1. Your new album Nowhere Girl arrives ten years after your last release Space and Time and you have described the songs as ‘lean but vibrant vessels’. When did the journey for this new album start for you?
Many of these songs were written about a decade ago. They’ve been performed over the past ten years and edited during the process in terms of arrangements and the odd lyric. But I’d basically been “sitting” on this repertoire, hoping there would be an opportunity to document these songs in a way that meant they were fully realised and the musical delivery matched the care that went into the songwriting. I moved to Toronto, Canada in 2020 and was fortunate to be able to tap into the grant system here, which allowed me to fund this album (thank you Canada Council for the Arts!) and record with wonderful Canadian musicians.
2. You were born in London, grew up in South Africa, moved to New York and are now living in Canada. Your travels are a key influence on this new album and I wonder if the process of writing this album was a way of reflecting on and then defining who you are as an artist?
That’s a lovely notion, and it would be true had I sat down to write these songs in the past three or so years. But because many of these tunes date back to 2009, 2010, etc. the process of gathering these songs wasn’t quite so poetic. Travel, moving and thy way in which that can upend identity and progress certainly influenced these songs individually. It’s only once I’d gathered them together that I saw there was an obvious theme and, clearly, a “search for musical identity” is something that’s plagued me for many years! Reflecting on the music, the process and the album, now that it’s complete, does leave me feeling a much clearer sense of the kind of musician I am and the kind of music I want to make. I’m also older, though. So who knows if I could’ve reached this point without pouring my thoughts and experiences into these specific tunes?
3. I’d like to explore some of those influences in your songs. “A Morning” and “Father” clearly have a nod to the UK. Can you talk us through how your influences were realised in those songs?
“A Morning” and “Father” are led by melody, as many great folk songs are. I think it’s the folkiness that makes you connect this influence with my being British, and I think you’re right. My father was a folkie and self-taught guitarist who played London folk clubs in the 60s and 70s and busked in Paris alongside the Seine. He introduced me to folk singers, classic and contemporary-James Taylor, June Tabor, John Martyn-and also British classical music that permeates a lot of my harmonic writing (Vaughan Williams, Thomas Tallis).
I once received a live performance review from Matthew Wright after a double bill gig with the divine Anita Wardell at the (now no longer) Forge in Camden. Matthew wrote that I didn’t have an affinity for swing. He said it in passing and the review was ultimately favourable. There was also likely a stark contrast on display given I was singing alongside Anita who swings like a demon! He had also made mention of my own music in the set that was folk-influenced. I sat with his words for a while, coming to the conclusion that I agreed with him and if my natural inclinations were folkier, maybe I should be leaning into that without feeling like I SHOULD be swinging or being more traditional in my tastes and offerings. I love traditional jazz, but my ear has always been drawn to more contemporary vocalists, specifical female singers and those who explore repertoire that isn’t swung, who have “lighter” voices-Norma Winstone, Kate McGarry, Tierney Sutton, Maria Pia de Vito.
The ranges of the melodies of “A Morning” and “Father”, allow me to sing out in my natural soprano, where melismas and belting-qualities are unnecessary and inappropriate. The focus is on the melody and the words. I feel incredibly at home singing both of those songs. I feel unapologetic. I feel like me.
4. There are only two songs on the new album that you didn’t write in their entirety, one of which is “Closer To The Source” with music by the late South African pianist Bheki Mseleku. What led you to choose that song and what was your process for creating lyrics to his music?
Bheki Mseleku is my favourite South African jazz musician. His writing balances traditional South African jazz traits (emphasis on singable melodies, certain grooves and rhythms) with a sophistication that the greatest jazz musicians (Parker, Trane, Tyner) possessed. This balance is incredibly challenging to achieve and not many South African jazz composers get it as right as he did repeatedly, album after album. When I was teaching in the jazz department at the University of Cape Town, the vocalists were required to sing a certain amount of South African jazz repertoire during the course of their degree. The traditional SA jazz vocal repertoire isn’t always meaty. Miriam Makeba’s music was lovely but nowhere near as intricate as the music being written for instrumentalists by instrumentalists.
Bheki has a song called “Through The Years” that Abbey Lincoln recorded with him and she wrote lyrics to it. All the vocalists sing this song because it allows them to sing Bheki’s music. So I chose a selection of Bheki’s tunes and wrote new lyrics to them so that the vocalists had more options and ways to immerse themselves in his music. “Closer To The Source” is one of my favourite Bheki compositions so, naturally, it received lyrics and is now being tackled more often by vocalists (Marcus Wyatt did a wonderful big band arrangement of the tune that vocalist Mihi Matshingana sang). Whenever I’m writing lyrics for music that wasn’t written by me, I try to have the original title inspire the narrative. That is true for “Closer To The Source”. My lyrics are about a flower in a desert, searching for water and seeing a mirage but also, possibly, finding actual water and getting, literally, closer to the source. I also used “the source” as a metaphor for home so that those of us who are not actual flowers can apply the narrative to our own, human, lives!
5.“In Paris” was inspired by your brief time in Paris ‘successfully sampling croissants instead of attending French language classes’. Can you tell us about this?
I was living in London at the time and had decided to move back to South Africa. As a final hurrah, I went to Paris for a month to attend language school, hoping to improve upon my 10th grade French language skills. After our teachers changed, I started playing hooky and spent my days walking around the city, practising French in cafes, and writing songs. Paris is one of the few places that is as romantic as you’d imagine, as film and literature make it seem. It’s pretty magical. The song “In Paris” chronicles all the things we romanticise about the place and has a lyric tip of the hat to Joni’s “Free Man In Paris.”
Photo: Matt Griffiths
6. You work with some incredible musicians in your live performances and your albums. Can you tell us how the musical relationships began for your creative team with this new album?
I didn’t know a lot of people, nevermind musicians, when I moved to Toronto three years ago. One of the upsides to the pandemic was that I didn’t have to force myself to go to jam sessions. I don’t enjoy them and I don’t think they’re the ideal context for finding kindred musical spirits and establishing a rapport. As a result, I could do research online and reach out to specific people about playing and collaborating. This MO is how I connected with pianist Chris Donnelly. I was looking for a pianist to be the John to my Norma (how lofty!), and Ernesto recommended I try Chris. It was a great match. We’re different in a lot of ways but we hold many of the same things dear. We enjoy repetition and rehearsal, and Chris never plays with ego-he’s the first person to say the song is done as opposed to someone who improvises chorus after chorus when it’s just not necessary. I knew Ernesto Cervini through his sister, the vocalist Amy Cervini who is a good friend of mine. Ernesto and I both attended the Manhattan School of Music for grad school but we didn’t overlap. I heard saxophonist Tara Davidson playing with trumpeter Dave Douglas at York University and adored her playing immediately. Bassist Dan Fortin is one of my favourite people ever. Incredibly funny and another player who doesn’t offer up what I call “sheets of sound”. He plays sparingly. Every note in its right place. I’ve known my producer Oded Lev-Ari for over a decade. I met him (and his wife Amy) when I was still in graduate school and they became like older siblings to me. Oded’s work as an arranger (Anat Cohen Tentet) and producer (Duchess) is fantastic because he’s such a great musician himself and also so savvy about a great many things relating to the business and jazz ecosystem.
7. “Heart Like A Wheel” is a stunning duet with the mighty Laila Biali and I believe you have known each other for many years. What was it like to work on this track with her?
Laila and I met, briefly, when we both lived in New York. We were not close friends but I reached out to her when I moved to Toronto because she was someone I vaguely knew. There was an immediate ease, honesty, musical kinship. And the same has been true of singing with her on “Heart Like A Wheel.” It’s a joy and privilege to make music with someone quite so musical and generous.
8. How does this new album translate to a live performance? What do you hope a live audience will feel after one of your performances of this new material?
This album translates really well to a live performance because most of these songs have been workshopped through live gigs over the past decade. That said, not all of the album repertoire works for all contexts. For example, when we play at Pizza Express Soho, which is a seated, indoor venue, we can play the full album and then some. When I celebrate the album in Toronto, it will be on an outdoor stage in the middle of the city so we’ll steer clear of the ballads on the album and include some more up-tempo covers from previous albums I’ve recorded (The Beatle’s “Blackbird” and “Here Comes The Sun”, for example.) I hope that audiences enjoy the music and want to buy the album so that they can play these tunes on repeat in the comfort of their own homes!
9. And what are your gig plans? Where can we see you live?
I’ll be launching the album in Toronto on Monday 26 June at 4:30pm at the Toronto International Jazz Festival.
The UK launch is at Pizza Express Soho on Tuesday 1 August with an incredible band-guitarist Rob Luft, pianist Tom Cawley, bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer Chris Higginbottom.
10.And finally, any words of wisdom for staying sane in the jazz industry?
I’d love to make a joke but I can’t think of one, which tells you everything you need to know about the likelihood of “staying sane” in the jazz industry! Being a musician is really tricky. There’s a lot of luck involved in progressing with your career the way you’d like to. It could take months, it could take years, or it may never happen depending on your goals. My advice is to find day job work that you can enjoy. If you want to be in the arts, can you get into an arts administration role so that you don’t worry about food and lodging. Or, some people prefer for their day job work to be unrelated to the arts-waitressing or other. Whatever it is, may it free you up to be creative in a way that you can enjoy. Because that will allow you to keep the act of making music, writing music, collaborating with musicians a little bit sacred. And if it’s going to take a decade plus to chip away at having a career as a working musician, and you can still enjoy making music, then that’s a wonderful thing.
To learn more about Nicky, visit her website here:
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