MUSIC
NEW ALBUM: GET TO IT
You can now listen to my new album on various platforms.
Check out my videoclips from my new album “Get To It”.
Dancing Fool
I will never forget the day my parents bought our first TV set. I was 8 years old. We lived in Roberval, Lac St-Jean. We had no other electronics in those days except a small turn table with a very humble collection of vinyl records… Glen Miller, bossa, tango, cha-cha and some classic Québécois singers.
My love of dance is profound. Dancing Fool is a song I wrote with Carlos Lopes. It expresses the freedom one feels when dancing, wild, all the way, no rules, no vanity!
So… from the comfort of our homes, Hugh John Murray and I concocted this lovely video… absolute social distancing, shopped online, choreographed with old black and white movies. I hope it brings you joy and gets you dancing like a dancing fool!
Dance Me to the End of Love
While waiting for the release of my album, I am thrilled to share this new videoclip of Dance me to the end of love.
Here’s my tribute to Leonard Cohen.
My daughters always loved listening to his music, even at a young age, one of their favourite songs was Dance Me to the End of Love. On Nov. 10, 2016, I had just come off stage after playing a concert with Manteca, when we got to the dressing room the stage manager told us that Leonard had passed. It was such a strange feeling, the post-concert exhilaration and such profound sadness.
This video was shot in Manhattan and on the Long Island Sound by my wonderful director Cecile Delepierre. @DOLLKILLERFILM
Mother’s Little Helper
Why this song? A few years back I got to sing a few Rolling Stones songs as part of a cabaret night and this one stuck. Written by Mick and Keith in 1965, the lyrics speak of a “little yellow pill”, often believed to be a reference to Valium. Women faced discrimination with fewer opportunities… less pay… not hard to see why a little yellow pill might be an attractive alternative. Today my view is different; taking care of myself and cultivating joy is the only drug I need. That is my script.
“A stunning, riveting performer, with a great gutsy voice”
FIRST ALBUM: BREAK ‘N ENTER
Break ‘n Enter into the world of recording. What? Who? Me? This Break ‘n Enter was less of a felony and more of a journey. Life has a great way to push you in a direction you never thought you’d be going. After each of my regular gigs at the jazz club “Gate 403” in Toronto, people would ask if I had an album for sale? Remember albums? Remember sales?
John Evans my producer and I hit the studio with the exceptional Scott Marshall in the music director’s chair and engineer Jim Morgan’s magical ears behind the desk and we created a project grounded in cabaret, theatre and wrapped around my new found jazzy style.
In the Internet age, the code for wasting time is “watching cat videos on YouTube.” Well, as someone who has spent a lot of my life purring, on all fours, licking my whiskers (Cats original Canadian production, 1985), I take exception to that. Here’s a video for a song I co-wrote with John Evans and Wes Neal from my first album Break ’n Enter. We shot the video 16 years after the album’s release. This was directed, shot and cut by DOLLKILLERFILM’s Cécile Delepière. Thank you to all the talented felines—you make me purrrrr. Who would not want to be in a cat video? Sax: Scott Marshall, Piano: Marcel Aucoin, Drums: Steve Heathcote, Bass: Wes Neal
MANTECA
In 2020, this band celebrated their 41st anniversary with their 13th album’s release. In 41 years, they made a lot of people dance, including me. Full disclosure, the leader is my roommate. One day he heard me singing one of their tunes in the shower. He asked me to sing with them, which was a profound honour, because not only were they not looking for a singer, but after years of their record company begging them to get one, adding vocals was the last thing they wanted. Keep singing in the shower... you never know what could happen.
FRANGLAISE
He’s 6’5”, I call him my gentle giant. His actual name is Serafin. He carries the name well, Serafin, the singing angel. And man, can he sing! Higher and lower and stronger and more vulnerable than almost any other singer I know. He’s a powerhouse full of tendresse.
We used to do Sunday afternoons at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto accompanied by a swaggering, kicking band of renegades. Ironically it was called a “Sunday Afternoon Tea” and it became the Swing dancer’s monthly rendez-vous. The dancers taught the people how to swing and everyone came out… babies, kids, grandmas, aunts and uncles, cuz Sundays at the Gladstone swung hard!
We always liked to play with the audience’s expectations…the gentle giant would sing the soprano part, la petite Québecoise would sing the baritone. We did a duet of Autumn Leaves… he only knew it in English, I only knew it in French, so naturally we sang it in Franglish, and some sort of magic happened.
A few years later Serafin moved to Quebec, where he fell in love with the French -Canadian repertoire. It inspired him to record a bilingual album and he invited me to join him in this whimsical and touching project called “Franglaise”.
The album is not for sale at the moment, but I wanted to share a few tracks. Thank you Serafin for this great gift.