What do David Bowie, Beyoncé, Adele and a musical number from Rent have in common?
Not a lot, except that they’re all songs Laila Biali may play when she rolls into the valley to play The Banff Centre, Monday (Oct. 7). She’ll also play offerings from her most recent album, Live in Concert, stay for a three-day work and mentor residency and do a little shopping while she’s in town.
Vancouver born and now New York based, jazz pianist and songstress Biali has embarked on a Canada Council for the Arts-supported birthday tour that will carry her from her home metropolis to sites large and small such as Los Angeles, Vancouver, Revelstoke and Banff. At The Club, she’ll appear with her West Coast touring band of Adam Thomas (bass) and Julian MacDonough (drums).
Biali is a big fan of Banff. Last time she was here, at Banff Centre president Jeff Melanson’s urging in 2012, she managed to get an album recorded in three days as part of a residency.
“Jeff and I go way back,” she said from the airport in New York en route to LAX, Thursday (Sept. 26). “He brought me out there for a private performance for Jim Kinnear (re: Kinnear Centre). As part of that, I had a five-day residency. What I found unbelievable was that, as a full-time musician from New York, I got as much work done there in three days as I would in three weeks at home.
“I have a really good relationship with The Banff Centre and the pull from there is incredible. It’s a very special place.”
The relationship is strong enough that Biali and hubby Ben Wittman have pondered a move, with youngster Joshua, to Calgary, to be closer to the mountain town.
And her shopping on this trip? It’s not what you think. Biali may or may not visit shops for fudge, T-shirts, etc., but what she’s really looking for, “and I haven’t told anybody this, is a sound engineer for a new album I’m working on for this summer. I found out Shawn Everett, who does mixes for Elizabeth and the Catapult, is going to be at The Banff Centre while I’m there and I’m going to see if he’s interested.”
Biali actually has two summer albums in the works; one of originals she’s written herself, and one that’s more pop-oriented. “It’s going to have six horns, a chamber orchestra, a gospel choir and I’ve been searching for an engineer for it. I’ll be swooping into Banff, swooping out, and I’m planning to approach Shawn about it.”
Back to Biali’s music. Born in Vancouver into a family of non-musicians, she was looking to follow in her engineer father’s footsteps, or maybe her doctor sisters’; something in the sciences.
“But then I took a left turn, much to my parents’ chagrin and got into the Humber College jazz program (Toronto). I was just going to go for a year, but I stuck it out and while I was there I was invited to audition for Sisters in Jazz, a collaborative competition.”
Biali earned a spot, went to New York City and toured Europe – “and that really started me. It set my path and I’ve been happy with that path since.”
Along the way, she’s shared stages and toured with the likes of Paula Cole, Sting, Suzanne Vega and others and produced three albums; Live (2012), Tracing Light (2010) and From Sea to Sky (2007).
With three albums to her name now, Biali’s excited about two new albums she has in the works for this summer – one will be a jazz crossover work, while the other will be original, more mainstream songs, “with elements of rock,” she said.
“In 2007, CBC consigned me to do a record of songs by Canadians (From Sea to Sky) and after that people came to identify me as a cover artist. I stayed on that path for a while.
“But years ago, when I was trying to break out, I was writing songs with lyrics and so now I’m coming full circle. I think it’s a natural result of working with brilliant songwriters like Paula Cole and Sting. I saw the process and I’ve learned and grown with songwriting.”
For the jazz album, Biali co-wrote with Cole, Mark Jordan and Ron Sexsmith.
With her popularity growing in jazz circles, Biali said and her husband have had to limit their performing time away from family. “I’d love to be on the road for months with artists like Sting, but I have a three year old and my husband, who’s 50, is done having children.
“Neither of us wants to leave home and Josh for more than a couple of days. Actually, I found I was pregnant while I was touring with Sting, but we both had to make hard professional decisions about how much time we wanted to be away from our little family.
“A lot of people I’ve met on the road have a supportive partner at home, but neither my husband or I want to be away for months at a time. There’s been a transition in having a child and integrating him into our musical lives.”
If you’re wondering about the references to Bowie and Beyoncé, Biali lands outside the box not only by introducing non-jazz instruments like the glockenspiel, ukulele and sitar into her performances, she also allowed crowdsourced fans to get in choosing her repertoire.
“I asked people for requests in any genre using [email protected],” she said. “I took requests and did arrangements for a jazz crossover ensemble. I did it as a challenge and wanted to make things interesting for concert goers.”
Along with the requestamatic songs, offerings from Live include an eerily accurate version of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”, along with Leonard Cohen’s “Show Me The Place”, Sexsmith’s “Secret Heart” and Bruce Cockburn’s “Stolen Land”. The album includes jazz standards like “The Best Is Yet to Come”, “Nature Boy”, “I’ll Never Smile Again”, “One Note Samba” and “Night and Day”.
