Rebecca Solodon sat in a wire chair outside the Natural Cafe in Old Town Goleta. The sky didn’t quite threaten rain, but would get around to it soon, and on Hollister Avenue, big rigs groaned and rattled past, making it hard to hear much else.

Solodon spoke softly, and bounced her left leg up and down from time to time as she talked. She’s a small girl, and she wore a white cardigan and dark, baggy pants with lots of buckles on them, and collected her hair beneath a floppy, light gray knit hat. She has a small stud through one nostril.

When the subject turned to her favorite musical artists, her face lit up with a wide smile. And she’s already achieved some success with her own music — the dream of millions of American teens. At 17, she’s already gotten the attention and friendship of some prominent Los Angeles record producers, and opened for Mariah Carey last year at Carey’s Arlington Theatre concert.

You’d never know that, not two years ago, Solodon had cancer, and required amputation of part of her left leg in order to survive.

Solodon has been singing as long as she can remember, and playing piano since she was 4. When she got to Dos Pueblos High School, she auditioned for and was accepted into the a cappella choir, and in her sophomore year, she joined the school’s vaunted jazz choir. She traveled to Europe, singing in jazz festivals in Amsterdam, Switzerland, France and other places, with the choir that year; France was her favorite country, though she thought Switzerland was the most beautiful.

Throughout the year, she had been suffering pain in her foot — it got so bad, a couple of times, that she had to use crutches.

"We went to a ton of different doctors," she said. "I went through physical therapy, got orthotics, took X rays. They gave me, like, exercises to do and stuff, but nothing seemed to work, so they just kind of gave me pain medication and said ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know what it is.’ The doctors were just kind of saying that ‘We can’t see anything wrong.’"

Solodon’s father, Mike, insisted that something was seriously wrong, and requested that her leg be scanned with an MRI. The doctors finally discovered the root of the pain: a marble-sized tumor "right in the middle of [her] foot."

A biopsy at UCLA revealed the tumor to be synovial sarcoma, a rare, aggressive form of cancer that usually strikes near the knees of young adults. Solodon received the diagnosis on Aug. 1, 2003.

"It was kind of a shock," Solodon said. "I had no idea what it was. I didn’t really care to know. ... I was just like, ‘OK, whatever, just get it out.’"

The doctors in Los Angeles said they’d never seen anything like the support her friends gave her, said Rebecca’s mother, Mary Ann. Her friends came down to visit her, renting hotel rooms — one for the boys, one for the girls — and spent time with her while she was in the hospital. She kept in touch with the outside world via the Internet, which she accessed with a notebook computer.

She had chemotherapy a week at a time, 22 hours a day, with two-week breaks between sessions.

While receiving treatment in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Rebecca received a visit from Nikki Simon, the executive director of the Teddy Bears for Cancer Foundation. It came up that Rebecca liked to sing, and Simon asked if she had any recordings.

She had sung backup on a friend’s project, and she passed the CD to Simon, who gave it to radio stations. The radio people said they liked it, but wanted a recording of Rebecca alone.

Simon called some people she knew who worked in Los Angeles in the recording industry, and related Solodon’s story. On Oct. 23, she went to Westlake Studios and recorded that same song — "Simon," by the rock band Lifehouse. Producer Damian Young, who had worked with Mariah Carey, was at the helm.

On Oct. 31, her left leg was amputated at mid-calf.

"That was a shock, and that was kind of hard," she said. "But I got through it, and I’m fine now."

Eventually, word reached Carey, and Solodon sang the song for the Arlington audience before Carey went on stage.

Solodon’s cancer is in remission now. She’s a volunteer with the Hugs for Cubs, the organization set up by Santa Barbara Foresters manager Bill Pintard, with whom she visits kids in the hospital. And she’s now a spokesperson for Teddy Bears for Cancer; her duties include fundraising and attending functions, where she shares her story. Last week, she attended the Black Tie and Blue Jeans Gala in Beverly Hills, emceed by Garry Shandling with musical guest Chris Isaak.

As for music: Although she misses the DP Jazz Choir, she attends songwriting classes at Santa Barbara City College. (She will receive her high school diploma in June.) She has written eight or 10 songs, which she records in her bedroom, using several sophisticated keyboards and her computer’s built-in microphone. The dark, atmospheric electronic beats, Rebecca’s soft vocals and hypnotic piano loops and guitar parts recall a bedroom version of the trip-hop bands Portishead and Massive Attack.

She said she plans to enter the studio with Ronnie King, who led the musicians in her 2003 recording session, this winter, and might do a music video with a well-known director.

As for immediate plans: "I’m for sure going to keep on writing songs, keep doing my ghetto recordings, and try as much as possible to produce as much as possible."