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June 28, 2013
Reenvisioning jazz music
Nikki Yanofsky looks to young fans with her new band.
MARVIN GLASSMAN
Montreal singer Nikki Yanofsky has a resumé that few performers can match at age 19. She has sung jazz standards and performed sold-out shows at venues worldwide over a span of six years. However, most of her concert audiences are usually people old enough to be her parents and grandparents. She hopes that, this time around, younger fans will come to hear her sing on a six-week summer tour of seven Canadian cities, including concerts at the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver jazz festivals.
“I hope to lure some of my younger fans to love jazz in the upcoming concerts and my new CD,” Yanofsky said. “There are new songs that I wrote and arrangements that make me sound contemporary, especially with the new band.”
Although her summer concerts will feature some of the jazz standards that Yanofsky has featured on her past CDs, including her interpretation of Ella Fitzgerald scat songs, Yanofsky will introduce her new band of musicians, some as young as 19, to showcase some of her new self-penned songs in her upcoming CD Little Secret, which will be released later this year.
Yanofsky’s appeal for youth is guided by famed 80-year-old jazz artist/composer/producer Quincy Jones, with whom she signed to manage her career earlier this year. Jones produced music for Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra, among other artists. Yanofsky is elated to be guided by Jones as her mentor.
“Quincy has been supportive of me since he first heard me sing at age 15. He has helped me bring the jazz and pop music worlds together in the new CD. I have important things to say in these songs that young people will hear and let go of any preconceived ideas about jazz and embrace the music,” she said. “I no longer sound like a child. My voice is deeper and fans will hear the difference right away.”
Some of the songs on the CD include a soulful “Something New” and “Enough of You,” featuring tight vocal harmonies, as well as Yanofsky singing the Doors’ “People are Strange” as a ballad, reinterpreted as a song about the problem of school bullying, a subject close to Yanofsky’s heart.
“It hasn’t been that long that I remember the problems of being bullied at high school, so the song has a strong message,” she explained.
Yanofsky achieved fame at the 2010 Winter Olympics for singing “I Believe” before millions of viewers. She has received praise from other musicians and critics for her four-octave range and vocal style, sounding like a cross between Fitzgerald and Judy Garland.
Since singing with her father’s jazz band in Montreal at age 11 at Maimonides Jewish Hospital, Yanofsky knew that she wanted to be a professional singer.
“There is nothing better I could think of doing in my life than singing and immersing myself in my songs,” she said.
Yanofsky’s dream came true at age 13, when she headlined the Montreal International Jazz Festival and went on to record CDs and to be nominated for several Juno Awards in 2010 and 2011. Yanofsky made her American television debut in the PBS special Nikki: Live in Montreal in 2010.
Along the way, Yanofsky has been mentored by many artists, including the late Marvin Hamlisch, who featured her at age 14 in a concert at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall.
Another memorable night for Yanofsky took place when she performed “On a Clear Day/Lazy Afternoon” in honor of her idol at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
“To perform for Barbra Streisand, well, that is a dream come true. My mother and I saw all her films, from Funny Girl to Yentl, and to share the stage in her honor with Herbie Hancock, Barry Manilow and Stevie Wonder was a special moment for me. There is no singer alive than can be as perfect as Barbra Streisand.”
Yanofsky’s star has blossomed beyond North America, and she has performed in Asia, in Europe and at the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat in 2010.
“Performing in Israel was so moving. How can anyone, Jewish or not Jewish, not feel connected to the people there? I enjoyed not only performing there, but seeing all the landmarks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I definitely want to come back to Israel as often as possible.”
Yanofsky has a heart as big as her voice, and she is a philanthropist to the Israel Cancer Research Fund and Montreal Children’s Hospital, among other nonprofit organizations.
Yanofsky performs as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival this weekend, on June 29, at the Vogue Theatre. Tickets are available at 604-569-1144 and coastaljazz.ca.
Marvin Glassman is a Toronto freelance writer. A version of this article was previously published in the Canadian Jewish News.
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