zardis said. “You had to
audition to be accepted into the choir. You
didn’t get in just because you wanted to. You
PHOTOGRAPHY BY:
ABDUL AZIZ
GUS BENNETT
JACKSON BEALS
had to actually know how to sing.”
After further studies under vocal coaches Nelson
Francis and Audrey Bouligny at Houston’s Music on
Claiborne Avenue, Zardis began singing solo in church, learning
classical music and taking piano lessons. As she got older and
listened to the music of Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, and
others, she progressed into R&B.
“So I went from classical to gospel to R&B to pop and finally
found my home in jazz,
thanks to all these great
mentors that I had,”
Zardis said.
After Junior High
school, Zardis moved
to Los Angeles and
soon started meeting
influential people,
opening for the likes
of Solomon Burke, Joe
Simon and performing
with the Don Johnson
Orchestra. Eventually,
she met up with bassist/
pianist Herb Mickman,
the musical director
for a who’s who of jazz
notables including Sarah
Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald,
and Carmen McRae, all
three of whom Zardis
idolized. He became her
musical director as well
and, through him, she
met Silver. “Horace and
I became really good
friends for many years
and he was there for me
when I needed it most,”
she said.
Higgins, one of the
most recorded, most indemand
jazz drummers
of all time, “took me
under his wing,” Zardis
said. “It was through
him that I met a lot of
great people.” Higgins
was the founder of The
World Stage Art and
Performance Gallery in
L.A., and Zardis became
a regular performer
there. “The World Stage
played a very huge part
in getting me into singing
jazz,” she added.
It was also while living
in L.A., Zardis met
Lance Nichols, a fellow
New Orleanian who
had followed his acting
career to the mecca of
American filmmaking.
They were married in
July 1981.
“Once we got married and had kids and with my husband
being an actor, we decided that we would split this,” Zardis
noted. “I had a stable job at the time so he went ahead and
pursued his acting and I was the consistent income and
financial foundation for the family, while he did this.” Today,
with Lance working steadily in the film industry and teaching
acting, the roles are largely reversed, she explained.
“Lance is a great man,” Zardis said. “I am very blessed and he
knows it because I tell him this all the time. He told me that,
because I was the foundation for him, he felt like he owed it to
me to be there for me. He doesn’t owe me anything, but the fact
that he thinks he does says a lot about him. He is my number
one supporter.”
The couple moved back to New Orleans in the early 2000s to
help take care of aging parents and because they both missed
their native city, leaving their three daughters, Kiantra (KiKi),
Voice Monet, and Indigo in Los Angeles. However, when
Hurricane Katrina hit and their Uptown house took on water,
they moved back to L.A.
for about 14 months. In
2006, while Lance was
in New Orleans filming
commercials for the
Road Home Program, he
began looking at houses
Zardis had picked out
online and they agreed
on the one in which they
now live in Algiers.
“It has really been a
blessing for us to be back
here,” Zardis said. “We
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